Free Republic

In an interview with the German newspaper Heilbronner Stimme, the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, voiced grave concern Friday over growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. She said that public Jewish life is under threat and can only be lived out “in public with police protection and under the most serious security precautions.” Knobloch pointed out the fact that Hanukah celebrations in Berlin and Munich, as well as the large menorahs installed in both cities, were, by necessity, accompanied by massive, around-the-clock police protection. A large menorah installed in the city of Heilbronn,...

BERLIN (AFP)--- Germany’s growing Jewish community on Wednesday elected its first female leader, Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and outspoken critic of the extreme right. She pledged to heal divisions between native Germans and newcomers from the former Soviet bloc. The executive board of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said the 73-year-old Knobloch, who has led the Jewish community in the southern city of Munich since 1985, had won its vote unanimously. Knobloch succeeds Paul Spiegel, a well-liked and respected figure who died in late April at the age of 68 after a long illness. The Council is...