Angela Merkel Under Pressure to Boost Security After Anti-Jewish Attack

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming under pressure to boost security for Germany’s Jewish community after a deadly attack on a synagogue.

The president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, on Thursday blamed authorities for negligence in the attack in the East German city of Halle. The killer failed to shoot his way into the synagogue but subsequently killed two other passersby.

"The fact that the synagogue in Halle did not have police protection on a holiday like Yom Kippur is scandalous," Schuster said. German authorities need to make ensure that "a Jewish person who enters a synagogue can be sure that he will also leave it again unharmed," he said on Germany’s public radio station Deutschlandfunk. "This incident has changed the feeling of Jews in Germany."

The attack has mobilized Germany’s top authorities. After Merkel attended a vigil in Berlin on Wednesday night, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer are visiting Halle on Thursday. Schuster said he will meet with them to discuss the protection of synagogues. A joint press conference of Seehofer and Schuster is scheduled for the afternoon.

The wave of outrage sparked by the shooting focuses a damaging spotlight on the resurgence of right-wing extremism and antisemitism in Germany and highlights the country’s growing polarization. Just over four months ago, the murder of a local politician in Merkel’s Christian Democratic party rocked the country’s political establishment.

But the latest violent act may also lead more Germans to distance themselves from the far-right movements, including the populist AfD party which in the years following the refugee crisis has surged in popularity, particularly in the former communist East. Critics have blamed the AfD for encouraging violence, an accusation the party’s leaders reject.

Germany’s ability to deal with ultra-nationalistic and xenophobic fringe movements will also have far-reaching consequences for other countries dealing with similar issues.

While most synagogues in Germany are normally protected by the police, in Halle and other cities in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt this is not the case, Schuster said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt

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