End Times
31st December 2018, 10:04 PM
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-right-wing-woos-a-new-audience-jewish-voters-11546257601
By Bojan Pancevski
Updated Dec. 31, 2018 11:46 p.m. ET
BERLIN—Emanuel Bernhard Krauskopf’s trips to his synagogue in the German capital have become an awkward affair.
The reason: Mr. Krauskopf and about 30 others recently founded a Jewish chapter of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, an anti-immigrant party that is the largest opposition group in parliament—one whose members include people accused of anti-Semitism, right-wing extremists and others on the political fringe.
“I’m 69 and tired of being polite,” said Mr. Krauskopf, a retired engineer and entrepreneur. “I support a party that calls a spade a spade and really stands up for the Jews.”
Across Europe, anti-immigration parties with ties to far-right movements have stepped up efforts to recruit supporters in the continent’s small Jewish community, often drawing on perceptions in that community about anti-Semitism among Muslims.
Such concerns are widespread. A recent European Union survey found that 41% of Jews in Germany who had experienced anti-Semitic harassment blamed Muslim extremists, while 20% saw the perpetrators as having right-wing political views and 16% saw them as having left-wing views.
Muslim leaders in Germany say they work to counter anti-Semitism in their communities. “Our imams are trained and aware of the issue and they work together with schools and other religious communities to combat anti-Semitism,” said Mohamad Hajjaj, chairman of the Berlin chapter of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. He added, “The Middle East conflict is used to spread animosity against the Jews.”
The Swedish parliament includes Jewish legislators who belong to the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in neo-Nazism that it has since renounced. Austria’s parliament includes Jewish lawmakers who are members of the Freedom Party, which was founded by former members of Adolf Hitler’s SS.
The party of Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician and strident critic of Islam, has a Jewish legislator. And in France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish community, the pollster IFOP estimated that 10% of Jewish voters supported the National Front—whose founder once called the gas chambers a “detail of World War II history”—in the 2017 presidential election. The party has since been renamed National Rally.
To be sure, Jews in Europe have traditionally supported mainstream parties, and many Jewish leaders in Europe have condemned efforts to draw their followers to right-wing parties.
Marine Le Pen, the current National Rally leader, has publicly reached out to Jewish leaders to assure them she wouldn’t tolerate anti-Semitism in her party.
During the 2017 election campaign, Ms. Le Pen faced criticism after claiming the French state wasn’t responsible for the 1942 roundup of Jews to be sent to Nazi concentration camps.
Nearly 60,000 French Jews have left France in the past decade, many blaming frequent assaults against Jews—including high-profile murders and terrorist attacks—by Islamist extremists, said Shimon Samuels, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris.
Safety concerns have also prompted Jews elsewhere in Europe to emigrate or consider doing so in recent years. The Jewish population in Europe is estimated to be more than one million people, a fraction of the Muslim population.
“The Muslim constituency is much bigger than the Jewish one,” Mr. Samuels said. “When it comes to the ballot box, everyone is vying for the Muslim vote,” he said of mainstream parties.
Right-wing political leaders such Ms. Le Pen, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have all traveled to Israel to build ties not just with its government but also with local Jewish constituencies, said Michael Wolffsohn, a historian and commentator who has written extensively about anti-Semitism in Germany.
“The alienation of Jews from mainstream parties in Germany and Europe will no doubt continue as anti-Israel rhetoric and the lack of engagement regarding the danger coming from parts of the Muslim community continues,” Mr. Wolffsohn said.
While Jewish voters may represent a relatively small portion of the electorate in many European countries, winning their support could help improve the public image of far-right parties, which often face criticism for their stances against immigration.
“I don’t mind being used as a fig leaf by the AfD as long as they do the right thing,” said Mr. Krauskopf.
Jewish lawmakers who belong to far-right parties in Europe say their countries haven’t done enough to address anti-Semitism among new arrivals.
“We have failed to explain to immigrants from Muslim countries that anti-Semitism is not acceptable here,” said David Lasar, a descendant of Holocaust survivors and a legislator for Austria’s Freedom Party, who has accompanied his party’s leader on trips to Israel as part of its bid to shake off allegations of anti-Semitism.
In Sweden, Paula Bieler is one of three legislators of Jewish background for the Sweden Democrats, which won 17.5% of the vote in September elections.
“Jews feel insecure in our country and talk about leaving because it’s not a safe place for them anymore. Much of the anti-Semitism comes from the immigrant community who bring the Middle East conflict here,” Ms. Bieler said.
The recent EU survey found that 34% of Jews in a dozen European countries avoid attending Jewish events for fear for their safety, with well over a third considering emigrating because they don’t feel safe as Jews in Europe. Over 70% saw government measures against anti-Semitism as ineffective and 90% reported that hatred of Jews was on the rise.
“Decades after the Holocaust, shocking and mounting levels of anti-Semitism continue to plague the EU,” said Michael O’Flaherty, director of the EU agency that conducted the survey.
Initiatives like Mr. Krauskopf’s are particularly controversial in Germany, where far-right groups have struggled to shake off historical associations with Nazism and anti-Semitism.
In January, a court ruled against Wolfgang Gedeon, an AfD member and lawmaker from the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, in a libel case after a Jewish community leader accused him of being a Holocaust denier for challenging the number of the Nazis’ victims. The party’s co-chairman called the Third Reich “mere birdshit” in 1,000 years of German history.
Mr. Krauskopf, a former supporter of the left-leaning Social Democrats, says the AfD is the only party that isn’t shy about calling out Muslim migrants as what he considers the main source of violent anti-Semitic acts in today’s Germany.
When the Jewish chapter of AfD was established, Petr Bystron, a legislator with the party, said it was “a slap in the face” of people who try to link AfD with anti-Semitism.
Established Jewish leaders in Germany dismiss Mr. Krauskopf’s efforts. Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country’s biggest Jewish body, said “a party that tolerates people playing down the Holocaust cannot possibly stand for the rights of Jews.”
Sigmount Königsberg, who is appointed by the Jewish community in Berlin to monitor anti-Semitic acts, said Mr. Krauskopf’s campaign was damaging.
“There is anti-Semitism among Muslims. But if we want to fight it, we can only do it together with the Islamic community,” Mr. Königsberg said. “Parties like the AfD are part of the problem, not the solution.”
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
Shimon Samuels, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris, didn’t attend a meeting between members of the Jewish community and Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally party. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that he did. Mr. Samuels doesn’t endorse Ms. Le Pen. (Dec. 31, 2018)
By Bojan Pancevski
Updated Dec. 31, 2018 11:46 p.m. ET
BERLIN—Emanuel Bernhard Krauskopf’s trips to his synagogue in the German capital have become an awkward affair.
The reason: Mr. Krauskopf and about 30 others recently founded a Jewish chapter of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, an anti-immigrant party that is the largest opposition group in parliament—one whose members include people accused of anti-Semitism, right-wing extremists and others on the political fringe.
“I’m 69 and tired of being polite,” said Mr. Krauskopf, a retired engineer and entrepreneur. “I support a party that calls a spade a spade and really stands up for the Jews.”
Across Europe, anti-immigration parties with ties to far-right movements have stepped up efforts to recruit supporters in the continent’s small Jewish community, often drawing on perceptions in that community about anti-Semitism among Muslims.
Such concerns are widespread. A recent European Union survey found that 41% of Jews in Germany who had experienced anti-Semitic harassment blamed Muslim extremists, while 20% saw the perpetrators as having right-wing political views and 16% saw them as having left-wing views.
Muslim leaders in Germany say they work to counter anti-Semitism in their communities. “Our imams are trained and aware of the issue and they work together with schools and other religious communities to combat anti-Semitism,” said Mohamad Hajjaj, chairman of the Berlin chapter of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. He added, “The Middle East conflict is used to spread animosity against the Jews.”
The Swedish parliament includes Jewish legislators who belong to the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in neo-Nazism that it has since renounced. Austria’s parliament includes Jewish lawmakers who are members of the Freedom Party, which was founded by former members of Adolf Hitler’s SS.
The party of Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician and strident critic of Islam, has a Jewish legislator. And in France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish community, the pollster IFOP estimated that 10% of Jewish voters supported the National Front—whose founder once called the gas chambers a “detail of World War II history”—in the 2017 presidential election. The party has since been renamed National Rally.
To be sure, Jews in Europe have traditionally supported mainstream parties, and many Jewish leaders in Europe have condemned efforts to draw their followers to right-wing parties.
Marine Le Pen, the current National Rally leader, has publicly reached out to Jewish leaders to assure them she wouldn’t tolerate anti-Semitism in her party.
During the 2017 election campaign, Ms. Le Pen faced criticism after claiming the French state wasn’t responsible for the 1942 roundup of Jews to be sent to Nazi concentration camps.
Nearly 60,000 French Jews have left France in the past decade, many blaming frequent assaults against Jews—including high-profile murders and terrorist attacks—by Islamist extremists, said Shimon Samuels, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris.
Safety concerns have also prompted Jews elsewhere in Europe to emigrate or consider doing so in recent years. The Jewish population in Europe is estimated to be more than one million people, a fraction of the Muslim population.
“The Muslim constituency is much bigger than the Jewish one,” Mr. Samuels said. “When it comes to the ballot box, everyone is vying for the Muslim vote,” he said of mainstream parties.
Right-wing political leaders such Ms. Le Pen, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have all traveled to Israel to build ties not just with its government but also with local Jewish constituencies, said Michael Wolffsohn, a historian and commentator who has written extensively about anti-Semitism in Germany.
“The alienation of Jews from mainstream parties in Germany and Europe will no doubt continue as anti-Israel rhetoric and the lack of engagement regarding the danger coming from parts of the Muslim community continues,” Mr. Wolffsohn said.
While Jewish voters may represent a relatively small portion of the electorate in many European countries, winning their support could help improve the public image of far-right parties, which often face criticism for their stances against immigration.
“I don’t mind being used as a fig leaf by the AfD as long as they do the right thing,” said Mr. Krauskopf.
Jewish lawmakers who belong to far-right parties in Europe say their countries haven’t done enough to address anti-Semitism among new arrivals.
“We have failed to explain to immigrants from Muslim countries that anti-Semitism is not acceptable here,” said David Lasar, a descendant of Holocaust survivors and a legislator for Austria’s Freedom Party, who has accompanied his party’s leader on trips to Israel as part of its bid to shake off allegations of anti-Semitism.
In Sweden, Paula Bieler is one of three legislators of Jewish background for the Sweden Democrats, which won 17.5% of the vote in September elections.
“Jews feel insecure in our country and talk about leaving because it’s not a safe place for them anymore. Much of the anti-Semitism comes from the immigrant community who bring the Middle East conflict here,” Ms. Bieler said.
The recent EU survey found that 34% of Jews in a dozen European countries avoid attending Jewish events for fear for their safety, with well over a third considering emigrating because they don’t feel safe as Jews in Europe. Over 70% saw government measures against anti-Semitism as ineffective and 90% reported that hatred of Jews was on the rise.
“Decades after the Holocaust, shocking and mounting levels of anti-Semitism continue to plague the EU,” said Michael O’Flaherty, director of the EU agency that conducted the survey.
Initiatives like Mr. Krauskopf’s are particularly controversial in Germany, where far-right groups have struggled to shake off historical associations with Nazism and anti-Semitism.
In January, a court ruled against Wolfgang Gedeon, an AfD member and lawmaker from the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, in a libel case after a Jewish community leader accused him of being a Holocaust denier for challenging the number of the Nazis’ victims. The party’s co-chairman called the Third Reich “mere birdshit” in 1,000 years of German history.
Mr. Krauskopf, a former supporter of the left-leaning Social Democrats, says the AfD is the only party that isn’t shy about calling out Muslim migrants as what he considers the main source of violent anti-Semitic acts in today’s Germany.
When the Jewish chapter of AfD was established, Petr Bystron, a legislator with the party, said it was “a slap in the face” of people who try to link AfD with anti-Semitism.
Established Jewish leaders in Germany dismiss Mr. Krauskopf’s efforts. Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country’s biggest Jewish body, said “a party that tolerates people playing down the Holocaust cannot possibly stand for the rights of Jews.”
Sigmount Königsberg, who is appointed by the Jewish community in Berlin to monitor anti-Semitic acts, said Mr. Krauskopf’s campaign was damaging.
“There is anti-Semitism among Muslims. But if we want to fight it, we can only do it together with the Islamic community,” Mr. Königsberg said. “Parties like the AfD are part of the problem, not the solution.”
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
Shimon Samuels, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris, didn’t attend a meeting between members of the Jewish community and Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally party. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that he did. Mr. Samuels doesn’t endorse Ms. Le Pen. (Dec. 31, 2018)