Jews Dump the Antisemitic Left and Embrace AfD, Germany's only Conservative Party (Watch)

In a RAIR Foundation USA exclusively-translated interview, Moritz Schwarz from the German newspaper, Junge Freiheit (Young Freedom), interviewed board members Dr. Ing, Dr. Vera Kosova and Artur Abramovych of the Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) new “Jewish” branch within its party: Federal Association of Jews (JAfD). The interview, titled: “What drives Jews into the AfD?” took place at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Dr Kosova explained that Germany’s “uncontrolled mass immigration, predominantly from the Muslim cultural sphere” since 2015 has put Jews under threat.” Kosova bluntly stated that the AfD is “the only party standing up to ‘imported anti-Semitism'” as unchecked migration from Muslim-majority countries has flooded the country, puting Jews at risk.

Mrs. Kosova and Mr. Abramovych themselves are refugees to Germany. Kosova came to Germany from Uzbekistan in 1998 at the age of 16. Mr. Abramovych, came from Ukraine in 1998, at the age of two.

In this RAIR Foundation USA exclusively-translated video, viewers will hear about the stunning hypocrisy from the Merkel Government and their corrupt allies in the media, as they blatantly blamed AfD for a terror attack after refusing to provide protection to the Jewish population after a Syrian migrant Jihad attack in a Berlin Synagogue. That incident prompted the Jewish community in Germany to ask for special protection for the high holy holiday of Yom Kippur on October 9, 2019, which was denied. Indeed, on Yom Kippur, the Halle Synagogue attack took the lives of two innocent people.

Watch the video and read the transcript below:

As previously reported at RAIR:

The AfD is the only classical European party on the German political spectrum. They are family oriented, want secure borders, and believe in the preservation of the nation state of Germany, much as President Trump does of America. Both the AfD and President Trump’s domestic and foreign policies make the world a safer place for Jews.

In contrast, Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and her left-wing government’s domestic and foreign policies have made the world less safe for Jews, and specifically Germany’s 120,000 Jews. 

Merkel’s policies such as the deliberate importation of unknown tens of thousands of migrants from the Muslim Middle East and Islamic Maghreb in Africa, consistent support for anti-Israel resolutions at the UN as well as support for boycotts of Israeli products and people, and Germany’s refusal to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital city.

It is also noteworthy that under Merkel, Germany supported the Iran nuclear deal, and offers no statement in response to Iran’s persistent threats to destroy Israel militarily.

Merkel has even gone to some lengths to maneuver around new U.S. sanctions on Iran while refusing to outlaw Hizb’allah as the Iranian proxy army of terrorists.

Merkel’s CDU government along with the other German leftist parties have refused to combat the rising antisemitism in Germany while supporting over a million migrants from the Muslim world.

According to the German Interior Ministry, a total of 1,799 antisemitic hate crimes, five per day, were reported in Germany during 2018.  Gatestone revealed “that 80% of Jews who said they were a victim of anti-Semitism did not report the crimes.” 

Many feel the rise in attacks against Jews can be attributed to the left’s third world Islamic mass-migration.

A recent survey from the the University of Bielefeld, revealed that 81% of the physical assaults against Jews during the previous 12 months were attributed to Muslim attackers. However the Merkel government has chosen to suppress information on Islamic attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, while amplifying attacks on Jewish people by non-Muslims such as in Halle, Germany last month. Even going as far as to implicate the AfD as responsible for the attacks.

While the legacy media calls the AfD a “Far right wing party” and often even “Nazi” it is interesting to see the West German Left, which has always sympathized with the Palestinians, for example, strive for good relations with the anti-Israel Iran who calls Israel itself as an “apartheid state”.

The former head of Israeli Mossad, Rafi Eitan, not only endorses the AfD, but wishes that all European nations had a party as classically Western in its values as the AfD.

The Left in America mirrors the left in Germany in their overt antisemitism. Ironically, while the left In both countries purports to condemn antisemitism, they are in bed with the worst offenders of Jew Hatred, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, HAMAS-Linked Council on American Islamic Relations, Student’s for Justice Palestine, Black Lives Matter, J Street, Women’s March, Muslim Student Association, etc,.

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Transcript: Many thanks to Miss Piggy for the translation:

Welcome back here to the Junge Freiheit book fair stand. I hope everyone is able to hear us. There are far more in attendance than usual. Please help me welcome the two guests for our next discussion round, Dr. Vera Kosova and Mr. Artur Abramovych. Both of my guests… Thank you.

Both of my guests have interesting positions that we want to talk about today. Both are on the board of the Federal Association of Jews in the AfD. Dr. Kosova is Chairman and Mr. Abramovych is Vice-Chairman of the Federal Association of Jews in the AfD.  

Many people have a lot of questions, but before we start with that, I’d like to say a little something about our two guests. Neither was born in Germany. They came to Germany as contingent refugees. Mrs. Kosova came to Germany from Uzbekistan in 1998 at the age of 16. Mr. Abramovych, oh, I have to look once again, came from Ukraine.  

Exactly, also in 1998, at the age of two.

Yes. Mrs. Kosova, you’re a doctor; that’s why you have the title of doctor. Mr. Abramovych, I have to ask once again: have you completed your Master’s degree, or are you currently working on it?

OK, so you are currently working on it. You have your Bachelor’s and are currently completing your final thesis for a master’s in literature. OK, that’s right.

Interestingly, both of you became members of the AfD in 2017. —2016. —Oh, OK, back in 2016. So I have to ask you right away, many think, “Oh, Jews in the AfD, that’s strange” and assume most Jews became members in 2013 when Mr. Lücke was still there. So why did you join during the time between 2016-2017?

First I would like to say thank you for the invitation, and also for the attention that is given to us here at this booth. So why did I join in March of 2016? I had been observing the party since 2015. For me personally, I wasn’t active in any party before or a member of one. It was a development. My first child, my son, came into the world in 2015 and that was the same year the migration crisis happened at the European borders. I saw the pictures of a Budapest railway station and that worried me very much. I was, to a certain degree, scared. My impression was that over the course of several months, a pronounced loss of control was present — not only in national politics but also in European politics. Slowly it became clear, little by little, how it was actually connected with all the problems of domestic security. I realised that the uncontrolled mass immigration, predominantly from the Muslim cultural sphere, would be difficult  not only for Jews in Germany but for Jews in all of Europe. I had a look at the political spectrum in Germany. At all the parties. Unfortunately I discovered that there was only one party, namely the Alternative for Germany, that addresses the topic at all. They even make it a priority. It was the only party that I could consider choosing as a politically engaged and politically interested person and where I could imagine myself getting involved.

Mr. Abramovych, you joined in 2017. That’s one year after the AfD — let me put it this way — started its descending path towards becoming a so-called very, very “evil” party. So why would you join such an “evil” party in 2017?

For me there was a very pragmatic reason: I had just turned 21 years old in 2017, so still quite young. I didn’t join a party before that time, because from my point view then, more experienced people should be involved in politics. As Vera just mentioned, 2015 was of course a turning point for the Jewish community in Germany. At that time, even the Jewish Central Council seemed to be aware of it.There was a statement that Chairman Josef Schuster made that created a s*** storm because he demanded a limit to immigration, but he then withdrew his statement. So you can say that even the Jewish Central Council, despite all its dependence on German government, was also aware of this fact. Before that, the AfD had dealt primarily with economic issues.

As a philologist I don’t understand much about economics. In addition to that, the foreign policy of the AfD under Lücke’s leadership didn’t differ so much from that of the CDU. The current criticism from the AfD of the German government’s policy towards Israel isn’t something that existed at that time. So that would be the second reason. I would say, the foreign policy of the AfD is a predominant reason, and independent of the AfD, would be the developments happening in Germany.  The AfD is call an anti-Semitic, right-wing extremist party. Why weren’t both of you frightened off by the reputation of this party?

To start with, this reputation is often used politically, and that’s supported by the media. I have to honestly say, from my subjective perspective, and most of you will probably agree, at least some of you, that in Germany there is no easier way to defame someone than to place them in the right-wing corner. Yes, just grab the Nazi bludgeon. It’s used very gladly, very often and mostly without differentiation. By such means this era, the Nazi Germany era, is relativised or trivialised. This is of course also very disturbing for us as Jews altogether, and it has an external effect. Just speaking for myself, I’ve never considered our party, from my subjective experience inside the party, to be right-wing extremist, xenophobic or anti-Semitic. So that’s what counts for me personally. I’ve never experienced anyone rejecting me because of my migration background or due to my Jewish background. So I can in no way confirm this reputation.

Yes, Mr. Abramovych, please tell us; it will interest us to hear your point of view.

I think it is especially easier for people of foreign origin to find their place in the AfD than it is for autochthonous Germans. For the simple reason that the entire buildup of pressure, from the calls for a boycott to physical violence, comes from Germans. Not from foreigners. Recently I was told about an incident that was an extremely eye opening experience for me. The chairman of the Young Alternative Berlin, Vadim Derksen is his name, a friend of mine. He was in a pub with other party members when the waiter, a German whose name was Tobias, found out they were from the Young Alternative. He didn’t want serve them anymore. So they complained to his boss, who is a native of Romania. He apologised for Tobias, and gave them a round on the house. He then asked them to stay and drink more. If we take a look at our neighbouring countries, there is hardly a country that is as leftist as Germany.

Instead of learning from political developments abroad, the Germans — or rather the leading newspapers in Germany — try to defame other countries. I don’t know how they manage to maintain the balancing act of presenting themselves as cosmopolitan with the number of countries they criticise. The list is getting longer and longer. It’s not only Hungary and Poland, but now also the U.S. and Italy, and then Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Israel is also part of it. The term “right” in Israel is anything but an insult. It is an absolutely normal word, without any negative connotation and therefore the way in which the AfD is attacked is for a Jew or for European foreigners probably far less effective than with autochthonous Germans.

Have you experienced any anti-Semitism or any kind of rejection in the AfD? Be brutally honest.

There are anti-Semites in the AfD. We have never denied that. The AfD is a party with 30,000 members; if there were none then it would be a miracle. Do you want me to name names?

No, I would like to know if you personally have experienced something like that and if so, what for example?
 —Oh so you mean concrete actions?

Yes, words or evil looks? Something like that. 
—No, not directly.

Most of them dare not initiate a personal confrontation. You just hear it through a third party. With the Muslims it’s different. They have no problem refusing a handshake, or just turn around during the conversation. —Now you are speaking in general? —Yes, not in the AfD. I don’t think there are many Muslims in the AfD. —There are some, but OK, you both are AfD members.

According to current logic, as was expressed recently by Mr. Scholz, you are both jointly responsible for the anti-Semitic assassination attempt or the anti-Semitic amok-run in Halle. How do you deal with this guilt?  

There’s no guilt at all. This whole thing is a politically staged theatre. It’s clearly a political exploitation of this attack, and that cannot be simply dismissed. For me, my impression is that the establishment parties trot out such events to exploit them accordingly over the media.  However, reality and the actual statistics tell a completely different story, and therefore in my eyes it is just completely vile. First of all, it is a vile way to treat the victims. The attack targeted a Jewish synagogue, and it should be Jews leading the discussion. It surprised me that not even 24 hours went by before the political spin came from the so-called political elite. Immediately the accusations flew, and those responsible had to be defined. Of course it was the opposition, the political competition, our party. At this point, I really had to ask myself: what kind of a political culture do we have? Is there no sense of decency? We didn’t even wait for the difficult emotional phase to pass so that people could comprehend what had just happened. Everything starts emotionally. Once that has passed, only then, should we move into the critical political analytical discussion, in order understand what happened. That was a very clear sign for me that the current form of politics has no decency.

Please answer as well. Thank you.

 —I would just like to add that there had been similar cases in recent weeks and months, without firearms, without Merkel and her vassals having held any memorial events. This opportunity was immediately taken advantage of the same evening. Sawsan Chebli called everyone to visit the synagogue on the Oranienburger Straße, and Merkel came too. —In Berlin. —Yes, exactly. Not in Halle. The amusing thing is that the same synagogue on the Oranienburger Straße had been attacked on Friday before. So Yom Kippur was on Tuesday, and on the Friday before that, this synagogue was attacked by a Syrian who was armed with a knife. He was overwhelmed by the security forces. Without Merkel and Sawsan Chebli making a pilgrimage to the synagogue to show their solidarity with the Jews. I would like to point out that this Syrian was released the next day by the prosecutor’s office because they saw no reasons for an arrest. Just to be fair, at least the media presented it this way, he was assessed as mentally disturbed or psychologically disturbed. That’s different from someone who consciously commits a political attack.

Just wanted to add that. —Well, I don’t know if you still have sufficient confidence in the assessment of these forensic doctors, but I believe that the number of cases in which mental illness is declared by Muslim perpetrators is much higher than among non-Muslim ones.

Mr. Abramovych. You both just mentioned or spoke of the political exploitation, and both of you have also taken a very clear position. What I would like to ask is — prior to the exploitation, the attack happened. For everyone it was awful, but what I wanted to know was: how did it make you feel? The attack, because it was clearly an anti-Semitic right-wing extremist. That is, according to current information about the alleged offender’s confession. Well, I heard something else. —Go ahead.

It was circulated that the perpetrator’s attorney made a statement in which he said that from his client’s point of view, one doesn’t have to be a right-wing extremist to be anti-Semite or something like that. So whether this guy saw himself as a right-wing extremist is still doubt. Apart from that, he was a “lone wolf”. He acted on his own, without any kind of structures supporting him. He wasn’t instigated by anyone to do this. One of the few things we have in common with the Jewish Central Council is that we, including myself, wish that there had been more protection available for the Jewish community. Physical protection. So in that respect, it is a disgrace that the Jewish community in Halle didn’t get protection, despite the fact that they asked for it in the run-up to Yom Kippur celebrations. —Yes, please.

My statement principally goes in the same direction. The fact was played down, negated or concealed in the media that the Jewish community in Halle, in the context of their preparation for the Yom Kippur celebration, asked for more police protection. They asked for more security. They were screaming for it. There were probably already external indications that something might possibly happen. This is an unfortunate shameful situation for a Jewish community in Germany, but it’s not surprising, because there are constant threats. This protection, this police protection, this security, the intensification before the most important Jewish holiday, was not granted. This must be said quite clearly. No one took the cries for help seriously. This must also be stated by the chancellor. What I want to say is really simple. It is important that the anti-Semitism debate be led openly, honestly and broadly. There’s a right-wing anti-Semitism; there’s a left-wing anti-Semitism, and there is Muslim anti-Semitism. Muslim anti-Semitism clearly dominates in the statistics, and also does especially among the surveys done among the Jews. The German police crime statistics don’t apply, because they do not represent the reality. That’s because as soon as the perpetrator cannot be clearly identified the crime is assigned to the ‘right’ end of the spectrum. We’re not going to solve these problems in this country by doing this, and that’s certainly not going to stop anti-Semitism. That needs to be said very clearly.

So at this point and for that reason, I would like to open the discussion now. That’s where we see ourselves tasked as Jews in the AfD to talk about the problems openly and honestly.
That the only way we will be able to solve the problems. Thank you.

That is completely correct and you are already at the core of the conversation. Nevertheless, please allow me to ask about the founding of your association, otherwise we might miss that. You founded within the party an association, namely the association Jews of the AfD, and before we come to your point, please tell us why it was necessary to do so, or why did you at some point feel the need to organise yourselves?

There wasn’t necessarily a necessity to form this group. It happened on its own. As you probably already know, there are several interest groups within the AfD. We have the Christians in the AfD, we have the Russian-Germans in the AfD, we have the homosexuals in the AfD. So it was a development that occurred little by little. At some point we asked ourselves, “OK, why isn’t there an interest group for the Jews of the AfD?” as an interest group. We are our own association; the association is not part of the AfD, but we are party-related. As experts we are at the disposal of our party friends at any time and in any case. We are happy to advise them and happy to support their statements. Principally this is a natural development, and part of the professionalisation of a party, of a young party. It’s not some innovative concept. The other parties, the older parties, have so-called working groups, where the Jews organise themselves, but they just aren’t as present in the media. I also think that they don’t necessarily make a substantial political contribution to Jewish topics or contents become more present. And I think that we are already stronger in this area.

Mr. Abramovych, can you briefly describe how many members your association has? Or is it two-man show? How many Jews are there in the AfD? What is your potential, so to speak?

Yes, I’m afraid I’ll have to take over the unpleasant part. We founded the association with 24 founding members, full members. It’s possible to have a sponsoring membership. Most of the sponsoring members are AfD members who aren’t Jewish. There are also a few Jews who support us, but don’t want to join the AfD. Only those who are Jewish and AfD members can become full members. The number of members has remained practically the same. As with every association within the AfD, the number of members changed due to a few withdrawals at the beginning. In the single digits. Since then we’ve developed a clear strategy, things have become more homogeneous, and we work together better. There have also been a few new memberships, but the number of full members has not changed much. It probably won’t change in the foreseeable future, either. Unless the AfD grows significantly, or unless the media drumbeat against the AfD dies down, it probably won’t change. You have to consider That in Germany it is estimated about every 500th person is Jewish. If you apply that to the AfD, then you only get a few dozen. So there won’t be much more than what we already have. So that’s a few dozen.

 Does that mean that the majority of Jews in the AfD aren’t in your association?
 —No. I assume, I’m almost sure, that the majority of the Jews of the AfD are members with us. —So it’s really a manageably small number then. The AfD only has 30,000 members.
 —Yes, yes. Good. Of course. So then, and this is actually the answer you just gave about starting the debate. It may be the answer to the next question I intended to ask. You have published this brochure or book, depending on what you want to call it. A collective volume. Exactly. So this is not something the two of you wrote, although you also made a small contribution; it’s a collection of different contributions, including some from non-Jews in the AfD, such as, for example, Beatrix von Storch or the greeting from Mr. Kalbitz. —Those are just written greetings. The authors, the contributors are, without exception, Jewish people.

Yes, but if I understood correctly, it includes Jewish authors who aren’t in the AfD, like Daniel Pipes for example. —Yes. —Mr. Pipes is from America. I’m sure a few people recognise that name. Daniel Pipes is a renowned Islam critic. So now, why was it necessary to publish this brochure? To open the debate, but why concretely?

 —Not necessary in that sense, but it was a project of ours. A mammoth project, if you can imagine, with our personnel. It was really very, very very time-consuming. Mr. Abramovych was in charge, and sometimes had to whip some of the protagonists and activists in his project so that we would finally make progress, but I think he did that very well. You’ll find themes, accents, foundations for discussion that you wouldn’t find in any other Established book on the subject of anti-Semitism or Jews in Germany. Yes, so of course, I recommend this brochure. The anthology or the book, reads quite wonderfully in my eyes, and everyone can read it. You don’t need a philological, theological, linguistic or German studies background. Any normal person can understand what is written= in this book, especially if you have the affinity and an openness to the topic. So from our perspective, this was a further step in the development of our association. With it, we’re sending the message: We are here, we have topics that we can present, and we’re ready for every discussion. I’m also really curious about criticisms from the outside, and reviews. We can learn from every type of critic. Any time. We’re ready.
 On the whole, perhaps with regard to the follow-up book, if one should appear. Every purchased book helps support our cause. I would be happy about that too. The impulse actually came from outside. As you might know, there’s a book called “Christians in the AfD”. I knew about the book and that also somehow gave me the idea to start our project. Naturally we aren’t as strong as the Christians financially, because our number of members is lower, but we found a supporter who was willing to make the investment, and that was our publisher. We are, by all means, very grateful for their help in making this possible. The time is flying by. So now I would really like to get to the point that you made earlier and the one everyone is most interested in. Especially if we’re interested in an invitation to begin a debate with your collection.

What would you both suggest now or what needs to change in the debate? As you said, it has to change. How much?

First of all, I would like or wish that we would call the problem child by its real name and that we could just look the truth in the eye. We need to say, “Yes, Germany has an anti-Semitism problem,” and admit the problem that we have comes from Muslim culture. That would be the first step. If we know that there is this problem then you have to consider how to deal with the problem and what measures can be derived from it. Except we’re not able to get to step 2, because we don’t name the problem. This is exactly the first hurdle that can or must be taken before we can think further.  
Let me ask you a few questions, then. You say the problem comes mainly from the Islamic Muslim cultural circle; can you prove that, or is that your impression?

There is a study from 2017, by Professor Andreas Zick from the University of Bielefeld, which is publicly accessible. He conducted an online survey of over 500 Jews in Germany, anonymised, and they said clearly that this data is statistically significant. Most of the attacks in everyday life come from Muslims, and the remaining attacks are divided between Right and Left. This is exactly what is important to me. Getting this reality communicated to the public or society in general. I want people to know, OK, there’s the problem, and then they have to take the first step without trivialising the other areas, of course. I’ll pass this to Artur again, so perhaps he could specify some things.

Please also explain what you think how the debate should be conducted in a different way. Please. Or did you want to quote a few numbers? —Yes, as a supplement, perhaps the study by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Conflict and Violence Research. That doesn’t actually sound like it’s favourable towards us, but in fact the numbers we found are there. 62% of verbal anti-Semitism attacks are of Muslim origin and 81% of physical attacks. Well, you have to keep in mind that Muslims are only about 10% of the population. So 81% of the physical attacks are committed by 10% of the population, and it’s even more than the non-physical ones. To put it crudely, that means the Muslim is ready to strike quickly, along with the fact that he is also much more anti-Semitic. But that’s actually only the first step. In our book we’ve assigned all the contributions to three thematic groupings. We used Gottfried Benn’s political maxim for these groupings.
 The first is: Situation. So, it’s about recognising the situation. The situation is anti-Semitism, and more importantly, recognising the nature and origin of today’s anti-Semitism.

The second group is dysfunction, to recognise the dysfunction. That’s all about the Jewish self-hatred that still exists, and about finding the traitor within one’s own ranks. To give an example: George Soros, Schwartz; in Hungarian, it means black. There you have it, his last name is actually Schwartz. All Hungarian Jews are German. Everyone knows this man, whether Right or Left, and he is extremely present in the public debate. This is how he fights. In the U.S. there are very formidable Jews who support unions and movements that are totally opposed to the ones financed by Soros. For example, Sheldon Adelson. Unfortunately, he is not well-known here. So then, Soros is also used by the political Left as a weapon against the political Right in that any critical confrontation with him is immediately defamed as anti-Semitism and then everyone acts as if his activity, his engagement is Jewishness par excellence. So he has the power of interpretation over all things Jewish, and anyone who is against that is anti-Semitic. That’s not the case at all, and people have to become aware it. This is the second step.

The third is assets. Use your assets. We are concerned with our Jewish traditions. These traditions were revived in Israel because Jews make up the majority. There Jewish traditions could be revived undisturbed, for the most part undisturbed. Here, unfortunately, they are almost forgotten, because public opinion about Judaism is determined by liberal Jews, by reformed Jews, who have very little to do with our understanding of Judaism. So it’s about reflecting back on these things which are, unfortunately, hardly talked about at all. The Left attempts to make Judaism… which is why the foundation of Judaism in the AfD was so misunderstood. The Left assumes that the Jew has to stand up for all those enslaved. Because they think the Shoah is to be interpreted universally, making the Jew a concept of universalism. However, in our opinion Judaism has a very strong particularistic side, which unfortunately is completely neglected in Germany. —Maybe you can explain it, for those who don’t understand. Explain what you mean by the particularistic side? Can that be done in one sentence?

Yes, I’ll try to explain it. In Judaism there are 613 commandments, but these commandments are valid only for Jews. For gentiles there are seven commandments to keep. Nothing could be further from the mind of the Jew, especially an Orthodox Jew, than to convince a non-Jew to do something he doesn’t want to do or doesn’t think he has to do. So these seven Noahidic commandments that gentiles have to keep are so basal that actually they are the fundament of practically every civilisation.

So you mean like, “Thou shall not murder,” or something similar? —Yes, exactly. Like that. —For these reasons, Jews are almost never converted by missionary work. Judaism is not only a religion but at the same time a nation of people and has remained a nation of people. First it was a people, and then one says, or more precisely Hans-Joachim Schoeps once wrote it: “On Passover, when we remember the exodus from Egypt, on Passover the Jewish people came into being.” So this people’s identity was created by a march out of Egypt  and 49 days later at Sinai, that’s the fest of Shavuot, which reminds us that Judaism was established as a religion, as a covenant with God, but it is both at the same time. If you now compare that with Christianity, and I’m not talking about this Christianity that is present in the media today, churches that offer “vulva-painting” workshops and so forth, that’s absolutely not even worth discussing anymore. Real Christianity. Yes, even what I experienced with the Pius brotherhood is still far more universalistic than Judaism. These liberal reform Jews, who appear in the media, claiming that they’re not even sure whether we are even Jews. So of course these people don’t want to talk about that. —We are unfortunately almost out of time, actually we’ve already gone over it, but nevertheless there’s still one last question. I know, there are still so many questions. Everyone has one, just like I do, because it’s a hot topic. My last question is: Why doesn’t the Jewish Central Council represent these interests? What’s wrong with it? The other question is if our politicians and our public in general are so very sensitive to the needs and problems of the Jews, why aren’t they listening to this? Can you answer these questions?

So, I’ll answer the question about the Jewish Central Council. Perhaps first, my mother was a state official for the Jewish Central Council. And by the way, our fellow board member Wolfgang Fuhl was even on the board of directors of the Central Council. He also made a contribution to your book. —Exactly, he also took part in our book project. So he was a member of the board of directors at the federal level of the Jewish Central Council. For a long time, the Central Council was a rather conservative association for the reasons we have just mentioned. It has reconciled itself recently with the reformed Jews and that has of course already led to a certain changes in personnel. We need to mention the fact that the same problem exists with the Catholic dioceses and the National Evangelical churches. This dependency, the financial dependency on the German state, on the Federal Republic. I have already spoken about Josef Schuster’s statement of 2015. He took it back, after the s*** storm and after he was put under pressure. He then published another press release in which the phrase “upper limit” no longer appeared. We also see it among the functionaries. Among the still active functionaries who are sympathetic to our cause and those with whom we have contact. There are also rabbis who cannot afford to take our side in public, because otherwise they would be extremely… to give another current example of this, we have a very kind-hearted Israeli Jew in Offenbach who wanted to come today.  I don’t know if he’s here? He didn’t want join us or get involved with us just because he is professionally dependent. He’s in the catering business and does business with the Jewish community in Frankfurt. So that’s reason enough for him to not support us, at least publicly. Welcome to opinion-free Germany.
 Could you then perhaps answer the question? Or if you want to add to that, otherwise please answer the question about why haven’t German politicians, or why doesn’t the German public — normally both are so sensitive to the needs of Jews — so why aren’t they listening?
 —That’s something you assume. I’ll impertinently say I disagree with that, too. The official Germany, the political Germany, it celebrates very gladly the dead Jews of the Shoah, but the interests of the living, whether here now in Germany or Europe or also Israel, these don’t interest them. They aren’t in the focus of their politics.

Why not? —There are many different considerations. On the one hand, through this celebration of the dead Jews or the Holocaust, a certain exploitation of the event can take place. In order to be able to take advantage in our society through a special responsibility in many questions, as a control mechanism. A guilt complex of overriding importance. Of course, the dead have no voice, in the sense that they can’t resist or contradict the whole thing. It’s actually a very comfortable construction. So the living Jews have their functionaries; as my colleague just said, they are politically active and of course try to chum up with the political mainstream. They make pacts with the establishment parties. Mr. Schuster and Mrs. Knobloch are the essential representatives. It’s easy to forget or maybe not always evident, but there’s a huge gap between the functionaries and the base. There are unofficial sources that estimate that 20% to 30% of Jews, Jewish Germans, vote for or would like to vote for the AfD. That means we already have a lot of encouragement, but the functionaries are still so politically powerful that they don’t allow this open discourse or allow this truth to get out. There’s so much more that has to happen to break through this blockade. Many are afraid. They have existential fears, and dependencies continue to exist. The Jewish Central Council in Germany certainly controls much of this, and let’s not forget that they have their own associations. These also want to set their accents in certain places. The Jewish Central Council also receives a federal subsidy of €13 million per year, which shouldn’t be neglected. So there’s a financial dependence to a higher level, to the establishment parties that exists here as well. It is just really complex. It is all connected. The same phenomenon can be found within regional networks of churches. Even trade unions.

Yes, I know I don’t have to explain that to you. We have arrived in German society. Even we Jews, so to speak, are very well integrated into the system. So we are fighting from the bottom up to change the system.
 —Thank you very much.Thank you very much, first here to the Tech team, that you have participated so long without having a revolt. Thank you to our audience for staying with us the entire time. Standing. If you want to delve deeper into the subject, I highly recommend the indeed pleasantly readable brochure, “What drives the Jews to AfD”. So, then perhaps next time you’ll join us with your follow-up volume, which you have already announced, in 2020 at our book fair booth. Thank you.