Apparently, wearing a kippa skullcap in parts of Germany is as dangerous as wearing a MAGA hat in parts of the United States.

In Germany, the flap started when its commissioner on anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, reminded the Jewish people that Germany is not Israel.

Well, no. He did not put it quite that way. Rather, he suggested that it might be safer to simply not wear the kippa in public.

He cited the rise in German anti-Semitism, that it has shot up by 20 percent, which means 120 percent altogether, according to some doing the math.

Personally, I think the fellow meant well. He was simply stating facts on the ground, and how it is in the real world, and how Germany is still Germany, only more so, with the influx of new people being what it is, thanks to Angela Merkel, who just yesterday told the graduating class at Harvard that in a perfect world there would be no borders.


Germany is still Germany, only more so, with the influx of new people being what it is, thanks to Angela Merkel.
While scolding Trump by insinuation, she said nothing about the spike in crimes against Jews since she perfected Germany through her policy of letting everybody in.

So between the Old Germany and the New Germany, the Jews find themselves lost in the middle. (As Judah Halevi had it an Age ago when it was Islam versus Christianity.)

The hot question is whether they should or should not be wearing the kippa in public. This is a serious question. Many have already chimed in. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo covered it for everyone when he said: "We were concerned to see Jews discouraged from wearing the yarmulke in public out of safety concerns. None of us should shrink in the face of prejudice.”

Excellent answer – but is that really the question?

 

The question is why are there Jews in Germany, period? They can’t be the ones who stayed. We know what happened to them.

So are these returnees? Or are they people who sought the perfect country for Jews and found it to be Germany uber alles?

Says on the Web that there are now some 230,000 Jews living in Germany, from an overall population of 85 million. Of these 85 million, how many still love the smell of Zyklon B?

Sorry about that, but it is a question that comes up directly in the novel “Indecent Proposal,” which is suddenly in the news and a hot topic all over again, through the enduring moral dilemmas of temptation and forgiveness. (“Sex is nothing. Temptation is everything.”) The main character in the book, Holocaust survivor and Israeli war hero Joshua Kane refuses to make peace…as all those around him are telling him to “let the past be the past” and that “it’s time to move on.”

People change…and that fast?

We are not allowed to forgive or forget Amalek. So what’s the deal with Germany?

I suppose the returnees, or the new denizens have their reasons and that it is not for us to judge, which appears to be what I am doing.

Really, it is not my business.

But I just don’t get it…and never mind the explanations, that it’s about defiance, particularly wearing the kippa in public.

No, Israel is the defiance.

Over there, they may ask why you are NOT wearing a kippa, or a MAGA hat.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He is the author of the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” His latest is the newsroom drama “News Anchor Sweetheart.”  His Inside Journalism thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” is being prepared for the movies. Contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com