Arutz Sheva reported in a news article on September 10th that sixty Jewish organizations, headed by the German Jewish Council, released a joint appeal against voting for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany’s upcoming elections, charging it with “anti-Semitism, racism and misanthropy”.
The AfD sent us this reply.
The German Jewish Council is the only organization of its kind world-wide which is financed almost exclusively by the government, with €13 million a year. So it is no surprise that they would come out against the AfD, as they did in the last federal election. Those responsible can only act this way because they do not have to fear any internal opposition due to the undemocratic structure of their organization.
Trust us, the Jewish grass roots in the communities thinks very differently. They know from first-hand, lived experience that left-wing and Muslim anti-Semitism are far more dangerous than the obviously crass but ultimately totally marginalized far-right in Germany, or the isolated use of the yellow star at German corona-virus demonstrations.
This political interference by the German Jewish Council is self-serving and obsequious, and Jews in Germany are in no way helped by it.
Significantly, only state-financed Jewish organizations took part in this appeal. Independent Jewish organs such as the monthly newspaper “Jüdische Rundschau” and conservative Jewish associations such as Chabad Germany are not represented, and that’s no surprise. It is after all not in the interests of Jews in Germany for the established parties to be able to ram through their anti-Israel policies without any serious opposition. The AfD is the only party in Germany that seriously criticizes this policy.
With our successful initiatives to ban Hezbollah and ban the anti-Semitic BDS movement, and our demands to defund UNRWA, and abolish the discriminatory labeling requirement for Jewish products from the 'West Bank', the AfD has done more to protect Jewish life than any other party in the German Bundestag.
We therefore expect to get a lot of votes for the AfD from German Jewish voters on Sept. 26. This letter by government-funded apparatchiks will not change that.
Artur Abramovych is Chair of the “Jews in the AfD”
Dimitri Schulz is member of Parliament for the State of Hesse and Board Member of the “Jews in the AfD”.
