Trump's our President. If he can't protect us, regardless of religion or nationality, he should be impeached.
And we should elect another President that can respond to, and prevent and handle these attacks.
Enough of his corruption and self-dealing in everything else that he touches. Human beings lives, regardless of who they are, are more important to us, than his self-dealing for his own private gain.
24
@Quandry
I can't believe that you would have the audacity to connect Trump to this murder in Germany! Did you even read the article? These are white suprematists with guns, that are highly connected to terrorism content that encourages this "hate' on the Internet. There is no president or chancellor on this earth that can prevent a human being from deciding to hate another human being.
If anyone is to blame, we are. Human beings period. Human beings who decide to hate one another. When was the last time that you expressed love, compassion, understanding to someone that was different than you or who had different opinions than you? We are all responsible. We need to know our neighbors, we need to model love and compassion, educate, speak the truth in love, and fight for what is right and true.
Let's stop blaming the president for everything, it's so ridiculous and waste of time! Let's also assume part of our duty on this earth.
9
@Malia
Quandry is suggesting, correctly, that Trump has had an outsize influence on the emergence of right-wing nationalist groups internationally.
Yes, many attacks occurred prior to his tenure, but his rantings as President have unduly exacerbated matters.
Steve Bannon, Trump's onetime campaign director, globetrots as an international consultant to nationalist groups.
Trump enjoys an international audience. Every time Trump opens his mouth about a possible trade deal with China, the stock market rises. Every time such a deal stalls out, the market plunges.
The man can do much to alleviate poverty in many troubled areas of the world. Even if he delivered an occasional speech celebrating the values of tolerance and love for one's neighbor, it would go a long way to defusing ethnic tensions.
But Trump does the opposite. He stokes fear and resentment and builds walls--to keep out people of color and protect wealthy whites.
21
@Quandry Huh? What on earth does this have to do with Trump? Our president should somehow prevent such attacks in other countries? How would that happen?
9
There are multiple reasons that explain the rise in hate crimes and general violence across the globe. One explanation seems to be the crossing of the borders by deprived-disadvantaged-displaced people into the territories inhabited by relatively affluent citizenry. A large number of this citizenry feels not only their space has been taken away, but they are likely to be deprived of their means of livelihood. Because of the increasing resource crunch, they see the future of their kids and grand kids genuinely in jeopardy. And all the State(s), of which the governments are a part, are incapable of stopping this mindset from shaping up. They have lost the capacity to mediate and convince their own people that they do not have to be threatened by these new settlers in their midst. From the movement of Rohingya Muslims into Myanmar, to the exodus of the Syrian refugees, to the thrust of the economic refugees from South American countries into the USA, to the daily infusion of people from Africa and Middle East into Europe are examples of the unprecedented demographic shifts. In addition, there are horrifying phenomena of internally displaced people who have swollen the population of cities from San Francisco to Karachi. Adoption of soft, compassionate or humanitarian approach towards these 'other' people by the host countries is resented, particularly when they seem to bite off the hosts' resources. Identity differences based on ethnicity and religion just add fuel to the fire.
2
I'm in my 70's.
To this day, even as I have read many different accounts, I still don't understand the hatred of Jews.
I don't understand the hatred of anyone, really, especially for religious, racial, cultural, and ethnic reasons.
But the idea to actually tape one's antics, their crimes, is just plain ludicrous.
Why so why would one post it on social media?
A person rapes another person, and they film the act.
Another person does crazy stuff and posts it on social media.
What are they doing?
In the future is there supposed to be an award for the grossest act one can do?
And for this young man to say he doesn't believe the Holocaust didn't happen.
I would love for these deniers to explain their logic.
6
My late father fought these bums in WW2; I'll be glad to continue where he left off.
6
When the police are needed in seconds, they are ten minutes away. This is why some US churches and at least a few synagogues and mosques have an internal protection team of armed parishioners.
1
I was born and raised in Halle and been living here ever since. I was about to leave the house as it happened. I could have never imagined this town being the target of such violence. It’s a welcoming place with many university students, bars, nightlife - a living city with just small numbers of right wing people.
When events like those were on the news I always thought that this would never happen here - In other places, but not in my own town. I think neither did the people in Christchurch or all the numerous other cities. Yet it happened and it is very shocking seeing the streets you know since being a kid as a crime scene.
I hope that all the victims of those crimes and their families find peace and the strength to recover from this.
20
We need to ban 8 Chan as a nation honestly, or any anonymous forum where people can be radicalized for that matter. There's plenty of things I disagree with in the policies of more strict nations, but logging in to use the internet as a citizen is clearly something we need to take a hard look at as a nation. Time and time again we try out letting these forums police themselves until they take their hate off the web and into our communities.
6
All the German breast beating about how history is repeating itself kind of misses the point. In the 1930s, it was the German government which directed, supported and cheerleaded the attacks against Jews. This is certainly a terrible crime, but the true measure of whether we have learned from history will be how the German government deals with these acts.
8
@ross What do you think the german government will do? Support the attack? Pin the Medal of Honor on the killers chest?
5
I haven't heard any reaction by Donald Trump. Why?
If the terrorist was a Muslim, you can be sure that he'd be ranting and raving on Twitter. But since this is a right wing terrorist, nothing.
Disturbing.
16
Why did it take so long for the police to arrive at the scene after the shooting began?
11
@David Banai
Oh, come on!
It's a bit early for conspiracy theories. Why not wait until the facts are known, before asking 'questions'.
3
In the Yom Kippur memorial service yesterday, we added the two victims to the list of those who died in the last year whose names are traditionally read at that time. I'm sure our congregation was not alone in that.
The terrorist was targeting Jewish people, but in this case it's quite possible he killed non-Jews. If it was not clear before, it shows that hate-based terrorism is a problem for all people, and not just those in the group that is targeted.
18
It is widely accepted that keeping the Sabbath is in the 10 Commandments and actually the Sabbath is the holiest day for Jews and those who follow the 10 Commandments, not Yom Kippur. Observance of Yom Kippur is not in the 10 Commandments, and is not as important as the Sabbath.
That shall not kill is also of course in the 10 Commandments, without respect to which day of the year it is or which day of the week. The tragedy and the crime are the killings, and not the holiday, date or day of the week.
5
First of all I'd like to express my condolences to the victims and their families. Secondly I'd like to point out that I'm disgusted by this attack. I can't say I'm surprised though, the political climate in Germany has really moved to the right after reunification. Seems like "The Wall" really WAS an "Anti-Fascistic bulwark" (as claimed by Honecker), only facing the wrong way...
The other thing is life streaming. I know that it can be useful to provide evidence in criminal cases. There was this one U.S. cop that shot a man in the back several times and then confiscated the smartphone of the guy who filmed it. Didn't help, the video was on a server already.
But criminals can use that too, and do it more frequently. That Norwegian guy who killed over 100 kids, he live-streamed part of his rampage as well. You know you're going to get killed in the end, so why not?
What to do about it? We are basically facing the same problem as the old STASI of Germany: you can't listen in to all phone calls, you'd need 1/3rd of the country working for you! And I don't believe that any AI system can detect a crime in a live-stream and shut off the stream. Maybe "Jarvis" of Tony Stark fame, but nothing we have.
So we will have to live with it - or crush it. But "forbidden technology" has a way to become even more dangerous. There are up to 20 million illegal guns in Germany, but I can't carry one legally to defend myself because I'm not "threatened". That kind of thinking, you know...
2
History repeats itself and humanity doesn't learn a thing.
5
Currently reading Bari Weiss’s book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism. It never changes. Horrifyingly sad.
9
There is - normally - no synagogue in Germany in whose neighbourhood no police vehicle can be found on the Sabbath or the high holidays. For all West German cities this is an unwritten law of every police deployment planning.
As sad as it is that people cannot follow their faith without police protection, it is irritating that no police patrol was able to intervene immediately in the East German city of Halle/Saale.
My spontaneous thought was: Here not least a vulgar atheism on the part of the police leadership in Saxony-Anhalt could have had a fatal consequence.
I do not mean that in the sense of a flat polemic against atheists.
But while the West German state was constituted in 1949 in a fundamentally neutral manner, but friendly to the denominations, a mixture of old communist and newer, poorly digested Richard Dawkins atheism can be heard, for example, in connection with the founding of mosque communities in cities of the former GDR.
I have the impression that the East German public does not understand what the three "oriental cults", Jews, Catholics, Muslims, have lost in these superficially Protestant, but in fact simply neo-pagan regions.
Unfortunately, I can very well imagine that the officals, who were responsible for planning the deployment, have been "religiously unmusical".
No, I cannot believe that the police in Cologne or Frankfurt/Main, in Hamburg or Berlin would have let a heavily armed assassin come alive to the door of a synagogue.
3
The feeling of utter shame that this is happening again in my country is unbearable. I feel with the families of the victims, and the global Jewish community.
Throughout my life I have been convinced that the horrors of the past have been so thoroughly reflected on and our education system has so effectively made any reoccurrence impossible, that violent antisemitism would forever remain a demon of the past.
Even if this was the deed of a “lone wolf”, it must serve as a wake up call and start a renewed public debate about antisemitism. One followed my effective action.
I want to apologize to the world for this.
10
@Robert
It's not a German thing. It's a world thing.
I was born in the immediate aftermath of WW2 when us young Brits were assured that what had been done to the Jews would NEVER happen again. Yet, I sense the same old evil gathering strength once more. Everywhere.
I was ashamed to learn that many British Jews no longer feel safe in my own country. That they are activating a lifelong promise made to German Jewish families and becoming German citizens. That's right, some Jews feel safer in Germany than in the UK. And now this...
8
I’m here in Berlin. Hardly any police on the street. Especially not in the tourist areas. Frightening.
7
If someone dies of cancer you feel sorry for them. If you are religious you pray for them. You offer condolences to the survivors. Fearing for your own life, as is natural, you resolve to focus more on your lifestyle and healthcare. Finally you advocate for, and perhaps contribute to, the effort to cure cancer, and ultimately to prevent cancer. But it is of no use to condemn cancer, and revenge is not possible. Passion can motivate the study of disease, but the study itself must be clear-headed.
It is in our blood - certainly in mine - to desire revenge when the killer is human. But it is unproductive to forget that the killer is doing what is in his or her blood, as tainted by the events of her or his life. Those so tainted must not have their way. We have the right to remove tumorous cells, and especially carcinogenic leaders, and so achieve a kind of remission. However to prevent the disease of hatred from recurring we must go wherever the search for underlying causes leads us. If certain cells are naturally prone to cancer, we must accept that reality, but if environment is the dominant factor, we must study its effects with an open mind.
5
Disgusting. In every sense. Prayers to Jews. Prayers to kebab shops. Prayers to women passing by.
But prayers cannot do what we have been asked to do. When a wise guy said to Muhammad, if God is all knowing and powerful, why tie up my camel? Muhammad said, trust God, but tie up your camel.
If we cannot put human limitations on the ever expanding uses of God-given advances in technology, whether if be automation of guns, helmets that record pornographic violence or live-streams, we, the children of Abraham all, fail miserably in full knowledge we are doing so.
72
Target of Hate: Jews first and foremost and then others.
This is a shameful day for Germany and indeed for the world. In 2019, Jews were targeted on the holiest day of the Jewish Calendar. The never ending messages of hate, White Supremacy, anti-immigrant and wild conspiracies where Jews are plotting against white majority by promoting tolerance, multiculturalism and inclusion, all of this propaganda is not done in a vacuum. It results in something, something evil as we witness time and time again. The murderer and hater went to Synagogue and wehn failed to enter went to a Kebob house to find other target of hate, muslims. That tells us a lot.
Message is clear, first they want to kill Jews and once done, then everybody else who is in opposition to their evil philosophy of White Supremacy.
88
The first victim was a woman, passerby -- and the murderer's hate speech targeted feminism, along with anti-semitism.
9
@HK The article stated that the attacker first tried to enter the synagogue - he was unsuccessful because it was locked. While trying to enter, he fired at the woman passerby. After other failed attempts to enter the synagogue, he then drove to the kebab shop and started shooting. His first target was the synagogue and the Jewish people praying inside on Yom Kippur.
Can you imagine what would have happened if he did make it inside? It would have been worse than at Tree of Life in Pittsburgh last year and the Chabad in Poway, CA earlier this year.
4
Still after over 5000 years nothing has changed. We are still persecuted for being nothing more than Jewish. Is it any wonder why we stick so close together. We are so few yet have contributed more than another group to the betterment of this world. Millions upon millions of children today can dance and play because a man named Salk cured Polio-and he did not seek one penny for his contribution-he gave it for free. I could site hundreds upon hundreds of examples of similar courageous acts-yet we are still persecuted. Germany, a country that killed over 6 million of us, still has in its soul the roots of anti-Semitism. Do you blame Israel for wanting to maintain it self as a "Jewish State". A place where Jews can go and live without fear. Maybe BiBi is right!
79
Yes, Bibi is right! May God bless and protect him.
12
@Den You hit the nail on the head, Den. They hate us precisely because we have been so successful in so many areas.
3
@Den everything u say is true...except Bibi is corrupt and out of touch .....his way is not the way to peace, only more hatred and misunderstanding.
9
Attacks like the Halle tragedy are not a German problem, they're an international issue. Some of the ignorant people who feel threatened by an increasingly connected, global economy are violently attacking neighbors they see as other or foreign including immigrants, Jews and the LGBTQ community.The situation is similar to the violence towards Americans who advocated for Civil Rights in the 1960's. What reduced the violence was support for the victims and defense of Civil Rights by our leaders and the general public. The assailants must be treated as criminals and outcasts rather than heroes. Laws protecting the rights of marginalized groups and penalizing hate crimes need to be strengthened and enforced. Meanwhile, the haters must have no haven online. It's illegal to produce and consume child pornography. Why shouldn't attacks on Jews, immigrants and LGBTQ individuals be treated the same?
62
Yes Ronni, you are perfectly right! I have been saying that for a long time now; the raise of extremisms (all sorts) is a worldwide issue, and has to be fought worldwide. Germany is a country like any other one in the globalized world, although it has succeeded (till now) in avoiding a deeper fall in the far right populism (other European countries cannot say so). But Germany is probably also the target of troublemakers, well organized and getting (financial and logistic) support from international groups/institutions/lobbies/... Geopolitics?... Whatsoever : "they" are networking, so should democratic and freedom-defenders be.
4
@Ronni they are NOT the same....read Dens post above yours.....there is a whole other historical track....it overlaps but is unique and important to know and understand.
Where is the statement from Trump , standing with Jews around the world on this solemn holiday of Yom Kippur? Where is his statement calling out this anti-Semitism and condemning it ?
This man is hopeless.
219
@KarenE
More than hopeless, rotten to the core, fanning flames of hatred and divisiveness, one of the most rotten Americans, ever.
43
@KarenE, Trump is busy helping his buddy Erdogan murder our Kurdish allies today. He doesn't even have time to golf.
53
@KarenE
45 is busy facilitating the already guilty of genocide Turks on their third attempt at this favorite political crime.
Better question, where were Javanka this Kippur and what did they do/say in response to this hate-crime spree?
5
So horrible. I remember years ago going to synagogue in Stockholm for services. The security was airport security tight. We seem to be living in an era similar to the 1930s. We see the rise of authoritarian regimes, the demonization of the other, democracies in retreat, an American President whose self centered isolationist populism favors strongmen who subjugate their leaders. America, while flawed, tried to assert some moral authority. Now it deals in transactional authority. We have a President who espouses polarization and hate and is a role model for white supremacists and bigots. My condolences to this latest community of victims. We must do better. We must endure.
228
Rosh Hashanah, Lima, Peru 1993. Armed guards, high unmarked wall around the synagogue. As a stranger to the community I was carefully vetted in advance when I sought tickets. Lights went out during the service (as often happened in Peru in those days), but the rabbi and congregation all just kept on going. A memorable holiday which went well overall. We will not be silenced.
23
My father, raised an Orthodox Jew, became a Reform Rabbi as involved in global human rights, civil rights, and anti-war efforts as liturgy and teaching Judaism, used to often say that fascism would rise again with antisemitism being the barometer.
I thought he was wrong on both counts. How I wish he had been.
130
A strong secure and fiercely independent Israel is more important than ever. The Israeli law of return that provides global Jews automatic access to Israel is a beacon of hope for Jews who feel unsafe in their current country.The real danger of out of control anti-semitism is the mass shootings of Jews at their place of worship.On this day of atonement Jews turn to their leaders to aggressively condemn anti-semitism and to apprehend the perpetrators and impose severe penalties in accordance with the law. It might be timely for POTUS to speak out.
311
@Milton Lewis "It might be timely for POTUS to speak out."
Really? They have to twist his arm to say anything about anti-Semitic mass shootings in America; I doubt we'll hear anything about something in Germany. Unless he feels the need to once again attempt to fake out Jews here that he really cares.
The real answer is to make it as safe for Jews outside of Israel as it is for any other citizen in any other country.
48
@Milton Lewis with all due respect, most Jews don't want to emigrate from their longtime homes to a far-away country just to be safe from antisemitism. They want to be safe from antisemitism where they live now.
307
Retreat is not an option. Jewish people deserve to live anywhere they want.
151
The tragedy is the killings, the terrorism, and the antisemitism. The tragedy is not that the killings took place on Yom Kippur.
It would not in any way be less tragic if the killings took place on any other day. While the killers may think that killing on Yom Kippur makes it more tragic, from a humanitarian point of view
killing is tragic irrespective of the day.
30
@David I think the attempt to perpetrate a mass killing on Yom Kippur shows a desire to not only obliterate the particular Jews worshipping there, but Judaism itself. Thumbing his nose at the notion that this Day of Atonement has so much meaning for so many Jews, the shooter was declaring that it was devoid of holiness.
22
@BDE The killers are monsters, so when considering the views of the killers - please consider the source of their views. The shooter "was declaring that (Yom Kippur) is devoid of holiness." This is of significance perhaps to the most observant and most orthodox. In fact for orthodox Jews actually the Sabbath is a more profound holiday than Yom Kippur because it is a direct Commandment. But as we all know the vast majority of Jews in todays world are not orthodox and for them and the rest of the world the tragedy is the senseless killings of innocents on
any day of the year. So was this intended to be an attack specifically aimed at observant orthodox Jews or on all Jews, most of whom are not orthodox and may not observe Yom Kippur?
In truth this was an attack on all of humanity and an attack on rationality.
10
@David
Yom Kippur is also a direct commandment.
1
A 10 minute police response further endangered the lives of 51 worshippers and bystanders. Even in countries with stricter gun control than the US, this event comes to show that you cannot be complacent. At my university in South Florida, there was a Yom Kippur worship event that had two campus police officers standing near the entrance to protect the attendees from violence like this. It would do the Jewish community very well to have local police protecting their events in the future.
10
And president Trump said...anything?
10
@Dan Stambor "There were good people on both sides"
@Dan Stambor
Let me guess - 'Good people on both sides'
Do I need to explain that either a) he doesn’t know where Germany is, or b) “there are good people on both sides,” or maybe c) Nancy Pelosi denied me my rights?
One crucial fact of this case is that the attacker live-streamed the event, while speaking - bad - English. Clearly, he had an *international* community of white supremacists in mind.
And let's not forget that he attacked a Turkish Kebap shop after he failed getting into the Synagogue. Clearly, his hatred for Jews was matched by his hatred of Muslims.
In short, this local event is part of an international trend. And this trend is in small part encouraged by Trump and his henchmen.
19
Nah. He just didn’t know that there was a difference.
These hate crimes are committed by nothings who get a rise of knowing that once they post their acts of violence on social media, they will instantly become someone. The murderer's name and photo should be withheld from the public, so that he never gets the satisfaction of seeing his name or picture in print. Social media should be held responsible for propagating these monsters. Condolences to the victims' families.
11
To say a country is not safe anymore, all Jews, Muslims or other minorities should leave now, that is nonsense.
First of all, that is exactly what these extremists want, we should not let them succeed.
Second, Norway, Andreas Breivik 77 people murdered, New Zealand, Brenton Tarrant 51 people murdered. Both countries which are ranking at the top of internal security. No country is totally immune against such crimes. Just keep to the long-term statistics.
Third, where should these people go ? Germany already has a reputation to be a safe haven. Around one million kurds are living in germany, 250.000 Afghans, 200.000 Yazidis. You just can send people somewhere else. There are not so many places left to take in a large diaspora-community. I don't want syrian refugees living in turkey, because the conditions for them are bad, but they can not all move to sweden.
We should do the opposite, we should promote diversity, include people into the society. Beyond all the frictions, the overwhelming narrative is self-reflection about tolerance and liberalism. Racism and nationalism is always highest on places, where the number of "migrants" are lowest.
Make a country safer by interweaving other societies, not by purging them.
17
@Mathias Weitz
Sweden...
20 years ago Sweden was one of the most incredibly inviting and hospitable places. Today, let's consider a couple of parties. The Sweden Democrats are a very new nationalist conservative party, founded in 1988. The Swedish Social Democrats are a very liberal environmentalist, feminist, type party.
The Social Democrats are what you think of when you think of Sweden historically. From 1930 to 1988 they always took at least 40% of the vote. They even took a single-party 50%+ majority multiple times. By contrast the Sweden Democrats never managed to a single seat until 2010.
In the most recent election (2018) the Social Democrats are down to 28%. The Sweden Democrats are up to 18% and are the third largest party in the country.
The vast majority of their popularity has come off the heels of rising anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, sentiment that was all but nonexistent in Sweden's past. The one and only thing that changed is that they ended up being exposed to migration whereas Sweden was historically near entirely homogeneous.
It's probably true that racism and nationalism are highest in places where there aren't many migrants, but that's easily explained by those places not accepting migrants!
Consequently, unless you think trends happening in Sweden and elsewhere are suddenly going to reverse, it's not logical to suggest that migration *causes* more tolerance or liberalism. It seems to be doing exactly the opposite!
2
Incredible that any Germans still live under the delusion that Jews are their enemies and the source of their problems. The lessons of WWII were clear, but the attempts of Germany to erase the shame of what they did seem to be faltering, a new tragedy. Prejudice is like a vampire that never dies, but we must never turn away from trying to end it.
11
There is a dark storm being stirred by Steve Bannon, Cambridge analytica and the most dastardly of all, Putin, who's been masterminding this for 30 years!
35
@Jo Drawn Putin is a monster, but ironically, he is not an anti-semite. He'll gladly bring down the U.S. (Trump is doing that very well for him anyway), but he does not seem to harbor much antipathy to Jews in Russia.
8
@realist “Ironically?”
1
It seems that the root of so many problems are not Jews, or others, but for stupid white men, and a few women I suppose. While some, I assume, are good people. (I'm one of the good ones.)
14
This Muslim sends deepest condolences. I wear a hijab, a headscarf. I also am disabled from a car accident. I use a motorized scooter. A yahoo in a pick up tried to run me over. He missed so he came back to try again. I understand the hate and intolerance. United we stand, divided we fall. Hate cannot win. We just cannot let that happen. Again, I am truly and deeply sorry.
62
@Wonderweenie Thanks, friend. Inshallah, decency will prevail in the end.
17
@Wonderweenie,
Thank you for your kind words and I am truly and deeply sorry for what happened to you too. That must have been terrifying. It is heartbreaking that we have descended to this level of hate and intolerance again, here and around the world, but we will indeed stand together and beat it back.
Peace be upon you.
5
Decency will prevail if we all who believe in coexistence and tolerance will speak out,act, and vote against white supremacy
2
I pray that as Trump brings his far-right hate rally to Minneapolis tomorrow, none of his people get any ideas.
18
Trump’s work is never done.
10
The weapon used in the attack was homemade and misfired numerous times during the rampage. That saved lives.
5
Unfortunately, evidence from many press sources tells us that things are very rotten in parts of Europe and that the endemic animosity towards Jews is once again percolating to the surface from the shallow sewers of hate which flow through the hearts of some sections of European citizenry. Hatred, which is irrational and is fueled by extremists.
The threat our societies face is so great because it is a multifacted danger : a deadly combination of the far-Right the Uber-Left and Islamist extremism.
The old adage "Scratch any extremist and one quite often finds a fascist underneath” most certainly apples to all three of these cancers of society.
7
@George Which part of, "Having failed to enter the synagogue the gunman shot up a kebab shop" don't you understand?
10
@WOID not to be contrary but I've missed your point ... probably the hour and the horrific event/s weighing on me wee noggin but could you elaborate what you are referring to re George's comments? Thanks
8
I think in referring to the Kepap shop, he is saying the shooter was also anti- Muslim.
6
My son, an Orthodox Jew, spends a fair amount of time in Western Europe for professional reasons. He spends the most amount of time in France (mostly in Paris) and the second most amount of time in Germany. He wears his kippah wherever he goes.
I know that France has a reputation for anti-Semitism, but not once did anyone make any negative comments to him. On the other hand, he was walking down a street in Düsseldorf when a passing motorist stopped and called him "Jewish swine".
Luckily, there were other cars behind the anti-Semitic driver, and the drivers honked at him to move on. I shudder to think of what might have happened had this driver encountered my son on a deserted street.
I know this is just one anecdote, but it's worth reporting.
20
@Pam Shira Fleetman good grief ... not even a covert action so thankfully your son is okay ... for the moment. Tragically fascism is alive and well throughout the world ... Trump's support of nationalism is the tip of the iceberg with leaders elsewhere as well spewing hate messages daily ... in the USA we need to clean up our gov as quickly as possible and rebalance the courts with individuals who possess the intellect, philosophical depth and integrity to empathize beyond party lines ... much work to be done and sadly the Republicans don't seem to have the moral backbone to support the effort ... at least not at present ... vote, vote, vote and then vote again at every level ... attend civil meetings, hearings and any other form of gathering that allows fascism to take seed in the smallest way. I can remember the earliest efforts of the Neocons back in the 70s, having been rejected by the dems, moved over the repubs with heavy focus on creating unrest within fundamentalist Christians ... the aim was clearly to move them away from considered approaches to social conditions ... playing in the background throughout was a pro Israel agenda ... I can only imagine that there is some Neocon backlash at work today throughout the states within these same fundamentalist groups ... the hate that was propagated can't be put back in the bottle so some irony there considering the Israeli agenda of the neocons
1
@Chuck
This has absolutely nothing to do with Trump, Republicans, or neo-cons.
I appreciate the NYT not mentioning the name of the shooter or any other details about them other then their idiotic and ignorant beliefs. These cowards need to be publically shamed, even though the bowels of the Internet will honor them.
18
While it absolutely troubles me to say this, it appears to be time for Jews to embrace the second amendment and arm ourselves. The police in Halle took 10 minutes to respond to an active shooter call from the synagogue. Had this maniac gained access to the building, the death toll would have been considerably higher. Since there is no prospect for meaningful gun control in the United States we simply have no choice. Our small synagogue is now financially distressed because of the all the security measures we have undertaken to "harden" our house of worship. With armed guards and locked sanctuary doors, we're not exactly a "welcoming community" anymore. I can certainly understand and appreciate why families with young children would want to stay away. Maybe the next psycho white supremacist who wants to massacre us in cold blood will think twice if he knows he will be met with overwhelming lethal force by armed worshipers. To quote one of our more infamous rabbis, "every Jew a .22"
12
@Scott B.
Scott you can not be serious.
Education is the only way to styop this sensless hatred.
9
@George Sure, throwing a school book at an armed maniac is sure to do a great job at stopping him from murdering worshippers at a synagogue.
5
Luckily, the shooting was in Germany where it is much harder to get a weapon. I read where this was and hand made gun that did not work well. The last thing we need is more people with guns!
6
It is said that the remedy for bad speech (e.g., support for racism) is even more good speech. I would like to hear good ideas about what additional good speech could be and how it could be so effectively targeted as to reach those who are likely to choose such a twisted path as to kill innocents.
But we also penalize certain kinds of speech (e.g., "falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic", Holmes in Schenck v. United States 1919). I think incitement to riot is also illegal. Perhaps it is time to consider penalties for speech such as considering such a killer to be a hero, since such adulation is essentially an incitement to further violence.
3
@Mike
Germany (like most non-US countries) has restrictions on speech. It did not seem to help too much in this case.
2
and yet as a general matter, it does seem to work, as antisemitic incidents (especially lethal ones) are far less common in the former home of Hitler than in these United States.
10
Those that purposefully watch pronounced video of mass murder are complicit in that crime.
13
Is there a way to report this attack without spending so much time on the perpetrator? Could we instead praise and make heroes of those who were killed? Then the perp’s tactics don’t get fame or recognition and media isn’t helping to encourage copycat attacks?
1
What we pray in synagogue has meaning. It isn't something that can be forgotten when we go home.
9
The Germans have successfully demilitarized their society since their defeat in 1945 (one of the reasons it took police 10 minutes to respond to the synagogue shooter), but most likely because they would rather spend their money on their generous social programs while letting NATO and the U.S. subsidize their defense. Today's Germany could not protect itself from an invasion by Poland, much less from Putin's Russia.
However, I do not believe the basic German character has changed that much. Germans innately have a strong and distinct sense of national/ethnic identity (as do many nationalities) and will never fully accept as fellow "Germans" minorities and foreigners, whether they are Turks, Africans, Asians, Jews or Muslims.
Yes, there was for over two thousand years a Jewish community in Germany that greatly enriched its society in all ways, but this history was always punctuated by violence and ended in the Holocaust. Today Germans try too hard to be philo-Semitic, and all that excessive effort belies an underlying disingenuousness.
5
@Peter R. "basic German character": using this incident to make inferences about an entire country/people is no different from the dangerously ignorant generalizations (in this case spiked with misinformation) that underpin tribalism, xenophobia and racism. Shame on you!
19
@DLF
I have spent many months living in Germany over the past 30 years and I am going by what I have seen with my own eyes. Saying certain national traits do not exist (whether they are American, Chinese, German, Russian, etc.) does not make it so, political correctness aside.
2
@DLF
I agree with Peter. There is very definitely such a thing as a basic German character. There are German social mores, which have roots going back many hundreds of years, there is a very distinct German culture, there are German ways of doing things; the very structure of the German language affects the way people think (as does any language).
Even in the United States of America, the only country in the world that could really be expected to be a 'melting pot', there are many people with very strong ideas about who is a 'real American' and who is not. For some people, that's a constricted, racist concept, others have a much broader view of who's an American. But - it's a real thing - take ANY acculturated American of any ethnicity, and drop them into a foreign country - I guarantee you it will be obvious that they are American, even though our Americanness is not nearly as tightly defined as a German's Deutschtum. (Germanness)
1
Social media is (are?) a curse.
Mass confusion. Lies shared. Hate spread. What's not to condemn?
16
Just visited Yad Vashem. There is a huge difference between extremist attacks and state-sponsored annihilation. Never forget (that)!
20
Why is there a difference? They both wanted the same thing, the only difference was that one had the means to do it
6
@Mark means and opportunity are quite important when you are the intended victim.
4
@McGloin Let's not argue when state-sponsored atrocities would not be possible without at the very least a compliant, silent, ad scared silly citizenry and fourth estate.
"cowered behind a soda machine" yeah someone is shooting at you in a public area what do you want him to do?
21
@thomas
Always cower behind something when bullets are flying around. If you remember to cower, that's brave enough.
10
@thomas 'cower' means to crouch down in fear ... not sure of the etymology but a brave person or a coward can both cower, i.e. nothing to do with 'coward'
There will always be a few crazy people among the hundreds of millions that live in the US or in Europe or anywhere else for that matter.
Far, far more troubling are groups of people including members of Congress set up an environment which makes anti-Semitism permissible and that attacking Jews is permissible.
While two members of Congress who supported the BDS boycott movement of Israel wanted to visit Israel they refused a customary visit with the Prime Minister. These same Congressmen have been silent regarding China putting millions of Muslims in "education camps."
Also troubling was the use of US taxpayer funds to pay families of terrorists ("pay to slay") against Jews (and others) in Israel. Fortunately, through the "The Taylor Force Act" named after Christain American Veteran who was in Israel and killed by a terrorist, recently Congress and President Trump decided to withhold that funding.
31
@David MD
having a white nationalist in the oval office emboldens hate groups and fascists
14
@David MD Hey David - the recent spat of anti-Semitic terrorism has been perpetrated by right-wing terrorists. In Pittsburgh, in Southern California, in New Zealand and now in Germany. You can rail against "two members of Congress" all you want, but your prejudices are keeping you from seeing the real enemy.
19
@David MD Those two Congresswomen were not refused an audience with Netanyahu; they were refused admission to Israel.
Irrespective of their beliefs (and I do believe that Omar, at least, is an anti-Semite) these women are duly-elected legislators and Representatives of this country and should not be refused admission to Israel because Netanyahu is looking to curry favor with the current occupant of the White House.
Call me impressionable but, I keep seeing the hands of Stephen K. Bannon, the former gasbag at Breitbart, who has pushed the idea of nationalism through the Trump campaign before moving on to Europe where mass migration of Middle Eastern refugees flowed into Greece, Eastern Europe and onward.
There is no coincidence that anti-immigrant nationalism has spread through Europe while Bannon spread his brand of conservatism. Hungary, Poland, Italy, Germay and France have all been under assault by right wing nationalism, and Bannon was there. Bannon was one of Trump's first advisors .
What happened today in Germany was yet another sign of white surpremecists emerging from their swamps of hate across the free world. Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, UK, ...
How to reverse all this nationalism is the big question. It may take as long as it will take America to rid itself of Trumpism after Trump is gone.
55
@David Ohman
Anti-Semitism didn't end with WWII. It has existed in Europe for 2,000 years. It wasn't and isn't Steve Bannon's idea that he brought to Europe.
1
Trump is apart of the world chaos movement. This is not conspiracy talk. He led with anarchistic advisors...read Steve Bannon and Bribart. Their core belief is that chaos opens the door for paranoia, fear, anger...all emotions that feed into dependence on strong men leaders. This high holy day shooting is what comes from their open door policy for hate. Trump is just a natural at this. He leads instinctively into it. I speak collectively when I say "we" gave the helm of our democracy to Trump and it's time we take it away, and lead the world on a path dedicated to being better and better. We are all connected, closer than ever.
49
“You also had some very fine people on both sides” says President Trump. I don't think so. Nationalism and rising fascism worldwide needs to be stopped. Let's start here in the US by voting Republicans out of office.
56
@Peter Amen!
13
More of those Fine People Trump talks about.
39
Almost no coverage of the many anti-semitic attacks in Brooklyn. Teens breaking synagogue windows, Chasidic Jews beaten on the street. You could sit down at a Columbia University library and see Jewish Star = Swastika in the carrols.
Somehow, what is closer to home gets little attention.
39
@delta blues
Yes. So true. And so scary.
11
My heartfelt condolences go out to the victims' loved ones. The latest act of anti-Semitism is another painful reminder that right-wing extremism poses a serious threat to domestic and international security. In the post-war era, countries faced the threat of communism and Islamist terrorism. Today, they are faced with the threat of ethno-centric and sectarian violence by right-wing extremists - in some instances, tacitly encouraged by right-wing governments.
From Trump's America to Modi's India, from ultra-nationalist Russia to xenophobic South Africa, fascism is winning. Our cherished values of freedom, equality and justice are being chipped away by the forces of fascism.
18
@Nav Pradeepan left liberal anti-semitism is alive and well all over the world. If you need a few examples, take one look at today's British Labour Party ,Rep. Ilhan Omar of the U.S., and he original organizers of the Women's March, to name a few. While the left's attacks have not been as lethal, there is no good side or bad side when it comes to the world's oldest hatred. It's all evil.
6
Deeply disturbed and distraught. How can any of us feel protected in our places of worship when the next person
who is both filled with hate and armed with lethal weapons could be waiting right around the corner?
6
Obviously, he was inspired by Christchurch.
This would also not have happened without Trump spewing hate across the globe.
If the President of the USA does it, it must be acceptable, right?
Right!
A fine person who did that, cut from the cloth of the House of Trump.
15
@Captain Nemo But perhaps the haters here are inspired by the half-dozen beatings of Jews, or synagogue vandalism, in Brooklyn in the last two months.
17
@Captain Nemo
Well, no.
Obviously he was inspired by 2,000 years of anti-Semitism, of which Germany has had plenty of historic responsibility.
1
Why write this “smacked of far right terrorism”
This is far right terrorism. There is no room for equivocation. It’s white supremacist terrorism. It doesn’t “smack” of it. It doesn’t seem like it. It is.
This is a paper of facts. Don’t back down from the truth.
47
To paraphrase President Clinton, "It's not just guns, it's the internet, Stupid!" You want fame, a sense of power, the ability to control the news? Go shoot up a bunch of people, preferably those belonging to a category, (e.g. Jews, gays, Blacks, etc.) and, compliments of the internet, you are guaranteed fame, power, and control that was impossible thirty-five years ago.
Before the internet, if you shot up a place, the international press would have taken no notice, the national press would have merely noted it the next day (not necessarily even on page one), the regional press around the country might have noted it a couple days later as an A.P. dispatch, local papers probably took no notice of it and, if in America, TV nightly news would have given it 15 seconds. Now, it's the number one story everywhere on and on and on and on.
All it takes in America is one in a million people who craves that fame or who has an agenda he or she wants publicized to create daily carnage. That, vigilante "justice", our major infrastructure subject to being taken down from anywhere in the world, and our military control apparatus subject to sabotage, all this so people can see what their sweetheart of years before is cooking for dinner tonight, what an entertainment personality may or may not think of another "name", so Trump can tweet, and so people can immediately read it and ruin their day.
Silicon Valley's mantra: disruption equals progress. And that gives us Trump and more massacres.
5
@Steve Fankuchen
With self-driving cars and remotely controlled drones, one will be able to perpetrate a massacre, take the credit, and not even have to take the risk of showing up, though I guess the occasional adrenaline junkie will want to.
The internet, drones, self-driving cars: does anyone see a pattern here?
1
Question:
Is it not a crime to archive a video of this kind, in which murder -- mass murder -- is being committed and the video recorded by the perpetrator? It's a snuff film -- whether one buys it merely archives it the same act is being committed.
If it is not a crime, should it not be?
15
@Woldin. The police are required to record murders when they are at the scene. If perpetrators are banned from recording, that’s probably a violation of the FCC fairness doctrine. Seriously, you want to prosecute mass murderers for illegal recording? Adding another six months to their life w/o parole sentence. Get a grip.
1
It's clear that the opportunity to live-stream one's murderous pursuits is now an impetus that deranged killers simply can't resist. In the past, becoming known in newspaper accounts as the butcher of dozens, or however many, was enough of an impetus to send the sick & demented into a spasm of bloodthirsty rage, but now they have the opportunity to live-stream their bloodshed for the truly appalling and horrific among us. This is no longer a matter of free speech, not when bodies are piling up. There has to be some legislation that makes this avenue of criminality completely unapproachable, even if it means removing the rights of the killers to use the internet in this fashion.
20
@John Decker You seem to assume the man is deranged, mmentally ill. There is no evidence of that. Perhaps he is, but we don't know that. Maybe he is "only" morally deranged. IMO it's important not to grant him a "not responsible for his actions due to insanity" verdict before we know more.
2
@J. Cawley Exactly J. Cawley. There is a school of thought amongst those who think for a living that anti-semitism is an ideology inextricably interwoven with western civilization and strains of Christianity, and that calling it a sickness excuses its practitioners.
Shortly after the shootings, anonymous posters on 4 Chan were discussing the killing, including suggestions for how to
more effectively break down doors, more effective weapons and at least one blatantly antiSemitic remark. By the time Amazon took down the video,it was too late.
It's way past time to force social media platforms to implement video delays. They will never do it voluntarily.
39
He shot at a kebab shop, demonstrating that to the anti-Semites on the right, Jews and Muslims are equally the enemy. It's time these two groups understood they have more that unites them than divides them.
41
@S H
There’s also been a major proliferation of attacks against Jews in Germany perpetrated by Muslim refugees/migrants to that country. So singing Kumbaya at this juncture would be just a tad premature...
24
@Susanna Please list some of those "major proliferation" of attacks. I don't think so.
7
@Bob R
Perhaps you can do a little of your own research. It's not that hard to find, it happens all the time.
5
Hatred of any kind takes us nowhere. Tolerance is the key for human progress and even survival.
7
@Sivaram Pochiraju, I'm glad that you people are showing tolerance in Kashmir.
You are blaming one Indian who you have never met (and who for all you know may be opposed to Modi and his actions in Kashmir). This kind of tribal thinking is part of the problem.
Europe's, and Christianity's, original sin...
Psalm 13 come to mind.
5
Another wave white nationalism is here, it did not end in the 1940s. These white supremacist mass killings or attempted mass killings began with Anders Breivik in Norway. This international network of white power terrorists or potential terrorists organize on the internet and have struck Jews, Muslims, and Hispanics. Several white nationalist leaders including Trump use rhetoric that stir up hate which adds to this growing threat. Trump attacks globalization, a term that many white supremacists take to mean a global conspiracy of Jews that dominates the world and is behind the liberal policies that they believe are leading to white genocide through immigration. They blamed George Soros for organizing the caravan of asylum seekers from Central America which Trump characterized as an invasion and even involved the military to make it look like an invasion.
16
Attacks on Muslims, Christians and Jews need to be roundly condemned. Everybody needs to speak up. Every time. This is abominable. Not OK. The 'community' of the internet, that allows hate groups to grow and blossom, needs to not be marketed to. Hate groups are appealed to, courted, by gun groups, by NRA cable type, by conspiracy theorists, and what they usually hide from their IRL neighbors. they make bold, because they think they have a huge following.
8
Germany is making a terrible mistake by focusing on closing down any criticism of Israel or support for BDS and conflating these with anti-semitism. The real, vile anti-semitism is what we witnessed today in Halle and earlier this year in Pittsburgh and emanates from the extreme right, which hates liberal diaspora Jewry, personified by Soros, but admires nationalistic Zionism, personified by Netanyahu. It sees a racially pure Israel as a bulwark against the 'encroaching hordes of Islam'. By conflating criticism of the government of Israel with anti-semitism Germany is weakening its abhorrence of the real thing, which is hatred of Jews just for being Jews rather than dislike of an ideology. It is an incoherent position, which does nothing to help the fight against real anti-semitism and actually in the long run does Israel no favours either by shielding it from legitimate criticism by closing down freedom of expression where it is concerned. I will conclude that I am horrified and saddened by the events in Halle and previous anti-semitic attacks elsewhere, and particularly so on Judaism's holiest day. It must be a nightmare for Jews to see this monster re-awaking from hibernation in its traditional lair and I stand in complete solidarity with them.
26
@Alexander I think you're diminishing the anti-semitism present in Anti-Zionist organizations like BDS. You are correct it's not anti-semitic to criticize Israel, but to be Anti-Zionist-not believing or/and supporting the existence of a Jewish state-is anti-semitic and ignorant of existing international precedents-Balfour Declaration and the Mandate of Palestine. So in my opinion, your not really standing with jews if you're selective in the anti-Semitism you choose to stand up against or even recognize.
24
@Alexander
That's dangerously close to blaming the victim - and remember that many BDS advocates are also anti-semites.
22
@Alexander - The BDS movement is an antisemitic movement . Arabs are allowed to vote in Israel and serve in the government .They have more freedom than most arab countries . You cant compare Israel to Alabama USA , as people had to go to the back of the bus . You can seat anywhere you want to on a bus in Israel . The Jewish people need a strong Israel , that is the bottom line.
22
“smacked of far-right terrorism”?
How about: “actually was far-right terrorism”?
Why is the Times euphemizing terrorist violence?
36
@J M Chicago
Trying very hard to normalize it.
Like they have normalized Trump.
5
Yes, the doors protected you—
But where were the police, especially on a day like Yom Kippur?
26
As a New Yorker visiting Israel for Yom Kippur and seeing the country closed down for our holiest day it only shows how much we need to support Israel. It is the only safe place for us Jewish people. I prayed with a group of Venezuelan Jew who wee exiled from their homeland in the last 2 years due to the economic despair and with it of course the pernicious anti Semitic that rose up in its wake. Once again the Jewish people are at risk in Europe, South America, the United States and once again Germany.
I have not forgotten KristalNacht nor the Yom Kippur war. And yet ironically these Neo Nazis deny the Holocaust. We cant even have that. I’m here to say to these cowards that it was real. My 4 grandparents were all survivors of Auschwitz . Hitler was real the camps were real and these racists even deny that. These neo neo nazis are a bunch of cowards. They can’t even accept the Reich’s heinous accomplishments.
Grateful that No one got into the shul. Saddened by the tragic loss of life on the streets. I saw the tapes where are the police. This man had all the time in the world. Shameful.
59
@Solomon M There are loads of countries where Jews are safer than in Israel.
On Yom Kipuur, of all days, a synagogue is terrorized, and lives are lost. What words will be written in the Book of Life to explain this madness?
12
To portray this attack as solely anti-Semitic, and to give only cursory notice to the attack by this gunman on Muslims and immigrants is to precisely feed into anti-Semitism. This is the narrative that Jews are special, and their lives are more important than Arabs, or Turks, immigrants and Muslims. There is no denying the particular horrendous place of anti-Semitism, especially in Europe, but neither can the particularly virulent attacks on immigrants and Muslims be denied. This causes young immigrants and Muslims to just tune out to denunciations of anti-semitism as hypocrisy, instead of forging a common front against the same rightist enemy that attacks Jews, Muslims and immigrants. This was an anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant attack, where all victims should be treated with equal respect.
18
@AR
So the response to a heinous attack targeting Jews gets interpreted by you as somehow dismissive towards Muslims? The same thing happened in Congress when a specific resolution against antisemitism got twisted around to become a condemnation of ‘Islamophobia’. Good job, Ilhan!
37
@AR you miss 2 key points. The attacker stated, " the root of all problems is the Jew." Also, the attacker targeted a synagogue, not a mosque.
43
What are you reading!? What are you watching!? The man attacked a synagogue. Have you no decency?
38
I am deeply dismayed but not surprised. anti-Semitism in Germany and throughout Europe has returned with a vengeance and has been unopposed for years. The ultra-rightwing party has returned to power in the German government. Its fashionable to be a Neo-Nazi. Across Europe right wing extremists are running for office while espousing racism and anti-Semitism.
It is very disheartening to think that we must have armed guards and secure doors at our temples here and abroad. The alternative is risk losing our lives. I hope that we never have to carry arms to worship but I fear that is what it is coming.
And, of course, Mr. Trump, the great defender of Israel, says nothing. And we've heard nothing from the candidates for office of president either.
What kind of a future do my grandchildren have to look forward to? Being disarmed by Democrats and being slaughtered by right wing extremists.
29
@Jack Frost wrote: "The ultra-rightwing party has returned to power in the German government."
In some European countries right-wing parties are in the government, but not in Germany.
7
@Fred
Sorry Fred, please check the results of the latest elections in Germany...The Neo Nazis are back.
That is really tragic.
7
The Democrats don't want to disarm your grandkids,they just want sensible gun control. The German shooter did not have an automatic weapon because they are harder to obtain in Germany. As you know it's easy to get one in America.
This is how it starts. And in Germany of all places ...on Yom Kippor!
Germany needs to crack down and hard. This sort of genocidal behavior has been allowed to fester unchecked and we're seeing the consequences.
Meanwhile, they need to invest big time in their educational system to fight the stench of Jew hatred that's unfortunately part of Germany's natural heritage and which has been rejuvenated to some degree with the arrival of one million immigrants coming from lands where old-fashioned Jew hatred was the rule, not the exception.
76
@del I agree that a hard crackdown on this kind of terrorism is needed.
However, regarding the educational system here in Germany, I can assure you that antisemitism and the Nazi regime are discussed and dissected very thoroughly in German schools – in fact, at different levels/grades. This also includes, by default, visits to concentration camps. I do not think that it is possible to improve much in that regard, nor do I think it is plausible that there is some optimal education that can ensure that literally not a single hateful crackpot remains. Unfortunately, it is probably up to law enforcement agencies to try to catch such dangerous madmen before they commit atrocities, and to guard sensitive places.
78
@del I’m sorry to object on some of your statements but our eduction system - although it is not perfect at all - takes action in preventing tragedies like that. We get to know the abominations of the Nazi regime and their anti-Semitism, to be more precise, we study it for many years, with no exclusions. We know the burden of our history, we know that things like that shall never happen again.
It is also wrong to say that Jew hatred is part of our natural heritage. I need to admit that there are some dark times in German history, but we have come a long way since that time has passed. Nowadays every kind of “foreign” hatred is despised by a huge majority of Germans.
Please correct me, if I got anything wrong here.
39
I second Florian Marquart's retort and would like to add that antisemitism is neither part of Germany's "natural heritage" (you make it sound like it's genetic) nor do Muslim immigrants have anything to do with "rejuvenating" the antisemitism that unfortunately is still displayed by a minority of German citizens.
28
I'll be waiting for the Trump Administration to propose a travel ban on white people. After all, with all these attacks, how could we possibly figure out if someone trying to enter the US was a dangerous white supremacists or not? Our safety is at risk.
Oh, wait, I forgot, they include some "fine people." So, obviously, we're okay with that.
44
President Trump's silence is deafening.
645
@jimmy
If this attack had been carried out by radical Muslims rather than white supremacists you would have heard from Trump hours ago.
325
If it's not committed by a Muslim or a person of color, don't hold your breath on Trump denouncing it. He's already told us neo Nazis are fine people. What more does Trump have to say or do to convince us he's a white supremacist?
163
@jimmy
Surely is deafening. President Trump must clearly be an anti-Semite considering the fact that his daughter, son-in-law and their children are Orthodox Jews. And the fact that he has been the greatest Presidential proponent for Israel, has moved the embassy to Jerusalem, etc. etc.
Clearly demonstrates to me that that this attack must be President Trump's fault at the core.
17
Not so strange that this happened right after Germany started allowing the reprinting and selling of Mein Kampf which had been prohibited for decades.
23
@Carol Valoris Germany recently allowed the publication of a heavily annotated critical edition as an educational tool. But you know where the original edition has always been easily available? Right here in the US, home of Timothy McVeigh and many other "fine" (DT) right-wing supremacists. Please do not distort the facts.
7
I was under the impression that Germany had very strict gun laws. They certainly were not very effective in preventing this attack. I understand that the authorities do not want to release information about the shooter, pending completion of their investigation, but it would be interesting to know more about the attacker. Was he already on police radar for belonging to right wing organizations, where did he get his weapons, what sort of background checks did he pass, did he have a hunting license or belonged to a shooting club?
How did be fall through the cracks in an EU nanny state?
13
@West Virginia Teacher
Yes we have one of the strictest gun laws in the world, which does not make guns scarcer, it just make them illegal to own. But with open borders and so many countries with insufficient gun control, germany has a problem with illegal imported guns.
Still, it is not at the level of the US, and you need some criminal energy to obtain a gun.
34
@West Virginia Teacher All very good questions. Be nice to be able to ask them of one of our many mass shootings targeting minorities.
The 'Nanny State' quip was a tad egregious and undermines your point.
15
@West Virginia Teacher It seems that the gun the assailant used was an improvised / self-made gun. I would imagine that he had no valid gun license.
12
The cowardly face of German anti semitism: heavily armed racists with video cameras attack unarmed worshipers on a holy day, then run away. And the german government tweets.
Hopefully the Israeli government will provide a more meaningful and proportionate response.
14
@H Kay And what response what that be?
9
I deeply hope people who support right-wing leaders in Europe or ini the U.S. because they see Muslims as the ultimate threat understand that xenophobes are implicitly anti-Semitic as well. If When Donald Trump revs up anti-foreign sentiment in Alabama and Texas, don't fool yourself stance he is opening a Pandora's box that includes a deep and long held hatred of Jews. No xenophobia or broad brush attacks on a specific people because of race or religion should ever be tolerated.
9
Thank God the door was locked - may those who plan to do others harm always find the door locked!
19
Two generations on from The Holocaust and Germans are still killing Jews in Germany. And, for maximum horror, on Yom Kippur. And yet, the German police somehow take over 10 minutes to respond, and the killer, or killers, remain at large. Germany, there are so few Jews remaining in your country. Can’t you see your way to ensure these people are safe, in a synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish year? Is this really beyond your capabilities and knowledge? Shame on you.
22
Cowardly bigot heavily arms himself to enter a house of worship and murder people at prayer.
Please leave these twisted losers anonymous. Please, I hope the press increases their tendency to focus on the victims of these cowards, and does nothing to publicize the murderers.
18
Yet another white christian terrorist attack on innocent Jewish people.
22
Some 45 years ago, while traveling overland from Europe to India and back, I landed in Bavaria seeking work as a chambermaid in a US military hotel. Throughout my sojourn, I couldn’t help imagining my fate in that town, amongst those people, had I been there a mere 30 years prior.
Considering the history, I cannot fathom why any Jewish person would ever choose to live in Germany today.
22
@Susanna
Why would they choose to live in New Zealand?
8
@Vail Why not? Many Jews did after WWII. Freedom, Safety, and British government.
My thoughts are with the victims, their families and the people of Jüdische Gemeinde Halle.
It’s a day of shame for this country, my country, and I hope the next days will bring answers to a few very important questions:
Why did it take the police 10 minutes to show up on site, after the incident was reported?
How is it possible shooter Stephan Balliet (27), a white German male, could get away with a flat tire, drive over to the kebap, kill more people and throw more bombs, get back to his car, drive outside Halle, attempt to kill again, hit the highway, being wounded by the cops in another shooting, hit the highway again — and only be stopped almost two hours after the first incident? HOW?
Balliet apparently built all guns and explosives himself. The video shows him complaining none of his guns worked as he intended when driving off the temple.
Imagine if they did. There was nobody there to stop him for too long.
The shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand (a city twice as big as Halle, Germany) was arrested after 21 minutes.
17
@Martin
Why do you always expect the police to do some miracles. They did a good job. They had been on the track of the suspect after 10 minutes and never lost him until they got him down.
On the other side, we (germans) are aggressively opposed to camera surveillance and any kind of monitoring.
We want our freedom, our anonymity, but at the same time we expect the police to know everything about potential violent suspects. And to be at the location of crime faster than you can drive on the autobahn, all with underfunded equipment.
That all makes me want to say, get along crybaby. If you want more security, you will have to trade in your precious "freedom". But you can't have it both ways.
7
It’s very simple: no matter how many years since the horrors of the Holocaust the bottom line remains: Jews are expendable. We are the lowest of the low. The world will always hate us and nobody will ever care.
3
@Mathias
They have clearly NOT been ”on the track“ after 10 minutes. If they had, there would have been no more victims.
Do Germans have a learning disability? Once, shame on them. Twice, shame on us (Jews) for not knocking the stuffing out of those making their arrogant antisemitism a way of life where Jews must once again live in fear. Do not mistake the peaceful preference of the Jewish faith for weakness. Not again. Never again!
18
Actually (latest news from "der Spiegel") responsible is one of these many neo-fascists domestic groups, that are rising all over the countries, are loosely connected with each other by ideology, but do not have any common infrastructure by any kind.
We have so many of these dispersed violent groups, that we can not keep track of them. And they are like cocked guns, they are ready for violence at any time, it just needs a little push.
Sometimes i wish we could lock away people for intended violence. But this would be like in the US, with the highest incarceration rate of the world, and it didn't make the US a less violent place. And people like Anders Breivik, or the cristchurch shooter, their prison sentence does not deter fascists, it just make them martyrs.
Sometimes i wish i could hold people responsible for hate mongering, but this isn't that easy either ( https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/opinion/sunday/free-speech-social-media-violence.html ).
All we can do is being a strong democracy, and reassuring ourself, that along all the political and cultural diversity, we will stand up for our common cause and stand up for each other. And that these fanatics achieve nothing but make our common bonds stronger.
14
You want fame, a sense of power, the ability to control the news? Go shoot up a bunch of people, preferably those belonging to a category, (e.g. Jews, gays, Blacks, etc.) and, compliments of the internet, you are guaranteed fame, power, and control that was impossible thirty-five years ago. To paraphrase President Clinton, "It's not just guns, it's the internet, Stupid!"
Before the internet, if you shot up a place, the international press would have taken no notice, the national press would have merely noted it the next day (not necessarily even on page one), the regional press around the country might have noted it a couple days later as an A.P. dispatch, local papers probably took no notice of it and, if in America, TV nightly news would have given it 15 seconds. Now, it's the number one story everywhere on and on and on and on.
All it takes in America is one in a million people who craves that fame or who has an agenda he or she wants publicized to create daily carnage. That, vigilante "justice", our major infrastructure subject to being taken down from anywhere in the world, and our military control apparatus subject to sabotage, all this so people can see what their sweetheart of years before is cooking for dinner tonight, what an entertainment personality may or may not think of another "name", so Trump can tweet, and so people can immediately read it and ruin their day.
Silicon Valley's mantra: disruption equals progress. And that gives us Trump and more massacres.
6
@Steve Fankuchen
"All it takes in America is one in a million people who craves that fame or who has an agenda he or she wants publicized to create daily carnage."
Oh, please: he "or she"?
1
I hope they don't release the name of this particular piece of garbage. Why give him publicity for his hateful act? One might describe his ideology, but don't mention his name.
15
Do you know what these nazis call their attacks in online message board discussions? "Content." That's why they've started livestreaming, etc. like this attacker and the NZ attacker — they're trying to inspire one another to commit similar acts.
Monitoring these maniacs' online activities is critical in preventing these kinds of attacks.
25
Another tragedy today - the Kurds betrayed; Jews targeted on Yom Kippur.
Weeping.
62
What is absolutely disgraceful is all the comments below using this episode to attack Trump. We get that you hate Trump with a passion; but please stop making every event all over the world about your hatred. And by the way (1) Trump never called Nazis "very fine people" (he condemned them), (2) Islamism poses a far greater threat worldwide (including to Jews) than white supremacy and (3) anti-Semitism is as big a problem on the left as it is on the right.
17
@R.P.
Absolutely right. Thank you!
8
I totally agree with you. Thank you for saying it very clearly.
6
Agree, I travelled to Israel a few years ago, loved it. Travelled all over including the Golan Heights. The world demonizes the Israelis, it is time to stop the narrative that Israel is evil. Just not true and many years of this false narrative has increased anti semitism around the world making it socially acceptable including at the UN and in the US congress. Bless the Jewish people, they are strong and hardworking.
If I lived in a Europe I would consider moving if I was Jewish.
Prayers for the injured in both body and mind.
14
Despite security being requested, there was no police presence and it took 10 minutes to get there:
"When seconds count, the police are just minutes away!"
Here, when we were part of a local temple there was ALWAYS a police presence for events, particularly the High Holy Days. You'd think in Germany, especially the former East Germany, it would SOP. In a nation of 80 million with only 200,000 Jews, it should be easy to provide to police protection.
Luckily, the synagogue had taken its own security measures and prevented what is a tragic event from becoming a holocaust.
This proves once again that the BIGGEST terrorist threat to the West is angry young White racists who believe that their "whiteness" somehow makes them "ubermenschen". I hope the Germans lock him up and throw away the keys.
15
White supremacy is trending.
2
Strict gun laws failed to prevent this. This is not surprising - strict gun laws do two things: increase the number of law-abiding citizens who are utterly defenseless in the face of terror and increase the black market value of said guns. No one was able to be legally armed here, or at the Bataclan in 2015, or the Charlie Hebdo offices, or on the Thalys train (which would have been horrendous if not for a miraculous stroke of luck), or in any number of terror attacks that have occurred in Europe, in America's gun free zones - college campuses (and yes, a mass shooting on a campus does qualify as a terror attack). Why do we still insist on disarming responsible, law-abiding citizens?
1
@Jeff
You gun people keep parroting this trope about law abiding citizens.
Just keep talking while the stats of guns crimes outside of the US pile up—against your self-centered argument.
8
@Jeff
Read posts from Germany. Strict gun laws kept this loon from buying a military spec weapon --he had to settle for a home-made shotgun that worked at close range on one of his victims but failed after that. Your defense of gun rights just shot itself in the foot.
43
It appears from other sources the reason he was unable to kill many people was that he had homemade weapons. I guess Germany’s laws did work.
36
Amazon, Facebook, even YouTube seem more interested in profits than people!! There is NO reason why live streams should occur without a moderator on ANY social media site.
There has to be a computer whiz somewhere who can develop software to stop this and other live streams of someone wishing to kill people from from even succeeding at lasting more than 15 seconds online. A series of certain words being spoken, sounds of a gun being loaded/shot?
15
I fear live-streaming could become "attractive" to terrorists. Is Facebook exploring how to prevent/catch live-streaming of such attacks?
10
Far-Right extremism has been played down for too long on. The NSU case is one example for that.
The assailant released an antisemitic manifesto. His target was the synagogue! He also denied the holocaust.
As he couldn't enter the synagogue he went on to kill muslims. (He stated that for his video).
In Germany you can't buy weapons. He built them on his own. His DIY shotgun didn't work several times. That circumstance saved lifes.
God bless he didn't get into the synagogue., There were 80 people in there. And he had bombs.
He also spoke in English language because he sought a global audience.
He shot the 40 year old woman from behind. There he also hit the tire of his own car. That made it harder for him to escape later on.
He also tried to throw a bomb into the Kebap restaurant. He missed the window and the bomb came right back.
In the video he insulted himself as a looser and was mad about the failures of his DIY weapon.
Two people are dead and two very heavily injured persons are operated in the hospital.
It is another sad day for Germany. On June the second this year the German politician Mr. Lübcke was shot by a far right extremist, because of defending his immigrant friendly approach in politics.
Many politicians on communal level are threatened by far right extremists. This has to stop.
10
@Bernd -- I hope his face never appears in the press, and his name is forgotten - the victims are far more important then this useless man. "Manifesto" is too glamorous a term. He soiled the internet with his writing.
2
@b fagan You are right about that. I have the same wishes.
The public will forget him. Intelligence and politicians should not forget him. What is interesting are the mechanics behind radicalization. The network behind it. The actions that took place before the attack. Intelligence somehow has to be able to find and monitor these alone operating assailants.
Also I hope that politicians will once again be aware of their rhetorical power and their rhetorical responsibility. The language must be thoughtful. Words must be thoughtful and peaceful. Violence must be condemned. I notice a brutalization of language coming from right wing politicians. Dehumanizing language must be condemned. Words must be respectful. I know that provocation is a way to get attention. But this calculated polarization driven by populists, nowadays especially from the right wing, has to stop.
1
One point that needs later be discussed is how far legislation and the usage of artifical intelligence and machine learning to seize asap a hazardous live streaming as a terror attack ongoing. How make social media and live streaming platform more accountable in directly detect and shut off any content as this one which was live broadcasted around 35 min (accordingly to the media)? How better safeguard this to happen again and without implementing a full state of survaillance? Questions remain unanswered, however is inconceivable with current technology that this content was not detected sooner and shut down immediately.
2
You hear often about Japan never apologizing for its action during WW2 unlike Germany who atoned and build a bunch of museums to remember what happened but for the 1 million ethnic Chinese and 1 million ethnic Korean living in Japan, they don’t have to fear for their personal safety. The is no hate crime targeting Chinese/Korean restaurants and no one vandalizing Yokohama Chinatown nor Little Korea just north of Shinjuku.
5
Shalom to all those of Jewish faith. It is getting very frustrating to those of us unable to prevent these anti-Semitic cruel acts. The battle against terrorism has to continue. RIP those who were killed.
8
What are the origins of hatred? That is really the question. Demagogues come and go over time immemorial, as does fascism and racism. What is it in Homo Sapiens that allows for the pathology of hatred and violence to breed and manifest? Homo Sapiens arrives in Europe and the Neanderthals disappear. The killing and tribalism has gone on forever. Now we’re upping the game to kill the planet itself, our own world. How bizarre we are - capable of such creativity and malice.
8
Wrong, anti-Semitism has its particular historic roots in the feudal middle ages as a tool to defend indebted rulers and misdirect peasant rage against their brutal taxation, against Jews, who had become traders and moneylenders since they were banned from owning land. It was a murderous form of debt cancellation. Since then anti-Semitism was incorporated by modern capitalists to continue to be used as a tool of rule and misdirection. Moaning about so-called 'human nature's is neither accurate factually, nor helpful in fighting anti-Semitism and its source.
5
I just returned from my synagogue listening to my rabbis sermon on the virulent anti-Semitism that has spread across the globe. I then read about this brazen attack in Germany dominating the headlines on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. People of goodwill throughout the world will unite for the common good and the Jews will continue to fight for their place in this world without hate.
9
Believe me. This was a bad idea what this person did.
2
The door to the synagogue was apparently locked, saving the 51 worshippers inside. Locks. Not opposed by the NRA. Too much common sense for Americans.
5
Eastern Germany, home of the anti-migrant hate party Alternative for Germany.
3
2015-2017: Charlie Hebdo, the Massacre at the Bataclan, the San Bernadino massacre, the bomb at the Brussels airport, the truck mowing down 80 people on Bastille Day in Nice, Omar Mateen killing 50 people at the Pulse for ISIS, the Westminster Bridge attack, the London Bridge attack, the van ramming on La Rambla in Barcelona, the explosion at Ariana Grande concert which killed mothers and pre-teen daughters... during this time, the Left did whatever it could to downplay the problem, whatever it could to deflect attention away from Islam playing any role. The Left reflexively pointed the finger at the West and Western foreign policy, anything they could do to not acknowledge the truth about the horrors that were unfolding constantly...
Finally the Left is seizing upon these new horrors and speaking loudly about getting to the root cause. These new horrors are indeed just as awful as those mentioned above. Now we have the Christchurch massacre, the Pittsburgh Synagog shooting, the El Paso shooting, and this latest Synagog shooting in Germany... these killers were white, likely all holding white-supremicist views. The Left will now have no problem whatsoever focusing on this... a good thing. They should focus on it. We should focus on why these white men committed these acts of violence and directly question what role their white identity played. Just as we should look at the role of Islam in ISIS attacks. Consistency in our approach will help us to solve these problems.
11
@Dan Thank you for pointing this out.
3
@Marty Not sure if this is a sincere thank you or not. Re-reading my comment I can see that it's not particularly articulate, but it seemed like a fair point to make. I mean, the Left has now proven itself entirely capable of mustering up all the wherewithal necessary to tackle the problem of ideologically driven terrorist attacks as long as the attacks are committed by white people. However, they have proven to be completely inept whenever the same exact kinds of attacks are committed by Muslims. Perhaps now that we are experiencing both Islamic and White-Supremacist attacks on a regular basis, the left and the right can come together and finally join forces to attack these issues with equal vigor and consistency. Surely this would be an opportunity to put differences aside and find the most effective means possible to put an end to all of these horrific attacks.
This absurdity is the consequence of the blame shifting, of the "alternative facts", of the hate, of the "we" and "they", of the unrestricted trash talking dominating politics and religion over the last years. All of this emboldening disturbed and uneducated people, and there are many scattered throughout our societies, to unleash their angry on misplaced targets, on innocent victims of human boundless stupidity.
Even if Germany was on current news, it is not happening only there, and not only against Jews.
Worse yet, we already saw the same tragic events unfold uncountable times in history, and as long as we insist on not be severe to whoever goes public with verifiably wrong claims, we are fated to see history repeats itself.
Ignoring the consequences of untruthful telling does not foster liberty and is deleterious to democracy, we can not, and should not, treat opinions as if every one could carry, somehow, equivalent value, they don't.
We all have, or should have, the right to say whatever idiot, prejudiced and misinformed vision about subjects we don't understand the least we want, it does not preclude our societies and institutions to take action and make us to bear the consequences, it should not.
It is said that with great power comes great responsibility, Internet and other communication channels provided the former to many individuals, as a platform to them to express their ideas, they must be made aware of the latter.
3
Tolerant of others world please.
5
There is a very simple think that all German men who find this abhorrent can do and that is to don a skullcap and where it publicly.
18
@David A. simple thing wear it
3
@kenneth thanks for the edits
@David A. and thanks for your original comment.
The term “live-stream” shouldn’t be used by media reporting these incidents. Implies some kind of charisma, what with its usual association with concerts and online posers. I’m sure the murderous idiots relate to that and are inspired by it. Maybe just leave it out of the report entirely. Who cares? Just more appalling news.
7
May reason on day win over ignorance and fear which both bring hatred.
I cry for the innocents who were killed.
5
Not nearly enough outrage on all sides. Amazon bears some responsibility. Our cultural narcissism impels us to "live stream" everything. We need to re-think that bad habit. Where were the police guards? Does anybody really care????
3
@Karen I wouldn't blame Amazon. Live streaming is much more Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And, yes, it is narcissistic and often solipsistic. But it's not being pushed (primarily at least) by Amazon.
1
@Karen Right. Always shoot the messenger. Gotta get SOMEbody !
No police presence at the synagogue on Yom Kippur even when asked for?? That is shameful. The country with the worst history of such hatred, of rampant murder based on such hatred, and with an increase in such hatred in recent months, and no police standing outside? Thankfully, in America, much in the way of police presence outside synagogues on Yom Kippur. Someone should look into why that request was not granted, two lives could have been saved.
When does this hatred stop?
When does our president call it out? Immediately and forcefully and without winks?
18
It was the spring of 1998. I was in Berlin to testify before the BGVV, the German FDA. Afterward a German colleague invited me to have dinner with her to celebrate what looked like a successful defense of a drug our company was selling in Germany. As we were walking down the Unter den Linden on our way to the restaurant my colleague commented that it had been quite a day. I assumed that she was referring to my testimony, but instead she had meant a news story she had just read. Some skinheads had tried to firebomb a newly rebuilt synagogue in East Berlin.
I always have mixed emotions about Germany. My dad’s family were German Jews who had come to the United States in the 1890’s. From family stories much about Germany seemed comfortable and familiar, Gemütlichkeit as they say in German. But there was also memory of the holocaust. I reacted angrily and inappropriately. I told her it looked like the Germans had learned nothing from the Second World War. Maybe we should repeat it, but this time reduce Germany to a nuclear glaze with atomic bombs.
She was shocked by the intensity of my response. No, she insisted, Germans are not this way. The bombers are crazy skinheads. Everyone hates them. I hope she was right.
7
@DRK "...reduce Germany to a nuclear glaze with atomic bombs." I would not want you as a neighbor.
I, too, had the same feelings about Germany, but after visits and becoming acquainted with German citizens as business partners my views changed. I found out many of them were ashamed and alarmed over what happened during WW11. We may have to do the same after Trump is out of office. Guten Tag.
8
@Nightwood Yes, it's a funny thing about countries. They're made up of people. Real people. Good and bad. Like us.
13
What measures had been taken that had effectively denied the gunman entrance to the synagogue?
@Michael Cassady Well, for starters, the doors were locked. That's why he did what he did outside instead.
2
No mention of the identity of the attacker?
2
This was a terrible anti-Semitic attack that will make the entire German Jewish community feel unsafe. It is worth noting, though, that the Kebab was not randomly chosen. The German Jews don’t have a monopoly on the hatred of far right extremist terrorists. When the attacker wasn’t able to strike his original target, he attacked a kebab and killed one person. This is reminiscent of the ‘Döner-murders’ of the terrorist group NSU. I hope that this attack will help open people’s eyes about the terrible danger stemming from right wing populism and I hope that the police will do a better job protecting vulnerable communities.
10
This is one more manifestation of trump poison spreading around the world. With his green lighting Turkey's assault on the Kurds, more death, more destruction, more chaos. It's what feeds him. And the beast will be fed.
When will we rise up and put a stop to his madness? How much more blood must be spilled?
To those who grieve, I can only offer my tears and my shame for what our country has foisted on the world.
13
@Anonymous
"Gee, Officer Krupke, we’re very upset;
We never had the love that every
Child oughta get
We ain’t no delinquents
We’re misunderstood
Deep down inside us there is good!"
To be fair, Trump is more of a symptom of a world already diseased with hate that deigned to allow him to ascend to power. He is much less the cause of it than we may like to blame him for being.
3
@kenneth Why West Side Story ... you know it was originally conceived regarding the tensions and gang violence between Jews and Catholics in NYC, right? Yes there were hatreds. It seems like of all opposing sides, the Jews and Catholics finally remedied the "problem". Maybe I'm out of it and partially mis-informed, but I am also not seeing overwhelming evidence of Hispanic and Latino animus against societies' traditional scapegoats or from the former residents of places like Hell's Kitchen or the Upper West Side of Manhattan. So why West Side Story?
It is time to stop being shocked and surprised...about hatred.
It is time to demand that active kindness be demonstrated by all government officials...all religious leaders...all schools...and that active kindness be required at sporting events...in debates...and all parts of life.
Focusing on today’s tragedy or playing the blame game missed the big opportunity...demand active kindness.
And ostracize and penalize anything else.
As a species...we must think and act of changing hateful behavior like we think of the climate crisis.
3
Here in Berlin, Germany tonight it is strangely quiet. While New York hardens the tourist spots with police, I’ve seen none here. Where are they?
Disconcerting to say the very least.
17
As I sat in a temple during the evening prayers of Yon Kippur, I knew instinctively that this would happen somewhere given the rise of hate against so many groups of people around the world.
When will enough be enough for the haters?
14
I think these things are going to increase, now that these people have been emboldened by Trump and others like him globally, and also by the news media which has helped cover and normalize and embolden these extreme right wing politicians and their racism. It’s fair to wonder whether there are more in the pipeline after three or four years of people like Trump saying “there’re good people on both sides.” There’s probably more of these individuals planning or supporting these attacks even as we read this. It’s very unfortunate that this hate has been helped by news organizations which have emboldened these politicians and their hate. Strangely enough, some of these divisive politicians, like Trump, have been welcomed and befriended by many right wing Jewish people and politicians like Netanyahu, instead of criticizing their hate.
13
I imagine that it would be trivially easy for Amazon to keep a master list of all Twitch users who post or are supportive of violent actions against any person or group. If those people started to live stream, it should then be very easy to move their streams to the top of the queue for immediate examination so they could be cut off within seconds. Amazon might even consider introducing a delay before their streams go out. If they really cared they would do this.
6
This live-streaming mass murders has got to stop. The social media companies must step up and do the moral thing for once: put the live streams on a 5-10 minute time delay, monitor the live streams 24/7, with the ability to instantly cut-off violence. If they can't do that, then discontinue the practice until they can. Allowing these murderers to broadcast their crimes so they can score points with their buddies on 8Chan or 4Chan sickens me. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Facebook, Twitch/Amazon and all the others. Step up and do the right thing.
15
There aren't any more words to soothe the general public from these atrocities, and apparently thoughts and prayers do not seem to work either. The hateful words that have been spoken from various bully pulpits, including ours, seem to have had an impact on the cowards that enact these exhibitions of anti-Semitism. They are afraid of what and who they simply do not know and have been instructed not to know, probably from infancy.
Perhaps if behavior of anti-semitism is caught early on a kids could be forced to spend time with those they "hate" as a therapy of sorts, get to know who they are, what they believe, and how they live, and find that there are indeed many common denominators and no reason to fear their existence. As of now, they are seen as heroes to so many.
5
"Earlier this year, the country’s top official for efforts against anti-Semitism warned that Jews should not wear their skullcaps everywhere in public."
I am Swiss, my mother is German and I was brought up in Germany. This is what happens if you "normalize" the right-wing AfD. And Seehofer's anti-immigrant rhetoric is not helping! I did not think I would see this kind of right-wing resurgence in Germany during my lifetime. This is truly devastating.
14
We should worry when a democratic country warns/tells its Jewish citizens that they shouldn’t wear identify themselves.
11
AFD has more blood on their hands.
Also, when did we decide that anybody should be able to broadcast anything they want over the internet without any credentials or regulatory action at all?
14
I’m living in Halle (Saale) since I was born and was about to leave the house as it happened, even walked past that Kebab Shop which also was targeted yesterday evening. You hear about gun violence in cities from all over the world, yet it is a very strange feeling seeing the streets you know since being a little kid as a crime scene. It may sound weird but mostly I thought - that wouldn’t happen here - it happens there, but not here. I could have never imagined the town I was born and raised in being a place of such violence. I think neither did the people from Christchurch or all the other numerous cities.
I really hope all the victims families find the strength to recover from these horrible events.
38
I am not surprised there was an attack on a synagogue today. I would have been surprised if there wasn't an attack on a synagogue today.
I went to my large Manhattan synagogue this morning and the first thing I did is scope out the escape path from my seat to the exits.
If someone suggested 5 years ago I would be doing this I would have laughed heartily. I'm not laughing now.
84
I have been a member of seven American synagogues over the course of my lifetime.
2019 is the very first time I have ever attended a synagogue service watched over by security guards.
17
At my synagogue this morning, the services began with an explanation of what to do in case of emergency. The Denver Police Department added officers to their usual contingent on the High Holidays because of the attack in Germany. The rise of racist and anti-Semitic attacks is a direct result of Trump's words and deeds. He encourages this anger and hatred of the other.
100
Condemned immediately by leaders worldwide...except....POTUS..... understandably so. He needs time to word his statement so as to not offend his base. or, of course, the good people on both sides.
141
Nine paragraphs into the piece for the journalist to inform the reader the assailant got away?
How about starting with "German police are looking for an unknown assailant who fled after..." not tell me about the live streaming service first.
20
@Candlewick
2nd paragraph, police announced the arrest of a suspect.
But no word about who this person is. So no lessons to be learned here, if lessons there are to learn.
2
@BG
BBC says 27 year old German.
2
Jewish population worldwide on Sept. 1, 1939, 16.8 million.
Jewish population worldwide on May 8, 1945, 11 million.
Recovered Jewish population worldwide since the Holocaust, 14.6 million.
Jewish population today, this day, worldwide, two fewer than yesterday.
For this to happen in Germany is incomprehensible.
And the Germans know it.
29
@Carl Zeitz - This was a foul deed, but I don't think it's certain that the victims were Jewish, especially as one of them was in a kebab shop at the time. Not that the gravity of the intent and the deed is diminished in any way.
9
@David You are too literal. Besides, who says Jews don't enjoy kabob.This one does.
2
@Carl Zeitz - On Yom Kippur? Just outside the synagogue? But a fair point in any case...
3
One of Trump's "good people" I presume?
43
He couldn't get into the synagogue so he just started on passers-by? Determined to kill, but is that the way a religious-based terrorist would do things? And, in Germany, speaking English? It would be good to understand more about this - hopefully he will be out away, at least, and never given more opportunity.
10
@Margo As far as I know from the news here, the shooter is of German origin. My guess is he spoke English as he aimed to reach a large audience with his livestream, covering his sick attempt to mass murder worshippers in the synagogue. And I don't think it is religious-based. It's very well known Nazi ideology he proclaimed, which had nothing to do with religion, but was based on the ideology of the "supreme race" ("Herrenrasse"). Looking at what is happening in the world right now, I wonder if the ideology of "supremacy" is on the rise again, subdoing "otherness" and refusing dialogue where it would be so much needed.
5
It’s two...don’t sensationalize. I’d like to know why police weren’t stationed outside the Synagogue on Yom Kippur.
10
Don’t sensationalize? A specific religious minority was targeted for mass murder on their holiest religious day of the year. The Times reports this news. How is that sensationalizing it?
10
@Imperato Don't sensationalize says the guy who in the next sentence blames the German police for not being there.
Thank you, Internet.
2
Because some people still have faith in humanity and believe places of worship should be safe.
Who expects to be a victim of a neo-nazi’s terrorist attack on the holiest day of the year?
2
Is it going to happen all over again?
The neo-Nazi NSU group of whom Beate Zschäpe was a member survived, easily, in German society for years.
This is an atavistic problem (in Germany) that has to be rooted out.
11
Yes, nothing like this could possibly happen in the United States. It's those atavistic Germans we have to worry about.
10
@JJ The problem isn't limited to Germany. Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, California and Poway, California have had shootings and, of course, Trump's "good people" marched in Charlottesville, Virginia to tell the world that Jews won't replace them.
6
Is it going to happen all over again?
The neo-Nazi NSU group of whom Beate Zschäpe was a member survived, easily, in German society for years.
This is an atavistic problem (in Germany) that has to be rooted out.
1
Fascism, along the virulent anti-Semitism that is its hallmark, is on the rise (again) worldwide. Poland, Austria, Hungary, France, Italy and Brazil are just a few of the major countries that have recently embraced proto-fascist government, dimming the lights of democracy.
And the United States is making a run at authoritarianism as well. The rule of law now means nothing. Mass killings in synagogues, churches, schools, night clubs, workplaces — with most killers embracing blind hatred of Jews, Muslims, African Americans, and LBGT people— and absolutely nothing has been done to curtail this alarming trend.
If anything, even more hatred has been stirred up by our rogue “president,” whose delusions lead him to believe he has the powers of an anti-democratic monarch, beyond the reach of the law. And silently, Republicans follow him, making themselves complicit in the destruction of the law and civil behavior. This how fascism takes root. The United States is in serious danger of mutating into the very ideological cancer that cost so dearly to defeat in WWII.
107
It's such a shame that Jews have again a hard time expressing their religion freely and even fear for their lives almost 75 years after the allied forces got rid of the nazi regime that our ancestors elected (!) in this country.
Though instead of asking for more surveillance, let's ask for more humanity and speak out against racist or anti-semitic behaviour at every chance so that we can finally be the open, free and welcoming germany (or better Europe) that our leaders claim we already are. I hope one time, everybody with the exception of (violent) racist / homophic misogynists feels free and welcome here and nobody has to feel threatened,so that no synagogue or Jewish school has to be guarded by the police. I think we as Germans owe it to the Jewish people to at least try!
67
The Day of Atonement. Waiting for the day when anti-Semites ask for forgiveness as they atone their evil doings. Such mass mental illness these Jew-haters have. As with all who justified slavery, these bigots pay a very high price as their hearts and souls are filled with suffering from their hatred. May the victims rest in peace.
30
I doubt there is any way that social media streaming services can prevent live streams of horrible acts from appearing, but they must find ways to remove them immediately and ban the users. The opportunity to gain worldwide viewing of crimes encourages extremists to commit them.
21
@DSM14 Live streamers of violence and hate speech should be identified by social media services, both before and after they are shut down. Their identification should make them aware that they can and will be prosecuted for their crimes.
3
It’s surprising that some of the most important questions here - do we know who the shooter is? have they been detained? if not, what is happening? - are difficult to find in this article. This should be clear from the first paragraph.
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@Matthew E - The media may have some names of "persons of interest," but they wisely do not release them until they get confirmation. I was a radio news director 50 years ago, and one of my competitors broadcast someone's name as the "suspected murderer" following a shooting. They had heard the name on the police radio and rushed to put it on the air. They got sued when it turns out the guy they named had only been ticketed for running a stop sign. I later wrote a book on broadcast journalism in which one of the chapters is entitled "It's More Important to be Right Than to be First." Another factor: the incident is still unfolding and it's too early to be talking to reporters. Your desire to have everything "clear from the first paragraph" competes with other priorities.
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@Matthew E he’s been arrested. A 27 year old with ties to the right wing fringe.
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@Matthew E: The shooter has been detained. He is a blond-haired, blue eyed German named Stephan Balliet.
After murdering a woman outside of the synagogue, he then went to a Turkish kebab shop and murdered someone there.
I would like to know why the police disregarded the "repeated requests for the police to provide security at the synagogue."
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I am devastated by this news. My heart goes out to all.
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Hate is on the increase in America also and I find it hard to understand the reason for it at times.Now the world has a entity that seems to foster it.I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Newark ,where Jewish, Irish and some AA like myself got along ! We now should focus on the positive forces for change come to the fore !
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@Nick M : Behavior is like language -- we speak what our parents teach us, unless or until we find other teachers. People who are raised with unkindness are unkind; most of them manifest their unkindness in smallish ways, and sometimes they're self-destructive rather than other-destructive. Hence every uncivil society.
But economic insecurity is the oxygen that turns a small flame of anger into an inferno. Until we reduce the wealth gap (through fair taxation and sensible regulations that turn vulture capitalism into society-centered capitalism) and make sure that everyone's basic needs are met (that includes psychotherapy to deal with the pain that so many carry from anger-filled upbringings) we can expect more of the same.
Shame on the police to not secure the synagogue on one of their most holy days. Very silly to think religious peoples would not be targeted in their places of worship, especially on major religious holidays, seeing what happened in Christchurch on just a regular Friday prayer.
Thankfully those doors remained shut as who knows what an even more devastating tragedy this would have been. Condolences to the two bystanders.
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@chaaya
All synagogues in Germany have police protection. That's why the gunman could not get inside, and instead shot whoever was nearby. The police responded immediately and appropriately.
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@chaaya
You are coming from a country with the most mass shootings per citizen in the world, where guns are significant cause for death.
Whatever blame we germans have to take, don't make it look pathetic. If you have a proposition, you have any reason to apply it to the US first.
And this idea of putting up armed people everywhere, this is just as pitiful as telling teachers to wear a gun to prevent school shootings. We are not at war, this is no combat zone.
Is it fair to say, that acts of violence like this one are easier to endure, when we make them something, that we just not accept as something normal. When do not have to be reminded all the time, that this is what our civilisation has become ?
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@chaaya
The synagogue was secure. That's why the attacker(s) didn't get in side. Other news articles mentioned this along with the fact that all Jewish sites are under 24/7/365 state police protection.
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I had relatives who described similar events in Poland and Germany around 80 years ago. As a child, I couldn't grasp how that could happen. Now, with a president like Trump and much of the world in ideological turmoil, it's much easier to understand.
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@A Goldstein I know it makes you feel better to make this all about Trump, but I lived in Germany and attacks and hate crime were happening then. We went to a few synagogues and the security to get in was the tightest we ever saw anywhere. The list of suspects was the usual and ran the gamut from left to right. Remnants of Baader-Meinhof (left), neo-nazis (right), anyone from the middle east with a grudge (left-right?). It's never gone away.
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@Moira Rogow Did he make it all about Trump, or did he say that now is as a bad a time as back then. Sorry, Moira. Our country now has concentration camps, and we sit around and scream back and forth about how "unfair" that technical term. So give me a break about your outrage.
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@Moira Rogow - Hate never goes away but it is getting worse, endorsed by Trump's silence.
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Another sad act against humanity. Hate is very real in these times. It has always been there. To think we live in a free society where people are mindful of others anf respect differences is something to aspire to. But certainly does not currently reside in the world as we know it.
The leader of the "Free World" is clueless, demonic and beyond anyone's view of sanity. Violence has always been there. But now has the blessing of the POTUS. Shame on him and his followers.
Not surprised it happened n Yom Kippur.
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The true mystery of motives matters little: it's not a puzzle. It's a shame bestowed on the parents of a killer.
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This is really sad and should not happen. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. There has to be zero tolerance for those extreme right wing propaganda, often issued by Russia to destabilize our country and the European Union. Yes, every synagogue is protected by at least four policeman during the church service. But this is not enough. We have to fight much more effectively against antisemitism. This has to be total clear to every politician in charge.
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@Thomas where were the police at this Synagogue?
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For over twenty five years I owned an antique store in Miami, FL. A lot of German tourists would visit. Their business was appreciated, but their reaction to my collection of Nazi and WWII memorabilia always surprised me. They were appalled. Many of them explained the national sentiment in Germany. Selling any Nazi or WWII antiques was against the law. They were extremely surprised at my interest in collecting WWII when I explained I was a Jew, and thought that trying make believe horror never happened would keep it from happening again. My thought was you can not get rid of hate by ignoring history. I guess the murders near near the Synagogue are evidence that hate is alive and well in a country that all but denies their history.
Likewise, I think the rise of white supremacy in this country will not be appeased by the removal of public historical statuary, or limiting personal reference to hate, or making the personal preference to collect things that recount history- a crime. As a Jew who grew up in the late 1940’s thru the 50’s in a NJ suburb of NY City, when certain neighborhoods displayed street signs that said “Restricted”, I would love to have one of those signs. The signs made reference to the exclusivity of the neighborhoods. No Black people or Jews were welcome. There may be no signs anymore, and there are laws against discrimination, but hate still exists. It lives on in prominent political figures.
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@Wanda
"I guess the murders near near the Synagogue are evidence that hate is alive and well in a country that all but denies their history. "
Which country are you talking about? Germany certainly does not deny its history.
"They [...] thought that trying make believe horror never happened would keep it from happening again."
You do realise this is exactly the opposite of what most Germans think, don't you? That is why every German pupil has to visit a concentration camp before they leave school. Austrian pupils too. And many others.
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@Wanda
As an Asian immigrant in Germany who has also lived in other European countries, I have to tell you that Germany takes its recent (20th century) history much, much more seriously than its Eastern European neighbours! Germany also makes much more of an effort to educate its young people about it (so much so that some young Germans feel that the relentless re-visiting of WWII in the classrooms is almost counter-productive). The reason it prohibits Nazi memorabilia is to give no chance to Nazi propaganda --- not to deny what happened.
If you want to see denial in action, you should really visit Germany's neighbours to the east! They don't think they had anything to do with the Holocaust, even though millions of Jews were killed there. And it is SHOCKING to hear the way many of them speak today (in Hungary, for example) about Jews and other minorities! I have never personally witnessed such blatant anti-semitism in Germany (yet).
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@Active Germ-line Replicator No I did not know that school children have to visit concentration camps before they leave school. And I do not think that having to do so would make them have any fewer or more proclivities for racial bias and other learned hate. Having to go on mandatory field trips to places where atrocities took place, is not going to insure they have a moral compass, or even an understanding of history. Not having continual reminders of their collective past might do that. Knowing about slavery, or WWII Japanese internment camps in this country has not taught generations to hate any less, and has not seen them outraged, as once again we are faced with a racially biased leader who locks up innocents in cages for as long as he sees fit. A country or a person need not DENY or recognize an atrocity of the past to keep one from happening in their future. Integrity and outrage might. But I am certain, humanity can not be taught by a field trip.
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My anger over this knows no bounds. It reminds me of the Yom Kippur war. Live-streaming murder is the lowest of lows other than the killing itself.
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Potus won't speak out, until someone around him decides it's time, and then they hand him a script, none of which he believes...
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Racism affects everyone. In allowing the racist rhetoric that emanates from the white house (there are fine people there too...) and permeates right wing politics everywhere, we are harming every single group there is.
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It's spreading...
And, arguably, the United States is patient zero this time.
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All for local cops and what they do for us but they blew it in Halle
after their presence had been requested earlier.
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Is there no private security available for hire in Germany?
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@Julie it shouldn’t be necessary. The police should have been on guard.
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@Julie What percentage of churches, synagogues, or mosques have congregations that can afford on-going private security to protect their worshipers during services?
Answer: A very small percentage.
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So every synagogue should hire security? Every mosque? Every church?
1
Why is anyone expected Trump to do the right thing?
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and the President of the United States?
Somehow he's got nothing to say?
Maybe Lindsey Graham will denounce Hillary for this.
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@Avenue B : No, no, no -- it's *Obama's* fault.
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Germany' government agency BfV said in its annual report that incidents of anti-Semitic violence increased by 71.4 percent in 2018 to 48, from 28 the previous year.
The rise in anti-Jewish attacks in Europe mirrors this. The perpetrators, as in the US, are right wing militants and Muslims who have immigrated from the Middle East.
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@simon sez: "...are right wing militants and Muslims who have immigrated from the Middle East." I'll agree with you regarding alt-right militants (nazis, white supremacists) but Muslim immigrants is a far reach.
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Cynic, you've got to be kidding. Just some months ago an elderly woman was murdered by a young Muslim man, and Muslims are doing an awful lot of harassing too. A friend of mine's son took to wearing a Star of David when he was in Paris and then stopped; and it wasn't neo-Nazis who scared him after a while.
In the Netherlands, 70 percent of antisemitic acts are perpetrated by Muslims; in France, about 60 percent. Germany tends to downplay Muslim attacks on Jews probably because it led the way to welcome Muslims into Western Europe.
I'd check Google for you, but it's best for you to do your own research.
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The irony of Anti-semitism returning to Germany by the recent rise of far right nationalists (provoked by a flood of similar thinking Islamic migrants) seems lost on most. The precious brave few who attempt to nurture the ember of Judaism in Germany need to be supported and protected, no matter the cost or sacrifice.
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This murderer deserves the harshest sentence possible to serve as an example of what happens to monsters like him. He's going to have no defense to ask for leniency.
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All of these revolting acts by the lunatic fringe are fomented by the nationalistic despots that have come to power throughout the world, who reinforce each other’s insanity. Quell this at the ballot box. This is not coincidental and affects all faiths.
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Jimmy, if you watch the evening news tonight, I am sure he will comment.
I am sickened by this. It’s the holiest day of the Jewish year, when Jews all over the world pray for forgiveness. There’s never any forgiveness for this act of pure hatred. Never again, we say, never again. And yet it’s happening again. And our, ahem, “president” bears silent witness and therefore approval of yet another in a series of heinous acts.
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Murder of Jews is horrifying anywhere, but somehow Jews being attacked and slaughtered in Germany has a grim inevitability about it. I grew up next door to German immigrants in the '60s and they were none too thrilled about having Jewish neighbors. What is the German leadership doing to help? For that matter, what is the American president doing to tamp down hate?
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@sg
I grew up in Livingston, NJ where in the sixties my brother worked for a German baker.
He knew we were Jews and bragged that he was putting glass shards in the challah he sold to Jews for the sabbath.
When I marched against the war in Vietnam he chased me across the lawn of the high school.
I have met many Germans who make no secret of their hatred of Jews both in the US and in Europe.
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@sg I don't see the German leadership doing very much. If you remember the NSU (neo-Nazi) murders in Germany it seems the police were complicit in covering-up who the perpetrators were. Here is a quote from the Wiki article on the National Socialist underground murders "The phones of the police officers who were on duty at the moment were confiscated, and it was found that many were exchanging racist and far-right messages in a group chat,[31] and posting pictures of Hitler and swastikas."
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So terribly sad. Thank goodness the psycho could not get into the synagogue. May they rest in peace.
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this profoundly awful right wing slime represents an international plague (enabled and promoted by the nefarious presence on Pennsylvania Ave). We are in the midst of a bad cycle.
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To paraphrase President Clinton, "It's not just guns, it's the internet, Stupid!" You want fame, a sense of power, the ability to control the news? Go shoot up a bunch of people, preferably those belonging to a category, (e.g. Jews, gays, Blacks, etc.) and, compliments of the internet, you are guaranteed fame, power, and control that was impossible thirty years ago.
Before the internet, if you shot up a place in Kansas, the international press would have taken no notice, the national press would have merely noted it the next day (not necessarily even on page one), the regional press around the country might have noted it a couple days later as an A.P. dispatch, local papers probably took no notice of it, and TV nightly news would have given it fifteen seconds. Now, it's the number one story everywhere on and on and on and on.
All it takes in America is one in a million people who craves that fame or who has an agenda he or she wants publicized to create daily carnage. That, vigilante "justice", our major infrastructure subject to being taken down from anywhere in the world, and our military control apparatus subject to sabotage, all this so people can see what their sweetheart of years before is cooking for dinner tonight, what an entertainment personality may or may not think of another "name", so Trump can tweet, and so people can immediately read it and ruin their day.
Silicon Valley's mantra: disruption equals progress. And that gives us Trump and more massacres.
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Why? Jews are 0.19% of the German population and about the same percentage of the world population. Why?
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Look for a 20ish lonely male with no social skills. He is looking for fame by exorcising his hate.
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No one should be shocked by this. A German Rabbi recently said “ Europeans love to attack Ordan in Hungary, and leaders in Poland with allegations of antisemitism, but Jews can safely walk the streets of Budapest and Warsaw wearing a kippa yet they could be physically attacked doing so in the liberal, multicultural cities of Paris and Berlin”. After hearing that once again Germany is no longer safe for Jews, and that German government has taken zero actions, means that 21st century liberalism has failed us and we have learned nothing. Europe should feel ashamed.
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Amazing how long the shooter blithely stood attending his reloading and shooting as if he hadn't a care in the world... certainly didn't need to worry about the glacially slow police response. There should have been a detail on site! There should have been less than 10 minutes of murderous mayhem before the polizei bothered to show up on a day and in a place almost guaranteed to be struck by a Nazi sympathizer.
This is Germany, after all!
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This is EAST Germany, after all.
1
I can’t express how shocked and saddened I am by this terrible, despicable crime! My heart aches for the victims and all those who will feel traumatized and once again unsafe in our country. I can’t help but feel ashamed this is happening (again) in Germany...
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@Dorothee ,
I wish I were more shocked. All of us, especially Germans, should feel, be, not only ashamed but also committed to work to stop this ignorant hatred.
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@Dorothee
Hate crimes like this are also unfortunately happening in the US. This type of terrible crime should be something we read about only in our history books. This type of crime should no longer be happening, but it does.
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Vielen Dank, Dorothee for your kind words.
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I'm very shocked that this happens in my country. The gunman Stephan B. has streamed his kills with a camera on his helmet in the internet. I think he imitate the gunman from the attack at Christchurch. No more words. In memory of the families of the victims.
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My sincere condolences to you and your fellow citizens 😞🙏🏼💓
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@Pascal K. Right, I mean Germany is the last country one thinks of when anti-Semitism comes up.
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@René Pedraza Del Prado - US Veteran I lived in Berlin for three months after the wall went down. I loved it. Had the greatest time. I loved the people I met. I was aware of course of the terrible history. Then after I got home news came out of what was East Germany that there were racist riots and attack on asylum seekers. It's as if the Soviet occupation had bottled up some evil spirit and when they left it began to come out. I don't believe in collective guilt. But part of me will always wonder how a nation built on hatred of Jews could suddenly reform.
8