Seeing Ally Against Muslims, Some German Jews Embrace Far Right, to Dismay of Others

Extremism, no matter the source, has no place in the world. Sincerely, The daughter of a Holocaust survivor

This is a very minor thing, hardly worthy of an article. As noted, the AfD hopes to find 20 founding members of the group. 20 out of about 100,000 people. What we really need is an article focused on the bigger issue of the AfD’s continued rise. According to recent poll, they have become the second largest party in a fractured political landscape, just ahead of the SPD. Moreover, the CDU/CSU has lost significant ground and is somewhat at risk of breaking apart, which could conceivably leave the AfD as the most popular party, albeit with just under 20% of the vote. Why is the AfD growing? What are the prospects of continued growth? How might the AfD evolve and potentially enter a power sharing arrangement similar to what happened in Austria? Who are the leaders of the AfD and what do they believe? Why has the center lost power and can it be regained? (Of course, this all centers around the issue of mass immigration.) An honest, in-depth, unbiased look at this issue is sorely needed and would be much appreciated.

Eventually, everything goes to seed in the Garden of the Finzi Continis. Some folks are destined to sleep through history until it rudely awakens them.

I believe most of the Jews in Germany today are not German Jews that returned after the Holocaust. They are primarily Russian Jews that emigrated to Germany after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Russian Jews in Germany, as well as in America are comfortable aligning themselves with anti-socialist/communist authoritarian nationalistic movements. Many emigrant-generation American Jews from the former Soviet Union are bigoted, self-serving, narrow-minded, anti-science, anti-climate change, Trump supporters. The Jews from the former Soviet Union are not representative of the vast majority of Jews.

Welcome to the Trumpapocalypse! Jews are now Nazi. The 1945 Warsaw Ghetto has move to East Jerusalem as Jews help carry out a Final Solution...for the Palestinian problem. There is no difference between Hitler, Khomeini and Netanyahu.

What a confusing conundrum this! European Jews are caught up in the middle of two right wing groups with one that is definitely detrimental not only to their health, but their religion. A religion which is the reason for that groups hatred. It will get worse as the Middle East relocates to Europe , where “ the streets are lined with gold.”

There have been many horrific anti-Semitic attacks in Europe committed by Muslims – Toulouse Jewish school, Paris Kosher market, Copenhagen Synagogue, Brussels Jewish museum, there are more. These were all acts of Islamic terrorism. And do not forget the dignified Jewish Holocaust survivor who was brutally murdered in Paris. There is a news black-out of lesser Muslim anti-Semitic attacks, which are increasing, and is the direct reason for the increased migration of Jews from e.g. France to Israel. In Germany, only the AfD dares to state the truth, which is not PC but the truth none-the-less. Sometimes the truth hurts. Same in France with Marine Le Pen and the National Front. It is a no brainer, only these conservative parties have the backs of Jewish people in Europe today. The liberal parties are ignoring the security concerns of Jews. In the UK, the labor party leader, Corbyn, is accused of out and out anti-Semitism. The AfD in Germany, and the National Front in France are overwhelmingly comprised of conservative and respectful Germans and French, respectfully, who are tired of open borders and what to put a halt to it before their countries turn into Lebanon. It is interesting to see how alliances change - now the conservatives, which the media loves to call the far right, are much more supportive re. the fight against anti-Semitism than the moderate and the liberal parties in Europe are. It is an interesting political evolution.

"Some German Jews"? I count two mentioned in the article.

It is shocking beyond belief that anyone who is Jewish AND knows their history would want to join up with AfD. My late parents were Holocaust survivors who lost this entire extended families in the death camps. If I could I would sit down with these “perplexed” Jews ( if they are that) and explain the unique horrors perpetuated by the Nazis. Yes there were and still are anti-Semites and we as Jews need to defend and protect ourselves but that doesn’t justify being allied with or part of AfD. That is why we need a very strong Israel. Those who want to ally with AfD should ask AfD if they are even welcome to join.

Dimitri Schulz is a member of a Free Christian Church. He is Russian-German. However, he is not Jewish. He invented the notion of being Jewish to attract the limelight (as it is very unusual for Jews to support the AFD). Of course the AFD picked up this notion to appear open-minded. NYT do your homework before writing stuff like this!

As a Jew who moved to Germany from New York only a few months ago, the AfD and members of tbe right-wing marching through German cities is really unsettling. It is beyond me that any Jewish person could ally themselves with people who dismiss the Holocaust, and to do so in Germany is mind boggling.

To paraphrase a victim of hardline nationalists, "First they came for the Muslims, and we did nothing, then they came for us." Some people never learn.

Lather, rinse, repeat. "First they came for the socialists..." That famous Niemoller poem should echo in everyone's ears. Unfortunately, those who embrace this tawdry alliance are a confederacy of dunces (another stolen quote) doomed to repeat history. That energy of hatred is a losing proposition for us, for our children, for our planet.

I am always at a loss for words when I come across a right wing Jew. I cannot fathom how any Jew who is cognizant of their history can support a Donald Trump or the AfD. I am an American Jew who has studied the Holocaust and the history of my people. I cannot feel any other way than the way I feel. Injustices towards other people of ethnicities or cultures other than mine is flat out wrong. Man's inhumanity towards man is flat out wrong. But I have lived in an insular world. I have no first hand experience of the antisemitism that is rampant in cities like Paris, where whole neighborhoods have been taken over by Muslim immigrants, forcing Jews to flee for their lives. Five thousand years of oppression should make Jews the champion of human rights. But that is not the case. Israel is still at odds with the Muslim world. A surprising number of American Jews support a clearly bigoted president. Antisemitism is on the rise worldwide. Aligning with the forces working against us is never a good idea. If you give them the power you will one day find them breaking down your door and taking you away.

Recognizing what we are dealing with ourselves as Trump tries to remake the country in his own image, I must sill say... "wow." Even having grown up hearing my grandparents speak of the horrors of the KKK and the enslavement of my ancestors, I was also taught about the kinds of bigoted nationalists who perpetrated a genocide against Jews and plunged this planet into total warfare. It was inconceivable me at first. I had so many Jewish playmates, that I had to be told that in most places they were a minority just like me. Then I couldn't understand how something like The Holocaust could break out. My parents/grandparents/teachers were very thorough in explaining that as well. The Holocaust didn't just "break out." It took years of turning a blind eye to the obviously malicious and bigoted rhetoric of a demagogue and his followers. It required people to delude themselves into thinking they could make "deals" with such people; that they could empower them while holding private moral reservations. But as I was walked through the events that followed, even I (a grade-school child) quickly understood that the particular rationalizations for empowering the likes of AfD are irrelevant. What IS relevant is that the cynical moral calculus being made by some in Europe (and here at home) has been seen before. It's the same formula with the same variables that inevitably yields a set of "solutions" that make a normal person's blood run cold. Just stop now.

Jews who embrace fascism will be remembered as racists and collaborators. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Anti-Semitism has been present in Germany for centuries. Right-wing anti-Semitism has always existed and must be dealt with to make it totally illegal, but also what should be made clear to migrants, some of whom have grown up with anti-Semitic beliefs and are now coming to Germany, is that anti-Semitism should never be tolerated.

"Some German Jews Embrace Far Right as Allies against Muslims"--this is the headline the NYT posted on its front page, a very different one from that which appears at the head of the article itself which includes the phrase "to Dismay of Others." Okay--so there are a small number of German Jews so disturbed by anti-Semitism within the German Muslim population that they are willing to support a far Right party--to the dismay of leading German Jewish organizations. Why does the NYT sensationalize an outlier story such as this and offer a misleading headline? A better topic would be the increasing acceptance of anti-Semitism in continental Europe and Great Britain. Why does the NYT not report more on this?

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you. What more can one expect when Jews are accused of being responsible for communism and capitalism? Lambasted by both the far-left and the far-right? The horseshoe theory in action.

Sad, sad, sad! Just like the Jews who supported Trump.

What does anyone expect when the left is silent on Muslim anti-Semitism?