On police advice, Berlin Jewish magazine now delivered in plain envelope (update)

Berlin Jewish community HQ

BZ-Berlin's Gunnar Schupelius reports:

The Jewish community in Berlin sends to their approximately 10,000 members a monthly magazine entitled "Jewish Berlin".

This newsletter is sent by post. Up until now it was placed in the mailbox directly, with only an address label. Starting this month, it is in a plain envelope. You pull it out of the mailbox and do not know what's inside.

The community was surprised, but found a plausible explanation. In the preface the February issue of this magazine, the community chairman Gideon Joffe said: "Unfortunately, we now have (...) also think about how we can reduce the likelihood of hostility towards members of the community. For this reason, from now on 'Jewish Berlin' will ship in a neutral envelope. "

This security measure was decided in consultation with the Berlin Police and the Security Service of the Jewish community.

Authorities are concerned about attacks on individual Jews in Berlin. It is therefore recommended not to be recognized in areas with strong Muslim population as a Jew, that is, not wearing traditional skullcap or Star of David jewelry.

And now...the Jewish community hid their own newspaper.

Do we want to allow this? We have to, because safety comes first. But our life has changed, that a Jewish newspaper must be hidden in Berlin! Ten years ago I would have thought it a bad joke. We all had an ugly shock last summer with the Palestinian hate-demonstrations.

In Paris people were murdered in a supermarket, only because they were Jews.

In Copenhagen, families were targeted, who celebrated the feast for the growing children, the bar-mitzvah. They were also targeted to die just because they are Jewish. A security guard threw himself in front of them and was shot. He sacrificed himself.

As Prime Minister Netanyahu few days ago invited the European Jews to emigrate, German Chancellor Angela Merkel assured is that Jews could live safely in Germany. Good! But at what price? Police officers must be equipped with submachine guns that in front of their kindergartens as in a civil war zone? That the synagogues are fortified as high security areas? That Jews should not be recognized and that they should even hide their own newspaper?

The hatred of Jews is a centuries-old mental illness. We fought them in the past 70 years but now with immigrants from the Middle East the hatred breaks out again and again.

I know many Muslims who naturally feel no hatred for Jews. But there are others who do. That's the truth.

Maybe if the Jews convert to Christianity, they will be protected for a few more years.

(h/t Yair R)

UPDATE: JPost reported on this too and had this quote:

In his Die Welt column titled “More protection for Jews means less dignity” on Thursday, Henryk M. Broder, Germany’s leading expert on contemporary anti-Semitism, criticized the fortress-like security measures to protect Jews as an illusion.

“It will not become better. It will become worse. Toulouse was the prelude to Brussels and Brussels led to Paris. Copenhagen will not be the final station. The list of attacks will become longer,” wrote Broder.

(h/t Benjamin Weinthal)