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Merz warns that Jews are not safe in Germany, as voters choose parties linked to antisemitism
(JTA) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s warning this week that Jewish life in his country “is no longer safe” reflects concerns voiced by some Jews in Berlin.
They are alarmed by the success of the left-wing socialist Left Party in Sunday’s municipal election, which coincides with the rising power of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in several state elections this month.
Leaving the Left in charge of the country’s capital would be “like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,” Berlin Jewish Community President Gideon Joffe said in an email press statement this week.
The Party “bears a special responsibility for the consequences” of tolerating Islamic extremism, left-wing antisemitism and what German authorities call “clan crime,” organized criminal activity involving extended-family networks in the capital, said Joffe, who represents some 9,000 registered Jewish community members, out of an estimated 30,000 Jews in the nation’s capital.
He spoke out after the Left received 25.7% of the votes in Berlin’s municipal elections, more than Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which garnered 18.8%, followed by the AfD with 16.3%, the Greens with 14.3% and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) with 12.1%.
Berlin is a city of contrasts and deep political divisions, a city that has always been oppositional. It saw street fights between Nazis and communists in the 1930s, and similar face-offs in the 1990s after unification. It is also the German city where the most Jews were hidden and saved by non-Jews in defiance of authority during the Holocaust.
Thus it was not surprising that in Berlin, as the right-wing AfD is growing in popularity nationwide, the Left might be the strongest opposition to that development.
Mainstream parties, such as Merz’s CDU, which had tried to block the far-right, are flailing. The anti-immigration AfD, in contrast, took the lead in two former east German states: Saxony-Anhalt, on Sept. 6 with 43.8% of the vote, and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania on Sept. 20 with 38.2%.
The Left’s platform, which was adopted in 2024, takes an egalitarian approach: It supports Israel’s right to exist alongside a future Palestinian state and disavows antisemitism alongside other societal plagues. “For The Left Party, lived antifascism is linked to the fight against warmongering, antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and national arrogance,” the platform reads in part.
The Party grounds its stance in the post-war slogan, “Never again war, never again fascism.” Some affiliates on the extreme left hold anti-Zionist stances; the Party has been criticized by Jewish leaders and mainstream parties for not forcefully distancing itself from those elements.
In 2010, prominent Party members took part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which the Israeli military intercepted in an operation that killed 10 activists. German Left politicians were among those arrested and deported home.
At its convention in 2025, the Party adopted the “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism,” which rejects the notion that some anti-Israel expressions are antisemitic, as put forward in the working definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The Party said that the IHRA definition “paves the way for authoritarian state action” by Israel.
More recently, during the Party’s Berlin campaign, “calls were made for the Intifada and the death of Israeli soldiers, and the audience sang and danced along,” said Josef Schuster, chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in a statement released Sept. 22. The council represents some 90,000 members of Jewish communities nationwide. In all, there are about as many people who identify as Jewish but don’t belong to communities.
“That a party whose campaign stage openly called for the death of people emerged victorious from the election deeply disturbs me,” he said, adding that the party had “lost all credibility” by failing to combat “Jew hatred” within.
Berlin resident Anetta Kahane sees parallels between the extreme parties on the left and the right.
“It is a big shame that the AfD is winning, and it’s a big shame that the Linke Partei is winning,” Kahane, 72, who grew up in the former East Germany, said in a telephone interview. “Because both are very deeply antisemitic. And I don’t want to be governed by antisemites.”
Kahane, whose parents had fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and ultimately settled in East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, or GDR) as dedicated socialists, told JTA she realized as a young adult that the Communist party her parents supported was run by “the same antisemites, the same Germans as in the west.”
“Today, we hear the same slogans we heard about Israel and the Jews during the GDR: They are like the Nazis. Israel is a fascist state. They are imperialists. They are colonialists. They are the worst of the worst,” said Kahane, who founded the Berlin-based Amadeo Antonio Foundation, which fights xenophobia and antisemitism, in 1998.
“I hear people saying that, well, the world is so complicated, we don’t need [democracy], we need a good dictator,” said Kahane, because “democracy is discussing and discussing and never achieving anything.”
While the cost of living and taxes are rising, politicians fail to “talk in a way people can understand,” she added. The more “brutal and populist” their language, the more people will vote populist.
Despite their rising popularity, neither the Left nor the AfD is likely to be part of the newly elected state governments. That’s because the mainstream parties are forming coalitions to block out these upstarts – a firewall, when it comes to the far right.
In Berlin, most Jewish voters find themselves eschewing both extremes. But not all Jews are upset at the results.
“I’m hopeful that there will be a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, and that we’ll have a more promising future for Berlin,” Donna Swarthout, 67, told JTA in a telephone interview from Berlin.
She said she voted for the Greens “so that they would be in the governing coalition,” but she isn’t put off by the Left Party and has been drawn to its mayoral candidate Elif Eralp.
“She just really resonated with me because of her emphasis on social justice issues,” she said.
Swarthout, who grew up in the US and obtained German citizenship 14 years ago as the daughter of German Jewish refugees, says it’s important for Jews in Germany “to work in coalition with other minority groups… We need a broader, more positive, future-oriented dialogue. And I’m hoping that she [Eralp] can help shift the dialogue.”
Elvira Groezinger worries about younger voters in general. “As 16-year-olds were allowed to vote [in Berlin] for the first time, and Muslim migrants dominated the discourse, the outcome is a cause for concern,” Groezinger, a literary scholar who was born in Poland in 1947 to Holocaust survivors, said in an email to JTA. The Left’s campaign “was accompanied by antisemitic incidents and pro-Hamas declarations of Muslim candidates and voters.”
“The fact that 36 years after the unification, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the establishment of a democratic system, communist ideology is so attractive to over a quarter of voters, depicts the political failure in implementing democratic values,” she added.
The Left and the AfD have a lot in common, she noted: Both support Putin and oppose help for Ukraine; both espouse anti-Americanism and support totalitarian ideas.
The Left’s 2024 platform demands “the dissolution of NATO and its replacement by a collective security system with the participation of Russia.” While the AfD supports continued membership in NATO, it posits that “European security cannot be attained without Russia’s involvement.”
But while “the AfD is anti-Islamic and not openly antisemitic like the Left, and even claims to be pro-Israel, its ideology of ‘Germany for Germans’ is just as dangerous for Jews, who are regarded as non-German,” Groezinger remarked.
Left leaders this week rushed to defend themselves against accusations that they tolerate antisemitism and criminality in their ranks, after an alleged pro-Palestinian militant and a person with ties to a Middle Eastern crime family were seen celebrating with a Left legislator at a victory party on Sept. 20 in Berlin.
Eralp said it was “absolutely unacceptable” to “celebrate violence and terrorism,” adding that she would “do everything to ensure that Jewish people – just like Muslims, queer people and everyone in our city – can feel safe.”
A Party spokesperson did not get back to JTA by press time.
Elio Adler, founder of the Berlin-based, pro-democracy Jewish Values Initiative, has pushed back against both the Left Party and the AfD, urging mainstream parties to come up with clear options for voters.
“As long as politics still doesn’t address very relevant and burning topics, the extremist parties on both sides will have their voters and the firewall will get cracks, election after election and, one day, it will break down,” he said.
The Initiative published an open letter to Berlin’s democratic political parties on Sept. 15, urging them to shut both the AfD and Left out of any coalition talks to form a government for the city-state.
Up to now, the term “firewall” has generally referred to a boycott of far-right parties by the mainstream parties.
But “we say if you establish a firewall, it needs to be a round wall protecting democracy against attacks – or fire – from all sides. It can’t be a firewall just protecting against one side,” said Adler, who was born in Essen in 1971; his father was a Holocaust survivor.
”I’m not too happy that antisemitism somehow appears to be the main topic” of discussion. “It’s sort of a strawman argument, in place of many other topics,” he added. “As a group that is at risk and dependent on protection, we are deeply alarmed by the Left Party’s plans to weaken the police and, in particular, to abolish the domestic intelligence service.”
The Left Party “accepts a lot of antisemitism within their ranks. Of course, if you ask them, they are against antisemitism,” Adler said. “They’re against right-wing antisemitism, which is good, which is correct.”
But “they absolutely forget their own antisemitism and all the migrant antisemitism and the extreme-left antisemitism. So they are really blind in more than one eye.”
The post Merz warns that Jews are not safe in Germany, as voters choose parties linked to antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.
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A poet’s reaction to this summer’s terrorist attack in Berlin
דעם 25סטן יולי איז דער פּאָעט דזשײק שנײַדער געפֿאָרן קײן װײַמאַר כּדי צו מאָדערירן אַ כּמו־טעלעװיזיע־פּראָגראַם אױף ייִדיש מיט דער אַקטריסע עלענאָר ריסאַ, אַן אונטערנעמונג אין משך פֿונעם פֿעסטיװאַל „ייִדיש־זומער װײַמאַר“. אױף מאָרגן איז ער אַהײמגעפֿאָרן קײן בערלין, װוּ ער האָט מאַרשירט אינעם יערלעכן שטאָלץ־פּאַראַד – אײדער אַ טעראָריסט האָט אַטאַקירט דעם פּאַראַד, דערמאָרדעט אײן פֿרױ און פֿאַרװוּנדיקט מער װי 30 מענטשן. אָט דער „פּאָעטישער באַריכט“ דאָקומענטירט כראָנאָלאָגיש זײַנע פֿראַגמענטאַרישע געדאַנקען און אײַנדרוקן פֿון דעם דאָזיקן מעת־לעת.
װאָס איז טײַטש „לײַװ“?
פֿון דזשייק שנײַדער
פֿאַרבײַגעגאַנגענע רעקלאַמעס׃
פֿאַרטאָפּלט אײַער עקראַנצײַט!
װערט אַ זעלנערין פֿאַר דײַטשלאַנד!
אײַער דירה־געלט איז צו טײַער!
איך דאַרף נאָך מסרן מײַן ראָװער־גנבֿ.
כאַפּן די פֿאַרלאָזלעך פֿאַרשפּעטיקטע באַן.
שױן זיצט מײַן סטודיאָ־עולם און װאַרט.
פּונקט אַזױ װי די װערטער פֿון דער װאָך.
אונטערװאַרטן, אָפּװאַרטן, צוּװאַרטן.
פּונקט אַזױ װי יאַנקלס נײַער װערטער־װידעאָ.
עס װאַרט אַ שיסל מיט ברױנע עם־ען־עמס.
איך האָב שױן אײן מאָל פּראָבירט דעם קלאַנג.
אַ שמועס־שעה אױף פֿאַרשטומטן ייִדיש.
אַ טעלעװיזיע־פּראָגראַם אָן טעלעװיזיעס.
אַ לעבעדיקע לאַכטאַשמע, דאַנקען גאָט.
„אונדזער עולם“ איז דאָך דאָ אין װײַמאַר.
איך דאַרף נישט איבערחזרן אױף כינעזיש.
פּאָסטקאַרטלעך פֿון װאַרשע, סאַו־פּאַולו.
אַכט מדינות… אָבער נישט דײַטשלאַנד.
עלענאָר באַװױנט אונדזער נישט־טעלעװיזיע.
ליבע־בריװ פֿונעם אונטערװעש־שופֿלאָד.
דאָס טײַערסטע קלײד פֿון אַ גאַנץ לעבן.
אַז מען דערמאָנט פֿראַנק לאָנדאָנען…
כּדי צו שטראָמען באַדאַרף מען נײַעס.
אַזאַ מין איצט באַדאַרף אַן איצטיקײט.
אַנישט קומט דער נעטפֿליקס־עפֿעקט.
אָן־סופֿיקע אַפֿישן אַדורכצובלעטערן.
בײַ ממשותדיקע נײַעס קומען שטױס־מעלדונגען.
די מאָבילקעס, טאַבלעטן און זײגערלעך װיברירן.
און שױן איז אונדזער שמועס־שעה פֿאַרבײַ.
שױן האָבן מיר געבענטשט עלעקרטישע ליכט.
געריסן די חלות, געגעסן די אוגערקעס.
אֵין כּל, אֵין כּל, אֵין כּל…. „טײַ“.
נישטאָ קײן צײַט פֿאַר אַ חצות בײַם טײַך.
די באַן פֿאָרט אומהײמלעך איצטיקיסטיש.
אינסטאַגראַם האָט פֿאַרגעסן זײַן ייִדיש.
שױן אַהײמגעפֿאָרן מיטן דינג־ראָװער.
שױן געגלעט מײַן הינטלס קאָנוס־קאָפּ.
שױן אָנגעטאָן מײַן בער־קאָסטיום.
שױן געפֿאָרן צום פּרײַד־לחײם.
שױן געקװעטשט אױפֿן נײַנטן קנעפּל.
שױן איבערגעקערט אַ טעלער מיט נאַשן.
שױן געהערט מעשׂיות פֿון נעכטן בײַ נאַכט.
שױן פּאָזירט אינעם יערלעכן באַלקאָנבילד.
אַלע טראָגן װי תּמיד די סאַמע מאָדישע זאָקן.
אַ פֿרײלעכן פּרײַד. פֿרײלעך צו זײַן פֿרײלעך.
אַראָפּ און אַרױס מיט די אַנדערע פֿײגעלעך.
אַן אַנדער שׂימחה־גרופּע װאַרט שױן אין דרױסן.
איך טאָר נישט קװעטשן דאָס פֿרײלעך־קנעפּל.
איך טאָר נישט נאַשן קײן שװאַמעלע־שאָקאָלאַד.
מיר יאָגן זיך נאָך די אַנטלאָפֿענע פּאַראַד־װאָגנס.
הײַיאָר פּראָקלאַמירט מען כּמו־פּאָליטישע לאָזונגען.
דעות זענען רײצנדיק. די „גוטע גבֿירים“ בלײַבן.
מיר מאַרשירן טאַנצעװדיק, טאַנצן מאַרשירעװדיק.
ס׳איז דער הױפּטשטראָם־פּרײַד, דער באַנאַלער.
נישט דער לעסבישער, נישט דער פּאַלעסטינישער.
מיר פֿאַרלירן אַ חבֿר אַלע פֿינף מינוט.
מיר װאַרטן אױפֿן קלאָזעט־הײַזעלע.
מיר האַלטן זיך אָפּ בײַ נאָלנדאָרף־פּלאַץ.
דאָרט אױבן אַרבעט מײַן צײנדאָקטער!
דאָרט װוּ עס הענגען די נחת־פֿענער!
אַ ביר פֿון אָרגאַנישן סופּערמאַרק.
כּדי אַרײַנצוגײן דאַרף מען זיך אָנטאָן.
איך דאַרף נאָך ענדיקן דאָס „לײַװ“-ליד.
איך דאַרף שפּאַצירן מיטן קאָנוס־קעפּל.
איך דאַרף נאָך שרײַבן עטלעכע רשימות.
קודם־כּל, פֿאַר װאָס נישט אַ שניצל?
די קיך פֿאַרמאַכט זיך צען אַ זײגער.
מיר באַשטעלן אין דער לעצטער מינוט.
מיר עסן דאָס אױסגעפּלאַטשיקטן פֿלײש.
מיר שפּאַצירן אַהײם דורך די געסלעך.
צװײ פֿײגעלעך פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר מיט אַ הינטל.
שױן קומען די שטױס־מעלדונגען.
שױן שטײען מיר אױף דער שװעל.
איך דאַרף זיך שױן „מעלדן בשלום“.
איך דאַרף נאָך מעלדן מײַן ראָװער.
איך דאַרף נאָך ענטפֿערן אױף די בריװלעך.
צי בין איך בשלום? װער איז בלשום?
די מלחמה קעגן מלחמות איז אױס.
עס בלײַבן אונדז בלױז מײנונגען.
יעדער אײנער האָט זײַן אָפּרוף.
יעדער אײנער האָט זײַנע דעות.
יעדער אײנער האָט קלוגע פּירושים.
װער זשע װיל זײַן אין די נײַעס?
בערלין קײן װײַמאַר קײן בערלין, 26-25 יולי
The post A poet’s reaction to this summer’s terrorist attack in Berlin appeared first on The Forward.
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These Bundist pioneers were heroes in their time. Would they be in ours?
Academic stars in high school, Abrasha Blum and Luba Bielecka shared a slow burn romance and fervor for radical change. That hardly set them apart amid the ferment after the tsarist empire crumbled in 1919. No one would have predicted that Bielecka would go on to be awarded global nursing’s highest honor and Blum Poland’s equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
But their story poses a provocation in today’s hyper-polarized politics: Blum and Bielecka were devoted Bundists, and as such, they were not only socialists but anti-Zionists.
That combination can get you labeled today as anti-Israel and antisemitic, and even anti-American. Yet at the time they were Jewish heroes.
Bielecka repeatedly risked her life smuggling children out the Warsaw ghetto under Nazi occupation while directing the sole Jewish nursing school, sustaining its rigorous professional standards even as it was squashed into oblivion. Blum, a physically frail man, was dubbed the “ideological father of armed resistance” in the Bund; he led his band of militants into joining forces with the detested Zionists in the historic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. When the insurgency was crushed — as all the combatants knew it would be — Blum, an engineer by training, led the surviving remnant through the cavernous sewer system to safety. But soon thereafter, in fleeing the police, he plummeted three stories from an apartment building. Badly injured, he was taken to Gestapo headquarters and never seen again.
Blum and Bielecka engaged the world as they found it and fought for justice for Jews and humanity. Blum’s photo is on display at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem’s Holocaust museum.
A lot has changed in 85 years. In 1939, most Americans Jews opposed Zionism and feared it would be misused by antisemites to justify allegations of dual loyalty. At the time, twice as many Jews lived in Warsaw as in all of British Palestine. The Bund swept 17 of 20 Jewish-designated seats on city council (Blum held one of them), far outdistancing all the Zionists parties together. Socialism made sense to Jewish voters, who were overwhelmingly “blue collar.” And so did doikayt (“hereness”), the doctrine that Poland’s three million Jews belonged there, not in a far-off desert, as the Zionists maintained.
The Holocaust radically and irrevocably changed the landscape. Ninety percent of Polish Jewry was exterminated. Even after the Nazis were vanquished, Jews continued to endure pogroms and were largely purged from Poland’s ruling communist party. By then, Israel was the sole destination in the world that welcomed large numbers of Jews.
Blum and Bielecka’s daughter, 17-year-old Aviva (née Victoria), was among the pioneers who migrated to a kibbutz in the new State of Israel. Zionism offered her the promise of milk and honey in a sanctuary free of antisemitism.
For years, her younger brother, Olek, held fast to his parents’ politics. But he too ultimately exited Poland, not for Israel but for the US, saddened that his father’s dream of “a prosperous Jewish minority inside Poland was impossible to realize.”
Like their parents, Aviva and Olek too engaged the post-WWII world as they found it and sought a better world.
Today, socialism and anti-Zionism are each experiencing something of a revival in the U.S. Self-described socialists have won mayoral elections in New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. DSA-supported candidates won the Senate Democratic primary in Florida and narrowly lost Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary. A recent CBS News poll found that 58% of Democrats now hold a favorable view of socialism, whereas only 32% view capitalism positively. The gap is even wider among young people. Jews, despite their relative affluence, remain among the most liberal voters in the U.S., although their current views on socialism have not been scientifically surveyed.
Anti-Zionism looks quite different in 2026 than in 1939, at least to Jews. Israel, approaching its 80th anniversary, is far from the desert mirage ridiculed by pre-war Bundists. While only a minority of American Jews self-describe as Zionists, an overwhelming majority support Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Yet they are deeply troubled by Israel’s direction: Polls show that Zohran Mamdani, a socialist and anti-Zionist, is more popular among American Jews than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We’re left with this thought experiment: What if Abrasha and Luba resided in America today? What would they view as justice and how would they engage to achieve it? What if they resided in Israel?
And finally, a question about the rest of us: Would we recognize them as heroes?
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AIPAC couldn’t stop Michigan’s El-Sayed in the primary. Now it’s trying again.
AIPAC’s super PAC has re-entered Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate race less than a month before the general election, spending nearly $100,000 on mailers attacking Abdul El-Sayed, despite earlier concerns by allies of his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, that it would boost the Democratic nominee.
The spending of $94,620 by United Democracy Project (UDP) on direct mailers was disclosed in a Friday campaign finance filing. It comes after Rogers publicly welcomed AIPAC’s support during a televised debate last week, reversing the position initially taken by people close to his campaign who worried the pro-Israel group’s involvement could hurt his chances.
A spokesperson for the group told Jewish Insider that the mailers target 130,000 identified Jewish voters in the swing state. It focuses on El-Sayed’s response to an attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield earlier this year. El-Sayed drew criticism for saying “hurt people hurt people” when discussing the attacker, whose brother was reportedly a Hezbollah commander killed in an airstrike on Lebanon. El-Sayed later apologized, saying he had been trying to provide broader context for the attack.
UDP spent more than $30 million trying to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primary this summer and in support of Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost by about one percentage point.
Following the primary, allies of the Republican nominee reportedly asked AIPAC not to run ads to boost him, fearing that the group’s involvement would give El-Sayed the same political foil that helped him overcome its massive spending in the primary. Axios reported that AIPAC officials didn’t take that rejection easily.
But Rogers appeared to change course last Thursday when asked whether he’d welcome AIPAC’s support.
“Anybody that wants to help my campaign stop a guy who can’t condemn terrorism in our own country because he’s so close to the people who are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, again, I’ll take all of that help,” Rogers said at Thursday’s televised debate. El-Sayed interrupted to say he had condemned terrorism.
A new super PAC, Together for Michigan, aired an ad during the debate featuring Taylor Weintraub, whose child attends the Temple Israel preschool that was attacked in March.
Rogers went further on Friday at a campaign event with Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, accusing El-Sayed of being “so anti-Jewish” that a single mailer had upset him. Rogers said he welcomed help from Jewish supporters seeking to defeat his opponent. Kennedy also attacked El-Sayed, saying AIPAC would not be involved in the race if the Democrat did not “sleep in a Bin Laden jersey.”
El-Sayed, an Israel critic who has made opposition to AIPAC a central part of his campaign, responded by accusing Rogers of desperation. “You know Mike Rogers is in trouble when he begs AIPAC to start spending against me,” he wrote on X.
Some Jewish Democrats are publicly supporting Rogers, saying El-Sayed has failed to assuage concerns in his outreach to Jewish voters and in campaign appearances in recent months. If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim member of the U.S. Senate.
Recent polls show El-Sayed with a narrow lead in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. Recent elections in Michigan have been decided by narrow margins. Trump won the swing state in 2024 by about 80,000 votes, while Democratic incumbent Elissa Slotkin defeated Rogers in the Senate race that year by fewer than 20,000 votes. Four years earlier, Joe Biden won Michigan by about 2.8 percentage points.
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