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The plan was actually to celebrate the diversity of Jewish life in Hamburg’s Grindelviertel. But the “Grindelfest: Culture.Jewish.Colorful,” which was supposed to take place from September 13 to 15 in cooperation with the Kammerspiele and the Jewish community of the Hanseatic city, has now been canceled with reference to the events in Solingen.

“Unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot guarantee safety despite security and police support,” said Jimmy Blum, chairman of Grindel eV, on the association’s Facebook page last Wednesday. They are afraid of copycats and therefore do not want to take any risks.

This decision was harshly criticized by politicians. “The cancellation of the Grindelfest is a disgrace for our city,” explains Anke Frieling, deputy chairwoman of the CDU parliamentary group. “I can understand the organizer’s motives very well, but right now it is important that such peaceful festivals for tolerance and diversity can be held safely in our city.”

“The fact that the Grindelfest was cancelled makes me sad and thoughtful,” said Sonja Jacobsen, state chairwoman of the FDP in Hamburg. “If public Jewish life in Hamburg can no longer take place, that is an alarm signal.” And Gabor Gottlieb, chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Eimsbüttel district, added: “We will not allow our festivals or public space to be taken away from us.”

»In the current situation, cancelling the Grindelfest is simply the wrong signal.«

David Rubinstein

The Jewish community would also have decided differently. “In the current situation, cancelling the Grindelfest is simply the wrong signal,” said its managing director David Rubinstein. “Those who would like to prevent such a festival have already won.” He therefore cannot understand the association’s decision. “Other events such as the Uhlenhorst district festival took place at the same time as the attack in Solingen and were not simply cancelled.”

Jimmy Blum told the Hamburger Abendblatt that they were very aware that the decision not to hold the Grindelfest was exactly what terrorists wanted to achieve. And given the amount of work that had been invested in planning the event over the months, it was anything but easy to call off the event. But Solingen would have changed everything. “In the end, we as organizers are responsible if something happens.”

According to Blum, discussions with the police in an interview with the broadcaster NDR 90.3 in Solingen, during which he was promised a lot of support with security, did not change his decision. Nevertheless, he does not want to give up and wants to carry on. He would like to make up for the now cancelled Grindelfest next year.

Hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities for the conclusion of an agreement to release around 100 hostages held by Hamas. “Your time is running out,” said the relative of a hostage shot by the Islamist extremists at the rally in Tel Aviv. “We must not sacrifice any more lives, we must not sacrifice them (the remaining hostages).”

Hamas terrorists killed Carmel Gat, another woman and four men last week with close-range gunfire. The Israeli military found their bodies in a tunnel in Gaza last Sunday. “The six would be here with us today if (Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) had said yes to a deal,” Gat’s relative shouted to the crowd with sadness and anger in her voice.

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Hamas and other Islamist terrorist groups invaded southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage in the Gaza Strip. The unprecedented massacre triggered the Gaza War.

101 hostages still in Gaza

According to Israel’s count, 101 people are still held captive by Hamas, although it is unclear how many of them are still alive. Indirect negotiations for their release, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, have been going in circles for months without any results. The desired deal would also include an end to the war, the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Mr. Halevi, even hours after the shootout in front of the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, not all the details are known. But it seems clear that the attack has an Islamist background. Do you have any further information?
We are constantly receiving more information. But I believe that you do not need to know every detail of the crime to be able to assess this terrorist act. It is Islamism that leads to such acts. And in Munich as in Gaza, the motive is the same for people who want to implement their totalitarian and barbaric vision in the name of religion.

How is this crime, which was committed exactly 52 years after the Munich Olympic massacre, being received in Israel?
It reminds us of the terrible massacre of 1972, when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli Olympic team, killing 11 of our athletes and coaches. But it has not only transported us into the temporal and geographical dimension, but also into the same barbaric culture of Islamism. It has not changed over the years and decades. And I say this because the conclusion is very important: we must fight the ideological and political infrastructure of Islamist terror. We must do this in Gaza and in Munich, in Paris and London, and in many other places where these Muslim terrorists operate and have great influence on the population. We must defeat the Islamist ideological infrastructure. That is why I am convinced that today in Rafah or in Gaza we are also fighting for Washington, Berlin and Paris – and also for Munich.

The perpetrator is said to have been an 18-year-old Austrian who was known to the authorities as an Islamist. Is it a particular danger that young men in particular are being radicalized in this way?
This is a phenomenon that I think we need to analyse very well and very seriously. We can see that too many young people in Europe are being drawn into the spell of this Islamist ideology. This is a trend that is undermining the identity dimension as a whole in many areas in Europe. I mean, there is a kind of anti-identity education. And this school of thought, which is now more and more mainstream in the many academic institutions in Europe, fills many of the young European people with a void in terms of their identity. And then they are looking for something to fill this void. And that is where the radical Muslims come in and promise to give meaning to life.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier today: Together we are strong in the face of terror, together we will overcome it. Do you share this opinion?
Yes, I think so. And I see it from two perspectives: Firstly, from the point of view of our countries, Germany and Israel. And secondly, from the point of view of the Jewish state and the Jews in the diaspora. We are all fighting the same battle – against Islamist terror. In Munich or in Jerusalem. Jews in Germany or in the only Jewish state in the world, Israel. This perpetrator with a suspected IS background in Munich is the same one we encounter in the streets of Rafah and Khan Yunis. They are united by this radical ideology that aims to destroy the Jewish people and the State of Israel. And we must fight against it together and overcome this terror.

Detlef David Kauschke spoke with the Likud MP and member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.

After the exchange of fire near the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, investigators believe that the dead shooter attempted a terrorist attack. According to current information, the attack by the 18-year-old Austrian armed with a rifle has a “connection to the Consulate General of the State of Israel,” the Munich police and public prosecutor’s office said.

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Police discovered the man armed with an older carbine and bayonet in Maxvorstadt on Thursday morning at around 9 a.m. According to Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, he deliberately shot at the police officers, who returned fire. According to a police spokesman, five officers were involved in the exchange of fire.

The investigations, led by the Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism, are therefore focusing on the young man’s exact motive. He was seriously injured in the shootout with the police and died at the scene. As a result of the incident, around 500 police officers were deployed in Munich city center, including special forces. Apart from the shooter, no one was injured, according to the police.

“The background to the crime still needs to be clarified,” said Herrmann. However, “if someone parks here within sight of the Israeli Consulate General, then walks around the Consulate General with a gun and starts shooting,” that is “certainly or with high probability not a coincidence.”

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Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder spoke of a serious suspicion in view of the simultaneous anniversary of the Olympic attack in Munich. “There may be a connection. It still needs to be clarified,” said the CSU politician near the crime scene.

In the terrorist attack at the Olympic Games in Munich on September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists shot two men and took nine hostages in the Olympic Village. Around 18 hours later, a rescue attempt ended with the deaths of the nine Israeli hostages, a police officer and five of the attackers.

According to the Austrian police, the young man from Salzburg was investigated last year on suspicion that he had become religiously radicalized and was interested in explosives and weapons. The man with Bosnian roots was banned from carrying weapons.

The then 17-year-old had come to the attention of the authorities after threatening classmates and causing bodily harm. In this context, he was accused of involvement in a terrorist organization, it was said. According to information from the Austrian news agency APA, propaganda from the terrorist organization Islamic State was found on his cell phone. However, the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office closed the investigation in April 2023, police said. Since then, the 18-year-old has not come to the attention of the police again.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wrote on Platform X: “The rapid reaction of the emergency services in Munich may have prevented something atrocitable from happening today. … I say it very clearly: anti-Semitism and Islamism have no place here.”

According to police, the 18-year-old was hit at around 9:12 a.m. After just a few minutes, he was no longer able to defend himself, said Munich Police Chief Thomas Hampel. Within a very short time, around 500 police officers were deployed in the city center, as Bavaria’s Interior Minister Herrmann reported. According to the police, this also included special forces and a helicopter. The area around the consulate was cordoned off for hours.

Austria subsequently increased its own security measures. The state security agency DSN has therefore already contacted the Israeli embassy and the Israeli religious community, said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. “The Austrian security authorities are in intensive contact with their German colleagues.”

Thanks came from all sides for the Munich police forces, including from Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD): “The quick and decisive reaction of the Munich police today stopped an attacker and possibly prevented a terrorist act of violence. We owe the emergency services our great thanks and respect.”

Israel’s President Izchak Herzog spoke of a “terrorist attack this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich” and condemned the act. He thanked the German security services for their quick intervention, Herzog wrote on the X platform after a telephone conversation with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The President of the Israelite Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, said: “The feeling of insecurity, not only in the Jewish community, will become even more entrenched after this incident. The task for those politically responsible is therefore very clear: violent extremism must be pushed back out of public spaces; anything else would be the end of our open society.”

The Consulate General in Munich was closed at the time of the incident due to the commemoration of the anniversary of the Olympic attack, wrote the Consul General of the State of Israel for Southern Germany, Talya Lador-Fresher, on the X platform. “This event shows how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is. It is important that the general public raises its voice against it.”

Every time I see those smiling faces. Every time I get the feeling in my body that my stomach is about to turn.

Since it was announced on Saturday evening that six hostages had been murdered below Rafah, just moments before they were discovered, I have been feeling sick all the time. Just the thought that the fire of six beautiful people – full of life, funny, in the prime of their young lives – has been extinguished forever makes me feel sick.

The knowledge that an unknown number of innocent people are still being held in tunnels for no other reason than that they are Jewish takes an enormous amount of strength from me every day. But the fact that six mothers and fathers have experienced the worst thing that can happen to parents – losing their own child – no longer correlates with my own comprehension.

There is no relativization, no legitimization for having your child taken away from you. And this by people who murder comes naturally. The loss of your own child – especially in the most brutal way – leaves a wound that cannot be healed.

When you are a mother carrying a child and waiting 40 weeks for it to be born healthy and without complications, you feel an incredible sense of gratitude with every day and every month that passes before and after the birth that the child is doing well. It is the ever-recurring moment of incredible happiness that everything is as it should be. And that goes on and on. For a whole lifetime.

Of course, we catapult ourselves through everyday life, overcome hurdles and challenges, and endure defeats. But death remains hidden in the depths of our own imagination. Or rather, it lurks. Because it doesn’t ask when it should appear. Why should it? If it does, we learn the bitter lesson of life that we have to deal with it. Some people are better at it than others.

The parents of so many daughters and sons who have died since October 7, whose children have been stolen from their lives, are still fighting in many ways. They are fighting with the last of their strength for the release of the hostages, they are fighting for negotiations and to make their voices heard. But politicians who do not know what it means to involuntarily hand a child over to murderous thieves like the Hamas terrorists do not listen and cannot empathize with what this theft feels like.

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Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of the murdered Hershel, got up every morning, not knowing whether her son was alive or dead, and fought like a lioness. She prayed for her son. She met with world leaders. She stuck a piece of tape on her chest every morning and counted the days that had passed since his violent disappearance. And she urged everyone to take care, not to give in to hatred and to fight for love.

For 330 days, we watched Rachel Goldberg-Polin show the world the love between a mother and her son. We saw her collapse at the Democratic National Convention, then get up and speak. Just last week, we saw her scream her son’s name in a broken voice at the Gaza border. “Hersh!” she screamed, pain shooting from her chest, “Here’s Mom.” We now know that those hours were likely some of his last.

Tonight I will brush the hair from my children’s faces in bed, cover them with kisses and know that it is my job in this world to keep them safe. Alex, Almog, Carmel, Eden, Hersh and Ori and all the others whose names are not listed here – no one will kiss them anymore. Yes, they are free now. But it is a freedom that came at the highest price. With their lives.

After the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, concern is growing about the shift to the right in society. Dresden political scientist Hans Vorländer sees the AfD’s continued rise as a threat to democracy. The party, which is classified as right-wing extremist in Saxony and Thuringia, received more than 30 percent of the vote in both states in the state elections on Sunday.

The results showed that the AfD had been able to build up sustainable strength, Vorländer told the Evangelical Press Service (epd) in Dresden. The fact that the gap between the AfD and the CDU in Saxony is so small is somewhat surprising, however.

Saxony: CDU narrowly ahead of AfD

According to the preliminary election results for Saxony, the CDU is just ahead of the AfD with 31.9 percent, with 30.6 percent. The Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) coalition, which was running for the first time, received 11.8 percent of the vote. The SPD received 7.3 percent, the Greens 5.1 percent. The Left Party received 4.5 percent and is only returning to the Saxon state parliament because it won two direct mandates. The Free Voters have one seat thanks to a direct mandate.

In Thuringia, the AfD won the state election by a clear margin with 32.8 percent, ahead of the CDU with 23.6 percent. The BSW won 15.8 percent.

Thuringia: AfD strongest party

Numerous civil society organizations were appalled and at the same time concerned about the growing support for the AfD. The Association of Lusatian Sorbs declared: The election result was “historically explosive and fills the Sorbs and their umbrella organization with great concern for the future of the region, Germany and Europe.” The high number of votes for right-wing extremist and populist parties is “a serious challenge for our democratic society.”

The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, told the “Bild” newspaper (Monday) that the free and open society in Germany was in danger. He compared the AfD’s results to a punch in a boxing match: “Germany is reeling.” Schuster expressed concern that more and more people were voting for the AfD out of political conviction.

President of the Central Council in Bild: »Germany is staggering«

The chairwoman of the Saxony regional association of Jewish communities, Nora Goldenbogen, also expressed concern. Right-wing extremist positions have been entrenched in society and in everyday life for years.

“We must be careful that this trend does not continue,” she said, warning against further radicalization. “We are not afraid, we have great fears,” said Goldenbogen. Democratic forces must succeed in uniting across political and personal interests.

The Protestant regional bishop Tobias Bilz and the bishop of the diocese of Dresden-Meissen, Heinrich Timmerevers, called for a willingness to talk and compromise and promoted “a new way of dealing with each other”. The Protestant regional bishop of Central Germany, Friedrich Kramer, encouraged politicians in Thuringia to pursue new ways of working together after the state elections. epd