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Praise for the German chancellor

Updated: 26/Mar/2006 19:41

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem last January.

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At the beginning of March, the Juedische Allgemeine (JAZ) weekly took the opportunity to interview leading members of Germany’s Jewish communities and asked them to appraise Merkel’s work.

Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany gave Merkel high marks. “Merkel has successfully been able to recapture the public’s trust,” he told JAZ. He referred to the stonewalling that paralysed the last legislative period before Merkel’s ascent to power. He lauded the chancellor’s efforts to reform the social welfare system – a theme which has created tension in a society plagued by 20 per cent unemployment.

Concerning the government’s commitment to the Jewish communities – the third largest in Europe and fastest growing one in the Diaspora – Spiegel said he hopes “that the government will continue to be a reliable friend and partner”.

Spiegel lauded the government for taking an active role in promoting measures that would better integrate the largely ethnic Russian Jewish community. Since the early 1990s over 150,000 Soviet Jews have settled in Germany under a special programme aimed at re-establishing Jewish communities throughout Germany. Many Russian who came here years ago have still, for example, not learned German.

The Council president also applauded the government’s stance on right and left wing radicalism as well as Islamic anti-Semitism. “The government has shown its profound will to make the ever growing Jewish community an equal partner within German society,” he told JAZ.

Spiegel was also quick to show praise for the government’s foreign policy stance towards Israel’s right of existence as well as its open criticism of the current Iranian government. “I am very happy at the positions taken by Merkel and her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier… The atomic crisis not only threatens Israel – it is also a threat for entire European continent,” Spiegel said.

Praise across the board

Council vice-president Charlotte Knobloch also showed satisfaction with the new government. She bewailed the last government’s confrontational attitude towards the United States and congratulated Merkel on her capacity to mend that political relationship.

“Merkel’s clear words of solidarity towards Israel, following the Hamas electoral victory in the occupied territories, was very impressive and underlines the tight partnership within German-Israeli relations”, she told JAZ.

Salomon Korn, another member of the Central Council pointed out the government’s courage to confront Islamic fundamentalism head on – noting that Germany risks bringing the realities of terrorism closer to home by having stuck its head out on this issue. “Such an attitude is not self-evident within a country that has generally coupled its foreign policy with its direct economic interests”, Korn told JAZ.

Day in history

1945: Germany

The Nuremberg Trials begin. Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.