Germany To Fund Anti-Semitism Education for Muslim Youth

Image by Getty Images

By JTA September 11, 2014

Germany is ready to allocate funds to tailor education about anti-Semitism for its Muslim citizens, its Jewish outreach official said.

Felix Klein, Germany’s special representative for relations with Jewish organizations, is in Washington this week to meet with Jewish groups and with Obama administration officials because of American concerns about a spike in anti-Semitism in Germany during the recent Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Many of the offenders were Muslims, and many of those were members of Germany’s substantial Turkish minority.

“Sometimes, we hear it is difficult to teach the Holocaust” to Muslim students, Klein told JTA in an interview Wednesday at the German embassy in Washington.

“We would give special tools that would interest young Muslims, that would incorporate the role of Turkey” during World War II, he said.

Klein said there was a “feeling of unease” among Germany’s 100,000 Jews after the spate of anti-Semitic incidents.

He said the money for such an initiative would come from Germany’s Interior Ministry and its Ministry for Families, Youth and the Elderly and from regional governments.

Klein during his visit met State Department officials who deal with anti-Semitism and Holocaust issues as well as with officials of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and B’nai B’rith International.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO