Activists Disappointed Germany Didn’t Also Recommend Jews In Israel Not Wear Kippah

“The number of Jews in Germany under threat of attack by antisemites is tiny compared to the number of Jews in Israel facing antisemitic enemies.”

North Tel Aviv, May 28 – A man  striving to engineer the reduction or elimination of Judaism from public life in the Jewish State voiced frustration today that the Berlin official who advised Jews in his country not to display their Jewishness in the open, for their safety, had not extended that recommendation to Jews in Israel.

Germany’s antisemitism czar announced Sunday that spiking antisemitic incidents have made it inadvisable for Jews to attract attention as such, prompting soul-searching among many Germans, outrage among others, and disappointment for Yair Putzman, 35, an anti-religion activist who had hoped such an announcement would apply to Israel as well, considering the antisemitic opposition the country faces.

“I understand he’s German and was only talking about Germany because that’s where his expertise and authority extend, but we have to follow the same line of reasoning, and reason is the way to go,” lamented Putzman. “The number of Jews in Germany under threat of attack by antisemites is tiny compared to the number of Jews in Israel facing antisemitic enemies – obviously we should adopt the same tactic here, and stop looking so Jewish to our neighbors.”

Putzman agreed that refraining from wearing a kippah or other displays of Jewishness would not solve the antisemitism problem by itself. “That’s just an interim measure, a tactical move to make attacks more unlikely in the short term, for lack of visible targets. It’s true that if we want to get rid of the problem itself, we have to adopt more far-reaching policies. For one thing, if we stopped everyone from being Jewish in the first place, or stopped Jews from being, whichever, antisemitic incidents would basically disappear. I mean, just look at Syria – no antisemitic vandalism at all since the last Jews left. I’d have thought someone from Germany, of all places, might grasp that.”

A fellow activist suggested an alternative measure that Germany has, in fact adopted in the past. “It’s not right to force people not to wear a religious item such as a kippah,” admonished Ahava Galzon. “And I don’t think it’s the government’s place anywhere to get into that. Instead, Jews everywhere should wear a distinguishing mark, say a yellow star of David, as a mark of solidarity with their brethren in Germany, so everyone knows their concerns. The last time that was done, Jews came together in large numbers at a time, and really went places.”

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