On old and new antisemitism, the aftermath of Halle and renting a Jew - Annette Großbongardt, Tobias Rapp and Antonia Schaefer in Der Spiegel:

'Anger and violence against Jews has become such a common occurrence that Germany as a society urgently needs to do some soul-searching. "Has Germany Forgotten the Lessons of the Nazis?" asked an editorial published in the New York Times last spring. The American paper of record also published a lengthy feature in May about the "New German Anti-Semitism."

Most Jews don't want to leave Germany. Indeed, the number of Jews immigrating to the country vastly outnumbers that of those who are leaving. But many view the situation as depressing and increasingly threatening.

In 2018, the European Union released a study for which researchers spoke with Jews across Europe. Over one-third of respondents reported they had considered leaving Europe. Of those interviewed, 89 percent said anti-Semitism had grown in their country since 2013. In Germany, 85 percent said that anti-Semitism is either a very big or fairly big problem. France is the only European country in which that figure is higher, with almost all Jewish respondents in the country claiming to have been the target of hostile attitudes. Since 2005, at least 11 people with Jewish backgrounds have been murdered in France by perpetrators with anti-Semitic motives.'

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'Mascha Schmerling is doing what she can to prevent that poison from taking root in peoples' heads. She says people need to have a frank conversation and put all their prejudices bluntly on the table. Schmerling, 39, is the co-founder of Rent a Jew, a volunteer initiative in which Jews with various private and professional backgrounds visit schools, associations and political parties as speakers. "We want to give a face to Jews in Germany," says Schmerling, who works in corporate communications. The organization's motto: "Talk to us, not about us."

The Hamburg resident came to Germany from Moscow in 1992. She says people often tell her: "Oh, you're a Jew? You don't even look like it."

Germany is home to around 200,000 Jews, with about 100,000 registered with the Jewish communities. At 0.2 percent of the total German population, they are a tiny minority, meaning that most people don't know any Jews and believe that they all resemble the cliché of a certain kind of nose or side curls. One time, she held a speech at an interreligious event, with her talk being teased as: "Insight into Foreign Cultures." But, Schmerling says, "Jewishness is diverse and vibrant, there are Orthodox, secular and liberal, dark-haired and blond Jews."

She says the name "Rent a Jew" was chosen to be deliberately provocative. "We want attention -- and a bit of humor, to take a bit of shyness out of people, who are supposed to articulate what they are thinking. That's the only way an open conversation is possible." When Schmerling visits schools and no one feels confident enough to say anything, she sometimes asks, "Well, what have you heard about Jews? Spit it out!" She says they will then often say things like: Is it true that Jews don't pay any taxes? Or that all Jews are rich, and that the Rothschilds control the banks.'

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'The anti-Semitism researcher and her team have reviewed more than 300,000 internet chats and news from social media. She describes how Jews are disparaged there as "filth, a plague and cancer;" how the Israeli singer Netta, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019, was called a "stupid, rotten, stinking Jewess," and how people post things like, "I hate Jews so much." Her conclusion is that hatred of Jews is a "phenomenon that affects society as a whole." Although she has spent years researching anti-Semitism, Schwarz-Friesel says she was shocked by "the scope and the vehemence of the old destructive desire on the net." And she says she sees "no significant differences" between right-wing, left-wing or Muslim anti-Semitism.

Many Jews find the anti-Semitism of Muslim immigrants and their children particularly aggressive. The bogeyman images of Israel and Judaism tend to be widespread in the countries they come from and the problem of anti-Semitism has been exacerbated by the influx of refugees from the Arab-speaking region. One of the central focuses of that anger is Israel. According to Schwarz-Friesel, Israel-related anti-Semitism is now a "predominant variant." She says, "The majority of modern anti-Semites aren't writing that the Jews are a nuisance. Rather, they write: The child murdering country of Israel needs to disappear from the map." She says it's an obsessive condemnation that ignores facts and empirical findings. And that's what distinguishes this form of anti-Semitism from legitimate criticism of Israel.

Left-wing anti-Semitism also adheres to this, but in reality, it is imbued with motives of secondary anti-Semitism. For example, when Israeli policy is compared to that of Nazi Germany, a way of rejecting the Jewish right to their own country.'

Read the article here.

I'm doubtful whether "Rent a Jew" will be able to convince the diehards, but perhaps it has a positive effect on more or less reluctant bystanders.
And the idea that you can Rent a Jew is an outstanding idea, if for no other reasons just to show that Jews are just like other people. But a side effect might be a slight reduction in feelings of loneliness and despair. After all, if you rent a Jew you rent some Jewish humor as well.

So I proudly announce that I'm also rentable. I'm not cheap, but that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm Jewish. After all, so many gentiles are rentable, sometimes they are very expensive, even more expensive than I am.