Hanover: On the highest Jewish holiday: Attack on the synagogue! | Regional
On the highest Jewish holiday |
Attack on synagogue in Hanover
Cowardly attack while the faithful were praying!
On Wednesday, Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, a window at the synagogue in Hanover (Lower Saxony) was damaged. As the “Hannoversche Allgemeine” (HAZ) reports, a stone or other hard object was thrown through a stained glass window on the women’s gallery during the service at around 7 p.m. The police confirmed the incident and are still investigating.
According to the congregation, 150 to 200 people had gathered in the synagogue to pray. Towards the end of the service, visitors heard a clang and a bang. There was a hole in the window about six meters up.
Michael Fürst, the chairman of the congregation: “The perpetrator must have entered the synagogue premises. This is shocking to the community.”
And further: “It is the first time in Hanover that something like this has happened. There’s a lot to suggest someone climbed the fence. It couldn’t have been children.”
Yom Kippur again
► The attack brings back bad memories of the attack in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt) three years ago. Heavily armed, right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic assassin Stephan Balliet also had Yom Kippur on October 9, 2019 (falls on different dates in September or October from year to year). tries to cause a bloodbath in the packed synagogue of the Jewish community in Halle. He threw incendiary and explosive devices and shot at the access door, but could not get onto the premises because the door withstood the attack.
He shot a passer-by in front of the synagogue and a 20-year-old in a nearby kebab shop. The Naumburg Higher Regional Court sentenced the perpetrator to life imprisonment with subsequent preventive detention.
After the attack in Halle, the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony agreed with the state government after lengthy negotiations to strengthen security systems. Work on the synagogue in Hanover should begin soon.
(ckr/dpa/epd)