Anti-Semitism is a problem that affects society as a whole in Germany.
In the fight against prejudice, visits to places that have a very special meaning for Jews can help.
Munich - In the fight against anti-Semitism, the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, and Bavaria's anti-Semitism commissioner Ludwig Spaenle consider visits to classes in synagogues to be sensible.
She would like the synagogue tours in Munich to be even more popular with school classes and adult education centers after the Corona crisis, said Knobloch in the run-up to the "1700 years of Jewish life in Germany" ceremony on Sunday in Munich. "Anyone who wants to address the issue of hatred of Jews in society must be leveraged by education," she emphasized.
Spaenle also welcomes the visits from schoolchildren to the places of worship. However, the former Bavarian Minister of Education does not consider it sensible that classes have to do this, as it is with concentration camp memorials. There are several thousand secondary schools and about a million students there; on the other hand, there are only 13 Jewish communities in the Free State. "That is simply not logistically feasible," said Spaenle. In the case of visits to the concentration camp memorials, these are firmly anchored in the Bavarian curriculum.
The state commissioner said that in addition to the synagogues still used by the municipalities, there are numerous other places where cultural heritage is there and which are available for educational offers.
In the case of the former synagogue of Ichenhausen in the Swabian district of Günzburg, for example, there have long been exemplary offers for classes, said Spaenle.
Knobloch said she has long been calling for civic education and democracy education to be more firmly anchored in schools.
This has to start in elementary schools.
Many people know too little about Jewish life and rarely come into contact with Jewish culture.
"The gaps in knowledge are then often filled with assumptions or prejudices, and that even with children," said the President of the Israelite Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria.
As part of the anniversary year there is to be an outdoor exhibition "Jewish stories from Munich and Upper Bavaria" in the state capital.
The show takes an alphabetical foray through Jewish life on eight advertising pillars; there are three exhibition boards per pillar.
The show can be seen until October 8th.
In recent years, the number of anti-Semitic crimes in Bavaria and in the other federal states has risen sharply: Most recently, the Kripo in the Free State recorded around 350 crimes per year, predominantly right-wing extremists were the perpetrators.
Anti-Jewish incidents were also registered in numerous demonstrations by opponents of the state's corona measures.
At the opening of the exhibition on Sunday, Munich's Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) emphasized, according to the speech, that Jewish life and Jewish culture are once again a matter of course in the Bavarian capital.
"This is a great gift, the value of which cannot be overestimated."
The earliest evidence of Jewish life on the territory of today's Germany comes from the year 321. At that time, the Roman Emperor Constantine passed a law that enabled Jews to be appointed to the Cologne city council.
This year there are around 1000 events all about Jewish life across Germany.
dpa
