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Police in front of the synagogue in Hamburg
Photo: Jonas Walzberg / dpa
The exact circumstances of the incident in Hamburg have not yet been clarified.
Above all, the motive of the perpetrator remains open at this point.
The scene and time of the attack, however, make an anti-Semitic background likely.
The Orthodox Rabbinical Conference Germany (ORD) has now described the attack on a Jewish student as "another shock for the Jewish community in Germany".
During the Jewish tabernacle festival, a 29-year-old man in Bundeswehr-style clothing attacked a 26-year-old on Sunday afternoon who was about to enter the grounds of the Hohe Weide synagogue in Hamburg's Eimsbüttel district.
According to the police, the suspect inflicted a serious head injury on the victim with a folding spade.
The 29-year-old was arrested at the scene and, according to the police, makes an "extremely confused impression".
It is very difficult to hear him.
The attacker is German with Kazakh roots.
It is unclear where he got the military camouflage suit that he wore during the crime in the afternoon.
He is said to have had a piece of paper with a swastika in his pocket.
"It is unbearable to see hatred and violence against Jews repeatedly erupting on German streets, of all times during the highest Jewish holidays and one year after the terrible assassination attempt in Halle," said the ORD board member Avichai Apel on Sunday.
The question about the police presence on site is getting louder
"Jewish life as a whole must be better protected in this country," said Apel.
Politics and society must act "even more decisively against hatred and agitation on the Internet, against right-wing extremists, against the neo-Nazi scene and crude conspiracy theorists, and do more for prevention, educational work and the promotion of civil courage".
The chairman of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, expressed his horror at the act of violence.
He was sad that a year after the attack in Halle on the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, a German Jewish community was again confronted with a "violent, anti-Semitic act of terrorism," said Lauder.
Although the local police reacted quickly to deter the attacker from further acts of violence, the police presence was too low to prevent the attack.
Clear statement from the Foreign Minister
German authorities would have to ask themselves: "Why does this happen again and again?", Lauder continued.
It is the responsibility of the German government to strengthen education so that "the next generation understands that hatred of any kind is never allowed".
It depends on whether Jewish life works in Germany in the long term.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote of "disgusting anti-Semitism" on Twitter.
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak wrote that the attack was "a disgusting act".
Protecting Jewish life in Germany would remain "our daily duty".
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