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Gil Ofarim: Anti-Semitism incident in Leipzig hotel

2021-10-05T19:38:16.012Z


The singer Gil Ofarim reports on Instagram about an anti-Semitic incident in a Leipzig hotel. The Central Council of Jews is dismayed. The hotel also reacts.


The singer Gil Ofarim reports on Instagram about an anti-Semitic incident in a Leipzig hotel.

The Central Council of Jews is dismayed.

The hotel also reacts.

Leipzig - The musician Gil Ofarim claims to have been the victim of an anti-Semitic incident in the Leipzig “Westin Hotel”.

There an employee asked him to wrap his chain with a Star of David, Ofarim reported in a video published on Instagram on Tuesday.

Then he can check in.

Before that, there was a long queue at the hotel reception due to technical problems.

Ofarim said he had lined up - with his Star of David chain around his neck.

“I am entitled to it.

I've been doing it all my life, ”Ofarim said in the video.

Again and again people were preferred.

When it was his turn after 15 minutes, he asked what that was about.

The hotel employee gave him the answer: "To straighten the queue," Ofarim himself was in it.

Thereupon "someone from the corner" shouted that he should pack his star.

The hotel employee also said: "Pack your star."

The Star of David is one of the most famous symbols associated with Judaism. It consists of a hexagram formed by two isosceles triangles interwoven. Although the hexagram appears as a Jewish symbol as early as the 7th century BC, the Star of David has only adorned synagogues since the Middle Ages and the flag of the State of Israel since 1948. During National Socialism, the Star of David was imposed on the Jews as a stigma ("Star of David").

Olaf Hoppe, spokesman for the Leipzig police, said that the alleged statement by the hotel employee was "clearly anti-Semitic" for him. The police will forward the content of the video to the public prosecutor's office, who will check that it is relevant to criminal law. Depending on the result, further determination will then be made or not. As Hoppe further explained, the police were not on site during the incident. Ofarim has not yet been spoken to. The authorities know his video and have backed it up.

Ofarim himself initially did not want to comment on the incident on Tuesday at the dpa request. According to his management, he is considering filing a criminal complaint. So far there has been no official apology from the hotel. He had to digest the events in Leipzig first and was visibly shocked. "Today would have been his father's birthday, so he doesn't want to give any further personal interviews on this topic for the time being," it said. The day is generally difficult enough for him. I ask for your forbearance and understanding.

A spokesman for the Westin Leipzig said they were concerned about the report and were taking the matter extremely seriously.

The company is trying to contact Ofarim to find out what happened.

The aim is to include, respect and support all guests and employees regardless of their religion.

Numerous users on social media were shocked.

The chairman of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, wrote in a statement on the short message service Twitter that the hostility was terrifying.

It is to be hoped that the hotel will take personal consequences.

He also hoped “that in future we will encounter solidarity when we are attacked.” The pianist Igor Levit wrote to the hotel: “Shame on you”.

The Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk (MDR) wrote on Twitter that Ofarim was the guest of a recording on behalf of the MDR on Monday evening.

What he then describes from the hotel is deeply shameful.

The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency spoke of an “incredible case of anti-Semitism” and a violation of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

“A quick response from the hotel is long overdue.

From our point of view, this cannot remain without consequences, ”wrote the federal agency on Twitter.

The chairman of the support group for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Lea Rosh, said, according to the announcement, that the musician has the unreserved solidarity of the association.

“Jews were not welcome in hotels in Germany.

That was in 1933. We demand complete clarification and personal consequences. "

Saxon politicians also spoke out.

Saxony's Interior Minister Roland Wöller (CDU) hopes that the musician will file a complaint so that the police can investigate the process.

"Saxony is a cosmopolitan state," emphasized Wöller.

Economics Minister Martin Dulig (SPD) wrote on Twitter that it made him angry what happened to Ofarim.

He spoke for the vast majority of the people in Saxony when he apologized on behalf of the anti-Semitic humiliation.

“We still have a lot to do in Saxony!” Environment Minister Wolfram Günther (Greens) was also dismayed on Twitter.

“There must be no place for anti-Semitism.

Not open, not covered.

Not in Saxony, not in Germany, nowhere. "

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On Tuesday evening, hundreds of people took part in a solidarity rally with Jews in Germany in front of the hotel, to which the alliance “Leipzig takes a seat” had called for.

The police initially estimated the number of participants in the "middle three-digit range", as a spokeswoman said.

dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-10-05

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