Based on material from The Forward. The leading Jewish newspaper in the US reports that Rotem Ahituv, a German Jew and an immigrant from Israel, wrapped in the black, red and gold German flag, spoke to a group of right wing protestors:
Pegida founder Lutz Bachmann, dressed as Hitler.
“I am Jewish. My family has lived here in Germany for 700 years, and I can tell you that I see here no Nazis.”
Rotem was addressing a few thousand anti Muslim demonstrators .. members of “Pegida,” the populist right-wing movement that had organized the January 26 demonstration. The group, whose Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, has organized similar demonstrations across Germany and recently in Spain. The message is restrictive immigration and, ironically, preservation of a “Christian-Jewish” culture.
Responding to accusations that Pegida is a recrudescent Nazi movement, Rotem said “Right here I see only Germans who love their country and want to save Germany from the Islam that wants to take over, to take your traditions, to take your beliefs, to take all of this down,” he said. “But we will not let it!”
Josef Schuster, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called Pegida an “immensely dangerous” movement that consists of neo-Nazis, parties from the far right and citizens who think that they can finally let out their racism and xenophobia. The Pegida-movement definitely doesn’t serve the interests of Germany’s Jewish community. They want to exclude the Muslims and foreigners [from] German society. Somebody who roots against one minority is also able to root against other minorities”
Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, voiced the same fear. “Their actions — racially, religiously, socially, economically or otherwise justified are directed today against one group, and tomorrow against another. Since the Second World War, Germany has been a place of democracy, pluralism and freedom. These values should be treasured … Those who incite racism and anti-Semitism use the democratic rules of the game to hurt democracy.”