September 26, 2016

It is rare for any Jew to heap praise on any German.  History, and specifically the Holocaust, understandably prevents the utterance of such praise from the lips of our people.  Still, in a hateful world of terrorism, attempted genocide, and persecution, a righteous German has disenthralled herself from her country’s past and emerged as a courageous leader in the fight for Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world. That leader is Angela Merkel, these past 11 years Chancellor of Germany.

For those in the Jewish community who measure the worth of all public officials only by their support for Israel (instead of making that issue a critical but not exclusive priority), Chancellor Merkel has proved a valuable ally of the Jewish State.  She has sent several attack submarines capable of bearing nuclear weapons, provided equipment to protect Israel’s offshore energy stations, and consistently opposed any boycott, divestment, and sanctions policy within the European Union.  While it is true that Merkel has criticized the government of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for his settlement policies in Judea and Samaria (a view that rightly or not is shared by most every Western country, including our own), she staunchly defended Israel’s right to exist within secure borders and has refused to draw a moral equivalency between Israel’s self defense actions and the deeds of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. In a major address in Berlin in March 2016, Merkel stated bluntly that extreme criticism of Israel is hate speech and anti-Semitism in disguise.  Merkel fully embraces the “special obligation” her nation owes Israel specifically and the Jewish people as a whole.”  Israel has no better friend in Europe that the Merkel government of Germany.

Still, there is more, much more, for which to honor Angela Merkel.  Under her Chancellorship, Germany over the past year has admitted almost 1,000,000 refugees, including hundreds of thousands from Syria.  To put this fact in proper prospective, Germany has accepted more refugees in the past 12 months than the United States has in the past 10 years.  The Chancellor has clearly ascribed to the lesson of the Hebrew Bible, at Deuteronomy 10:19: “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

It is true, as Merkel herself has admitted, that some Syrian refugees may be anti-Semitic.  However, by any fair measure, homegrown German neo-Nazis greatly exceed the number of potential Jew haters among refugees.  The far, far right party, the Alternative for Germany (“AfD”), has seized on the refugee issue and argued for a radically nativist and openly racist state, harkening back to Germany’s homicidal past.  Many AfD leaders and many of their stiff-armed saluting members are openly anti-Semitic, some are Holocaust deniers, and the party has been accused of selling Nazi era memorabilia to raise funds.  Eight of Germany’s 16 state legislatures include AfD representatives, and the party received the second-highest vote in Chancellor Merkel’s home region of Mecklenburg-Verpommern, ahead of her own Christian Democrats.  The anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic leanings of the AfD have cause great and understandable angst among German Jews.  “The fact that a right-wing extremist party that bluntly and disgustingly incites and mobilizes hatred against minorities can rise unchecked in our country is a nightmare come true,” stated Charlotte Knobloch, the former President of the Central Council of German Jews.”

Some Jews may blame the rise of German anti-Semitism on the influx of refugees into Germany.  However, this view unintentionally legitimizes the anti-immigrant and racist platform of the AfD, which seeks to establish a Herrenvolk “democracy” based on a community of shared blood rather than values.  Nativism, neo-Nazism, and anti-Semitism have lurked around the dark corners of of Germany and all Europe for decades, indeed centuries, and have required no rational justification for their emerging into the light of day.  Chancellor Merkel appears to clearly understand this, and has refused to co-opt the extremist themes of the AfD.  Instead, she has continued to defend the core principles of liberal, pluralistic democracy, insisting that incoming Middle Easterners to Germany receive extensive Holocaust education and be offered assistance to expeditiously integrate themselves into the fabric of Western society.  Merkel’s facing down of neo-Nazism, her strong support of Israel, her rejection of Holocaust denial and the scapegoating of Jews, and her embracement of a humane immigration policy make her a righteous “Christian” as well as a devoted “Democrat.” 

Whether Chancellor Merkel politically survives the challenges to her policies is an open question.  However, if she does not, her decency already will have been written in the Book of Life.  Whether Germany, Europe, and the West follow her courageous example may well determine how their cultural character may be recorded.

Bruce J. Einhorn is a retired federal judge, an adjunct professor of asylum and refugee law at Pepperdine University, and the founding president of the Coalition for the Advocacy of the Persecuted and Enslaved.