Wiesenthal Center Denounces German Authorities' Mishandling of Anti-Semitic Assault in Bonn

July 12, 2018

“Are European authorities misusing ‘psychiatric evaluation’ to whitewash anti-Semitism?” asks Center official.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage over the response and disposition of an assault yesterday of an Israeli professor by a 20 year-old German/Palestinian.

“Media reports on how the incident was handled are deeply disturbing,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Global Social Action, adding, “First, police admit they confused perpetrator and victim. “It is difficult to fathom how a middle aged professor wearing a kippah would be identified as the perpetrator?”

Cooper continued, “Then comes word that the suspect, rather than being held in jail, received a psychiatric evaluation and then sent home? We are deeply concerned that in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, that ‘psychiatric evaluations’ are being used to whitewash anti-Semitic acts instead of confronting and dealing forthrightly with violent Jew-hatred.”

“During his recent visit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, we told German President Steinmeier of our concerns that German authorities aren’t doing anything to confront the anti-Semitism that many Arab and Muslim in Germany harbor. The incident in Bonn is yet another indication that Germany is not yet taking this source of anti-Semitism seriously enough. The Wiesenthal Center urges Chancellor Merkel’s government to expand the budget and powers of Felix Klein the Anti-Semitism Commissioner to ensure police and other state entities are properly trained to respond to such hateful attack,” Rabbi Cooper concluded.

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. Join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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