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DECEMBER 26 • 2019 | 29

Jews in the D

him for making too much noise. Then
Balliet proceeded to a nearby kebab
shop, where he shot and killed a man
identified only as Kevin S. Balliet. He
later told police he was motivated by
anti-Semitism.
Worshippers remained in the syna-
gogue for hours before they were evacu-
ated by police to a nearby hospital, where
they continued their holiday services.
“It was intense and emotional,” one
participant said.
The shooting sent shock waves
through the tiny Jewish community of
Halle, which numbers about 500 people.
It also sparked outrage from leaders of
German Jewry, who demanded to know
why the synagogue was left unguarded
on the holiest day of the Jewish calen-
dar. Josef Schuster, head of the Central
Council of Jews in Germany, called the
failure “scandalous,” and said if police
had been there, they could have dis-
armed the gunman before he harmed
anyone.

STILL NO ISRAELI PM
Israeli politics are a hot mess right now.
In April, national elections resulted in
a tie between Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’
s Likud party and his princi-
pal challenger, the Blue and White party
led by former general Benny Gantz.

Netanyahu failed to form a government,
so Israelis went back to the polls in
September and again delivered no clear
winner: 33 seats for Blue and White, 32
for Likud. First Netanyahu tried to form
a government, then Gantz. Neither suc-
ceeded.
Israel has now entered uncharted ter-
ritory: It appears headed for a third elec-
tion, likely to take place in early March.
The only thing Israelis probably agree
on right now is how unpalatable another
election will be.

NETANYAHU CORRUPTION CHARGES
As if the Israeli political situation wasn’
t
complicated enough, Netanyahu was
indicted in November on multiple
charges of corruption, including bribery
and breach of public trust.
The most serious case alleges that
he traded political favors to the largest
shareholder of the telecommunications
giant Bezeq in exchange for favorable
news coverage. Netanyahu also was
accused of accepting gifts totaling
$200,000 from Hollywood producer
Arnon Milchan in exchange for political
assistance, and of seeking positive cov-
erage from the daily newspaper Yediot
Acharonot in exchange for advancing a
law that would have hurt a competitor.
Netanyahu called the indictment a

“witch hunt” and an attempted coup.
He had 30 days to seek immunity from
prosecution in the Knesset, his country’
s
parliament. A decision is expected early
next year.

HATE CRIMES SPIKING
Around the world, law enforcement and
community organizations found that
hate crimes continued to rise, with Jews
often the most common targets.
In April, the Anti-Defamation League
reported that 1,879 anti-Semitic inci-
dents occurred in 2018, the third-highest
tally in the four decades the ADL has
been conducting annual audits. In July,
the Canadian government reported that
Jews were the most targeted minority
group for the third straight year, even
as hate crimes against other groups fell.
And, in August, the British Jewish com-
munity’
s anti-Semitism watchdog report-
ed the highest number of anti-Semitic
incidents ever in the first six months of
2019.
In Brooklyn, a series of violent attacks
against visibly Jewish victims caused
alarm. Three were reported in one
week in August alone. The situation led
the city to create a new Office for the
Prevention of Hate Crimes and install
Devorah Lauter, a former ADL official, at
its helm.

LEFT: Orthodox Jewish men walk past security vehicles in the Brooklyn neighborhood of
Crown Heights, Feb. 27, 2019. MIDDLE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliv-
ers a statement to the press after a Security Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Nov. 12, 2019.
RIGHT: People mourn in front of the entrance to the Jewish synagogue in Halle, Germany,
Oct. 10, 2019.

MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90

JENS SCHLUETER/GETTY IMAGES