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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