Members of the Jewish Students’ Union Germany (JSUD) have begun receiving death threats following protests they staged against Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, the Landtag Vice President of Saxony-Anhalt (AfD), on the anniversary of the 2019 synagogue attack in Halle.
Ron Dekel, the head of JSUD, told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” that since the demonstration in Halle, their group has faced “significantly more hostility and hatred-up to death threats.” Dekel holds Tillschneider and Tobias Rausch (also AfD) responsible for this escalation, noting that the hostility started after Rausch falsely labeled them as “left-wing students” in a press release issued while he served as Landtag President.
While Dekel stated the union is overwhelmed by the attacks and intends to involve the police, he declined to comment on the current investigation by the Halle public prosecutor. That investigation is looking into participants of the blockade who allegedly insulted Tillschneider by calling him a “Nazi,” but he specified that this is an ongoing legal process.
Dekel defended the protest, maintaining that right-wing extremists have no place in a synagogue. He argued that their rhetoric contributed to the possibility of such an attack, and that these individuals should not be present when survivors and victims’ families are mourning. He sharply criticized Tillschneider’s behavior, stating that the politician tried to mock the group by seeking a kosher stamp despite being “a clear antisemite who speaks of ‘guilt culture’.” According to Dekel, individuals like this must be challenged, asserting that statistical evidence proves that right-wing antisemitism, as exemplified by groups like the AfD, poses the greatest danger to Jewish life in Germany.
Shifting focus to political discourse, Dekel also critiqued the potential formation of a left-wing government in Berlin. As an organization, JSUD has spent the last three years drawing attention to the pervasive left-wing antisemitism they encounter daily on university campuses.
However, according to Dekel, the Left Party in Berlin also presents a considerable threat to Jewish life because sections of the party are openly antisemitic, a stance the leadership does not obscure in order to appeal to certain voter demographics. He insists that the SPD and the Greens must take this into account during the formation of the government. In his view, it is unacceptable for a Berlin Senate to rely on the votes of antisemitic members of the Left Party, and these members should be excluded from the faction.
