GÖRLITZ SYNAGOGUE KRISTALLNACHT CEREMONY NIXED

As per both the JTA and the Jerusalem Post, a ceremony marking the seventieth anniversary of Kristallnacht in the synagogue in Görlitz (Goerlitz) has been cancelled. The city insists that such a ceremony must have a secular character and be inclusive.

Instead, a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht will be held at the Protestant church in Görlitz, and will focus on all victims of the Third Reich.


There may be more here than meets the eye.


There has been a long-standing struggle over the synagogue - the town of Görlitz actually owns the building, having bought it both before reunification in 1963, and a second time from the Claims Conference after reunification.
They own it, and they restored it, at a cost of over five million Deutschmarks.

An Israeli investor, Avi Goldraich, has in recent years offered a symbolic amount to purchase the building from the city.

The group that wished to hold the Kristallnach ceremony appears to be allied with mr. Goldraich. There also appear to be connections with a business (Bombardier Transportation) located in Görlitz, partnered with an Israeli state-owned company ........ whose co-operation has reportedly been made contingent upon the sale of the synagogue to Goldraich for twenty thousand Euros.

The dispute has been longstanding, bitter, and acrimonious. Some of the verbal frenzy has been incredibly vicious and personal. I shall not repeat what has been said about mayor Joachim Paulick and his posterior.


But wait, there's more!

The synagogue, which is the only one in Saxony to have survived intact, is a festering wound to the local neo-Nazis and soccer-supporters, who have chanted anti-Semitic and anti-American slogans outside it....... And have vandalized it at times. Several times.


Perhaps the town has a point in insisting that a ceremony commemorating Kristallnach be inclusive. And it is not proper that a city government promote divisiveness on city property, certainly not in a town already divided; the section on the other side of the Lausitzer Neiße (the Lusatian Neisse river) is now Zgorzelec in Poland.
Sometimes unity is a fine thing. There's nothing wrong with trying to involve everybody.