Arson attempted on German synagogue
BERLIN (JTA) — German officials condemned an attempted arson on a new synagogue in the city of Mainz.
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue on Saturday evening. No one was injured and there was no damage.
The firebomb went out after landing on a tree. Witnesses who saw the short-lived flames informed police immediately, but there was no need to douse any flames, according to reports.
Police and prosecutors have set up a hot-line for tips.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called the deed "despicable" and insisted that it be investigated thoroughly.
"There can be no place for anti-Semitism in our society," he said, according to reports.
Karl Peter Bruch, the interior minister for the state of Rhineland-Pfalz, of which Mainz is the capital, called it "an attack on our democracy, our basic values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence."
Charlotte Knobloch, the outgoing president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, praised the response of politicians but said she was surprised at the relative lack of condemnation in the German media.
The new Jewish community center and synagogue in Mainz was dedicated in September. It was built on the site of the original synagogue that was set ablaze in the pan-Germanic Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews and Jewish institutions on Nov. 9, 1938.
There have been several arson attacks on Jewish institutions in Germany this year, including one in August that damaged the funeral chapel of the New Jewish Cemetery in Dresden.
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