Halle memorial: Jewish students block far-right AfD lawmaker at synagogue

A memorial for the far-right attack on the synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle was marred Friday by a confrontation with a far-right politician. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), elected deputy speaker of Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament this week, tried to enter the synagogue grounds shortly before the midday ceremony, a police spokesperson confirmed. Activists of the Jewish Student Union of Germany (JSUD) linked arms in front of the entrance. “You are not welcome here,” JSUD president Ron Dekel told him. After a lengthy exchange, Tillschneider left.

Tillschneider complained that he had been invited. The head of Halle's Jewish community, Max Privorozki, told the Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper that the event was public and that no personal invitation had been issued. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, accused Tillschneider of trampling on the community's wish to keep the commemoration free of politics. Tillschneider is regarded as a hard-liner on the party's far right; the state's domestic intelligence agency has monitored him as an extremist since 2020.

Halle marked Oct. 9, 2019, with church bells and a minute of silence. On Yom Kippur that year, a heavily armed right-wing extremist tried to storm the synagogue, where 52 people were gathered. He failed to break through the wooden door, but then shot dead a woman passing by and a young man at a kebab shop and wounded others as he fled. The incident comes in a week in which the election of AfD politician Tobias Rausch as state parliament speaker in Magdeburg has sparked protests.