As part of the ongoing 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany, Norbert Lammert, the president of Germany’s Bundestag legislature, gave a speech at the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday. He said, “We must be resolute in curbing anti-Semitism in Europe.”
Opening his speech with a few lines in Hebrew, Lammert said, “Thank you for your kind invitation and warm welcome.” Switching to German, he called it “a great privilege, and also a pleasure, to speak to the representatives of Israel, home to Jews from all over the world, here in the Knesset, the beating heart of a strong democratic state, an open and free society, and the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.”
Regarding the close ties that have developed between Israel and Germany over the decades, Lammert said, “The intensity of the friendly relations between our two countries is indeed one of history’s miracles.”
Speaking about Germany’s Jewish community, Lammert said, “We are especially grateful, too, that after the traumatic experiences of National Socialist dictatorship and the Holocaust, Jewish life has once again resumed in Germany.” He announced that the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism would be holding a conference in Berlin next year.
“We recognize that nowhere in the world has anti-Semitism [that] had more devastating consequences than in Germany,” Lammert said.
JNS.ORG
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
