Jewish Students Block Far-Right Politician From Entering Synagogue in Halle

Jewish students on Friday prevented a senior politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party from entering a synagogue in Halle, eastern Germany. The politician who was elected deputy president of the state parliament this week, had sought to attend a ceremony commemorating the seventh anniversary of an antisemitic terrorist attack at the site on Yom Kippur in 2019. After a lengthy argument and police mediation attempts, the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt eventually left the premises, according to German media reports. The Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, the deputy chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, was elected to his parliamentary role on Tuesday, the same day his party colleague Tobias Rausch was elected president of the parliament. This marks the first time since World War II that a representative of a far-right party holds the presidency of a German parliament, following the AfD's recent success in state elections where it became the largest party with approximately 44% of the vote. The Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt claimed he was attending the ceremony as Rausch's representative. A dozen activists from the Jewish Student Union in Germany formed a human chain at the synagogue's entrance, blocking the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt's path. Ron Dekel, president of the union, told the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt in a video documenting the confrontation, "You are not welcome here." When the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt asked Dekel who he was, Dekel identified himself and stated, "We will not let our memorial ceremony be hijacked. We will not let a far-right extremist enter our synagogue again." Seven years ago, on Yom Kippur, a neo-Nazi terrorist attempted to break into the synagogue, where about 50 worshippers were present. He fired at the door but failed to breach it. After this failure, while livestreaming his actions, he murdered a 40-year-old passerby near the synagogue and a 20-year-old man at a nearby doner stand. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. A year later, the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt described the attacker in the state parliament as "a madman who acted alone" and denied any political connection to the attack. The Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, 48, is considered one of the AfD's prominent ideologues and was reportedly central to drafting the party's election platform in the state. He has been a member of the party since 2013, served in the state parliament since 2016, and is the party's deputy chairman in the state. He was a founder of the party's extremist wing, and the domestic intelligence agency has monitored him since 2020 due to his classification as an extremist. He is known for his opposition to Holocaust remembrance education and Germany's historical responsibility following it. In July, he told Politico that Nazi history remains present in Germany "strangely, like a zombie," adding, "This is not normal. This is not good." He also announced plans to change history lessons to reflect the slogan "More Bismarck, less Hitler," which was recently removed from the party's platform. Two weeks after the October 7th massacre, the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt claimed in a TikTok video that Israel was "collectively punishing the Palestinians" and that an entire people should not be held responsible for the actions of a few. He added, "The same is true for Germans and the Holocaust." Around the same time, in an interview with a far-right Austrian magazine, he raised the possibility that the US had "given a push" to the Hamas attack through its secret contacts with the organization. The parliament in Saxony-Anhalt, now headed by a far-right representative, issued an official statement in Rausch's name titled "Protesters Prevented AfD Deputy President from Participating in Memorial Ceremony!". The statement claimed a "group of left-wing students" blocked the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, called him a Nazi, and "falsely claimed" he had spoken out against Jewish life in Germany, while police and city officials did nothing to allow him entry despite repeated requests. The official statement referred to the 2019 attack as an "act of frenzy." the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt himself stated that he was prevented from attending the ceremony by "mob behavior" and that this proves "how little respect these students have for the elected representatives of the people." He added, "I have never spoken out against Jewish life, neither explicitly nor implicitly, on the contrary." Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, stated that the Jewish community in Halle wished to dedicate the day to the victims without any political exploitation, and that the Deputy Chairman of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, in his attempt to participate, "trampled on this wish." Regarding the description of the attacker as "a madman who acted alone," Schuster asserted, "Whoever denies the antisemitic and far-right extremist nature of the attack mocks the victims and has no place at a proper memorial ceremony." The question now is whether BSW, a populist party that split from the far-left, will allow the AfD to form a government in the state, as it allowed them to take the presidency of the parliament. Besides both parties being pro-Russian, their closeness is also evident in their stance on Israel. A June 2025 INSA poll showed that 75% of AfD voters and 83% of BSW voters opposed the continued sale of German arms to Israel.