Be discreet, Danish Jews warned
2012-12-12 20:26
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Denmark
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Copenhagen - Israeli and Jewish officials in Denmark on
Wednesday warned Jews to avoid openly wearing religious symbols and dress when
moving about Copenhagen amid rising anti-Israeli sentiment.
"We advise Israelis who come to Denmark and want to
go to the synagogue to wait to don their skull caps until they enter the
building and not to wear them in the street, irrespective of whether the areas
they are visiting are seen as being safe," Israel's ambassador to Denmark,
Arthur Avnon, told AFP.
Avnon added that visitors were also advised not to
"speak Hebrew loudly" or demonstrably wear Star of David jewellery.
Denmark's national Jewish Religious Community
organisation has also advised its members, and those at the private Jewish
school in Copenhagen, to exercise caution.
Caroline Jewish School headmaster Jan Hansen told the daily
Jyllands-Posten: "It is not something that we do officially, but if the
issue comes up we would say [to our pupils] they should think twice before
walking into certain areas of Copenhagen with a skull cap or Star of
David."
The warnings come a few weeks after an attack on the
Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the wake of increasing cross-border tensions
between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and Israeli plans to expand settlements.
Some 20 demonstrators lobbed stones and fireworks at the
embassy building on 19 November. Graffiti with the word "child-killers"
was painted on the embassy entrance wall.
No one was hurt in the incident and one person has since
been charged in the attack.
Avnon said that after the attack, a lower-ranking officer
from Denmark's foreign ministry had called the embassy offering to pay for some
of the damage to the building, but that otherwise official Denmark had not
reacted to the incident.
According to figures from the Jewish Belief Centre
(Mosaisk Trossamfund), the organisation has received 37 reports of anti-Jewish
incidents this year, predominantly in the heavily immigrant Noerrebro
neighbourhood and around the Jewish synagogue in central Copenhagen.
Denmark's Jewish community is estimated at between 6 000
and 8 000 people.
