–San Diego Jewish World compilation-
Separate shootings on Saturday, Feb. 14, killed filmmaker Finn Nørgaard at a free speech event, and about ten hours later Dan Uzan, 37, a member of the Copenhagen Jewish community, who was guarding a bat mitzvah celebration at a Jewish community building near Denmark’s Krystalgade synagogue. Five Danish police officers were wounded, and a lone gunman was killed by officers. He was subsequently identified as Danish-born Abdul Hamid El-Hussein, 22, and police said that it was believed he was the trigger man in both shootings.
Nørgaard had been attending an event at the Krudttoenden Cultural Center where a featured speaker was Lars Vilks, the cartoonist who has faced repeated death threats since he drew caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in 2007. The gunman fired multiple shots with a semi-automatic through the window of the center, according to police.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, in reaction to the shootings on Saturday, Feb. 14, in Copenhagen called upon the Jews of Europe to migrate to Israel. At the start of his Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Feb. 15, Netanyahu said:
“Extremist Islamic terrorism has struck Europe again, this time in Denmark. We send our condolences to the Danish people and to the Jewish community in Denmark. Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews and this wave of terrorist attacks – including murderous anti-Semitic attacks – is expected to continue.
Of course, Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe. I would like to tell all European Jews and all Jews wherever they are: ‘Israel is the home of every Jew.’
Today we will submit to the Cabinet a NIS 180 million plan to encourage the absorption of immigrants from France, Belgium and Ukraine. We will submit additional plans later. To the Jews of Europe and to the Jews of the world I say that Israel is waiting for you with open arms.
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The White House on Saturday, Feb. 14, responded to the violence in Copenhagen by releasing a statement from Bernadette Mehan, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, who said:
“The United States condemns today’s deplorable shooting in Copenhagen. We offer our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased victim, and our thoughts are with those wounded in this attack. We have been in close contact with our Danish counterparts and stand ready to lend any assistance necessary to the investigation.”
In that the statement referred to a single shooting, it may have dealt solely with the attack on the Free Speech event and have been issued prior to the attack on the synagogue.
On Sunday, Feb. 15, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki released the following statement:
The United States condemns the terrorist attacks that took place over the weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first attack on Saturday was against a meeting to discuss art, religion, and free speech. The second, early Sunday morning, was against a synagogue. Our deepest condolences go out to the family of the victims who were killed, and our thoughts are with the security officials injured in these terror attacks.
We remain in communication with Danish authorities and have offered to be of assistance in any way needed. The people of the United States stand united with the people of Denmark and all others who defend the universal right of freedom of speech and stand against anti-semitism and bigotry in all its forms.
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American Jewish Committee (AJC) Executive Director David Harris called the attacks in Copenhagen, including the one against a synagogue, “deplorable and despicable acts of terror” that are another “wake-up call to European leaders of the urgent threats to democratic societies and the values they embody.”
“One can only imagine the horror if the shooter had succeeded in actually entering the synagogue, where a Bat Mitzvah ceremony was in progress,” said Harris. Some 80 people were inside the synagogue at the time, a leader of Denmark’s Jewish community told a Danish radio station.
The Denmark synagogue attack came barely a month after a radical Islamist terrorist killed four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris, which occurred two days after other jihadists carried out a murderous atttack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. In total, seventeen innocent people were killed in three Paris attacks.
“As AJC has been saying for 15 years to Europe’s top political leaders, European core values such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship and pluralism are inextricably intertwined with the well-being and security of the continent’s Jewish communities,” said Harris. “European nations individually and collectively must confront anti-Semitism with utmost urgency. Jews should not once again have to live in fear in Europe.”
Harris and other AJC representatives, including the directors of AJC’s offices in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Rome, have been pressing European leaders to recognize the urgency of the danger, the specificity of anti-Semitism, and the need to take concrete steps to make clear that confronting anti-Semitism is a high and sustained priority.
AJC urges the EU and its member states to establish a high-level task force on anti-Semitism, enhance round-the-clock security at synagogues, schools and other Jewish institutions, and utilize all other tools available through education, law enforcement, justice, and transnational cooperation to confront the threat to Jewish communities and European democratic values.
“Sadly, no country can assume today that jihadist violence against Jews and other symbols of liberal democracy will not happen there,” Harris added.
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The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed “shock and outrage” at news of the terrorist attack targeting members of a European Jewish community and a democratic society. The League said the shootings “should serve as another wake-up call to all of Europe” to the continued clear and present danger posed by individuals motivated by radical interpretations of Islam.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
We are deeply shocked and outraged by the coordinated terror attacks on a synagogue and an event to promote the exercise of free speech in Denmark.
This latest attack, apparently motivated by anti-Semitism and radical Islamic extremist ideology, is another assault on democracy and free society. It should, and indeed it must, serve as another wake-up call to all of Europe. What kind of madness is this when a Jewish community cannot celebrate a bat mitzvah without fear of attack?
The attacks in Copenhagen are tragic reminders that Islamic extremists target Jews and democratic freedoms together. As with the recent terror attacks in Paris, once again we see that anti-Semitism is at the core of Islamic extremist ideology. This link has not been sufficiently understood throughout Europe, despite the Paris attacks.
With Jews in the crosshairs, there is an urgent need for European leaders to act quickly and effectively to ensure their safety.
A recent ADL poll in Denmark found relatively low levels of anti-Semitic attitudes among the general population. According to the ADL Global 100 Survey, fielded in late 2013 and early 2014, only 9 percent of adults harbor anti-Semitic attitudes in Denmark, the same level as found in the United States and one of the lowest findings in Western Europe.
In a letter to Jair Melchior, the Chief Rabbi of Denmark, ADL expressed condolences to the family of Mr. Uzan and the Danish Jewish community, and to the family of Finn Nørgaard, the filmmaker murdered at an event to promote the exercise of free speech.
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The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) issued the following statement regarding the latest attack on a Jewish community in Europe.
Since the start of the new year, two groups have found themselves targeted in Europe: satirists and Jews. First in Paris and now in Copenhagen, two of the foundational values of Western-style democracies have come under attack. The first is the freedom to identify openly and without fear as part of a religious or ethnic minority group; the second is the freedom of expression that permits satirical commentary about such groups.
“These attacks are not just attacking these individual communities, but the very foundations of freedom of expression, tolerance and security that we have come to expect in Western style democracies” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
“There is never justification for attacks on innocent people and we are particularly upset about attacks based on anti-Semitism. The JCPA community stands united with the victims, their families, and all of European Jewry during their hour of need” said Susan W. Turnbull, chair of the JCPA . “We hope that this recent attack will galvanize the world to take the steps needed to stem the tide of such violence and work towards a more tolerant future”
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Preceding compiled from news releases. Your signed comment may be posted in the space provided below or sent to donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com