Jewish Central Council: "The police should have a permanent presence at Jewish institutions"

- We see it as an attack on all Jews. Unfortunately, what happened in Halle could have happened in a Swedish city as well. It's disturbing and shocking, especially since it happened on the most important day of the Jewish calendar, says Aaron Verstandig the day after the deed.

Two people were killed and the attack became the third against a Jewish institution in a year. Two other synagogues, one in Pittsburgh and one in Poway, California, have been subjected to similar acts.

- It is an incredibly worrying development that shows that anti-Semitic violence is getting worse and worse. A few years ago it was mainly radical Islamist senders, now it is more extreme, says Aron Verständig.

Aron Verständig believes that the issue has been going on for a long time, partly in contacts with the police and partly with the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior.

- We have a good dialogue with the police and I think it is getting better. They have an understanding of what security challenges we have, but at the same time the police have some resource constraints. We had wished we had prioritized being at our institutions more.

Today, the Jewish Central Council itself takes security responsibility for its own institutions.

- But it's not something that we as a private organization should do - but something that society should take responsibility for, says Aron Verständig.

Also Fredrik Sieradzki, in charge of the Jewish Information Center at the Jewish Assembly Malmö, is shaken by the anti-Semitic attack in Germany.

- I have no words, it's terrible. As soon as we learned that it was happening, the rabbi stopped worship in the synagogue and informed those present and then prayed for those affected.

- The attack shows that there is a huge hatred of Jews and that unfortunately Jews are targets of terrorists. Security is extremely important to us.

Fredrik Sieradzki believes that cooperation with the police works well and that they do not want to cast any shadow on individual police officers. At the same time, he also testifies that it has long been desired that the police should have a permanent presence at the synagogue - especially at Jewish festivals, and regardless of specific threats or if something special has happened.

- We understand that the police have limited resources, but we believe that there is a real need for permanent police presence as there is a constant threat to Jewish objects.

The police central does not want to comment on the specific threat posed by Sweden's Jewish congregations, but refers to the different regions - but neither does it want to comment.

"When it comes to threats, we do not say how we arrange different forms of protection," says Ewa-Gun Westford, press spokeswoman for the Southern Police Region.