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Mainz (dpa / lrs) - A new guide is intended to sharpen the senses of police officers, public prosecutors and judges in Rhineland-Palatinate for anti-Semitic crimes.

For example, according to the Ministry of Justice, perpetrators can choose high Jewish holidays, birthdays or deaths of Nazi leaders or local proximity to Jewish institutions for their actions, which is not always immediately obvious.

The anti-Semitic scene can therefore use certain codes and ciphers.

The Koblenz attorney general Jürgen Brauer gave the example of a thug with the right-wing extremist tattoo "19/8" in a video link on Tuesday.

According to the sequence of letters in the alphabet, these digits would stand for "Sieg Heil".

If an investigator noticed this, he could also pay more attention to whether, for example, the victim was a Jew or the day of the crime was a Jewish holiday.

According to the Ministry of Justice in Mainz, the public prosecutor's offices in Koblenz and Zweibrücken, in coordination with the anti-Semitism commissioner of the state government, Dieter Burgard, created the guide “Recognizing anti-Semitic criminal offenses”.

The law to combat right-wing extremism and hate crime, which was passed by the Bundestag and has not yet come into force, provides for a change in criminal law.

With an addition to a catalog of certain reasons for sentencing, it will be made clear in future, according to the ministry, “that anti-Semitic motives are to be taken into account in order to increase the severity of the penalty”.

The guideline should help to recognize this.

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Justice Minister Herbert Mertin (FDP) emphasized: "In 2019, Rhineland-Palatinate public prosecutors conducted a total of 73 preliminary investigations into criminal offenses with an anti-Semitic background - every single act is one too many."

Burgard added a day before Holocaust Remembrance Day on this Wednesday: "Anti-Semitism not only threatens Jews, it concerns us all because it is a challenge to our fundamental values."

With the twelve-page guideline, "the fight against anti-Semitic crimes will be significantly strengthened and a clear signal will be set against exclusion, intolerance and misanthropy".

Mertin and Burgard also suggested that in future the anti-Semitism commissioner's powers of information in criminal proceedings with anti-Semitic references should be given a separate legal basis.

That would be comparable to the state law on the ombudsman of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the officer for the state police.

The chairman of the regional association of the Jewish communities of Rhineland-Palatinate, Avadislav Avadiev, welcomed the new handout.

Anti-Semitism has increased significantly.

"When I came to Germany about 25 years ago, I couldn't imagine it," he told the German press agency.

Avadiev recalled, among other things, the attack at the synagogue in Halle in October 2019 with two dead.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, too, many Jewish events have long had to be protected by the police.

The Internet and social media still promoted the rapid spread of anti-Jewish thoughts.

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Avadiev recalled the festival year that had just begun, “1700 years of Jewish life in Rhineland-Palatinate”.

More than 70 events are planned for 2021.

The state chairman of the Jewish communities also referred to the Schum sites in Worms, Mainz and Speyer.

Schum stands for their first Hebrew letters.

In the summer of 2021, Unesco will decide whether the Jewish sites of the Middle Ages will become World Heritage.

Aside from Jewish prayer and event rooms, there are seven synagogues with church services in Rhineland-Palatinate, according to Avadiev: in Mainz, Worms, Bad Kreuznach, Trier, Kaiserslautern, Speyer and Koblenz.

The synagogue there is only a temporary solution and is to be replaced by a new building for around seven million euros.

Avadiev is hoping for the laying of the foundation stone later this year.

In addition, there are several dozen listed synagogues without church services in Rhineland-Palatinate.

According to Avadiev, around 3,300 Jews are registered in their five communities across the country.

Overall, however, there were certainly three times more Jews living in Rhineland-Palatinate.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210127-99-191017 / 2