Dr.

Schuster, on Sunday you were elected for a third term as chairman of the Central Council of Jews.

One of your most pressing tasks will be to deal with the increasingly open anti-Semitism.

What do you intend to do about it?

Heike Schmoll

Political correspondent in Berlin, responsible for “Bildungswelten”.

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The problem has been seen and recognized in large parts of society, especially when it comes to violent right-wing extremist anti-Semitism.

But the incidents at the documenta and how they were dealt with do give me cause for concern.

I see combating anti-Semitism primarily as a task for non-Jewish society as a whole.

However, the Central Council will always have to put its finger in the wound and thus encourage others to get involved and position themselves accordingly.

What possibilities do you see for improving the prosecution of anti-Semitic crimes so that Jewish people can feel safe again in Germany?

I would like clear judgments from the judiciary.

Court judgments are too often softened with reference to a difficult childhood or problematic overall circumstances in the sentence, and the deeds are thus put into perspective.

In my experience, suspended sentences often have no deterrent effect.

It must be clear: anti-Semitism is not a trivial offense, but rather illegal behavior that must be punished accordingly.

I see it as a positive development that there are now anti-Semitism officers in the judiciary in some federal states, including Bavaria.

The Berlin public prosecutor's office also has an anti-Semitism officer who can sensitize public prosecutors to the issue in detail and in depth, as well as take a critical look at case law.

According to a recent survey, 49 percent of Germans would like to draw a line under the Nazi past.

There are still Shoah survivors who can report.

What is the Central Council doing to keep responsible memory of the Holocaust alive in German society?

First of all, the result of the study does not surprise me, because it corresponds to our experience.

In the culture of remembrance, however, it is not about guilt but about knowing what happened and being sensitized so that something like this can never happen again.

There is no collective guilt for the past, but there is something like a collective responsibility for what lies ahead.

Where do you think legitimate criticism of the State of Israel ends and turns into anti-Semitism?

Israel is in a democracy - just like the Federal Republic of Germany, where everyone has the right to express factual criticism of government decisions.

One can also be critical of the decisions of the Israeli government.

However, the moment Israel is demonized, the state's right to exist is denied, or Israel is measured by different standards than other states, the point has been reached where legitimate criticism has passed.

"Israel" is then often used as a synonym for Jews - one does not want to say "Jews" and then simply speaks of Israel.