”We acknowledge and appreciate the  moral position of the German government, and its commitment to the Jewish community that lives there, but fears about the security of German Jews are a capitulation to anti-Semitism and an admittance that, again, Jews are not safe on German soil,’’ said Israel’s President Rivlin.

BERLIN—In April 2018, Josef Schuster, president of Germany’s main Jewish representative body, the Zentralrat, de Juden in Deutschland, declared he would advise people visiting big cities against wearing kippot or Jewish skullcaps, following a street assault last week on an Arab Israeli young man wearing it.

The attack in Berlin, in which a 19-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker of Palestinian origin is a suspect, added to growing concern in Germany about anti-Semitism.

In response to the attack, the Berlin Jewish community then organized a “Berlin wears a kippah”  demonstration against anti-Semitism during which a broad coalition from interfaith backed the protest in front of the Jewish community center in the German capital.

This Sunday, the German Jewish leader weighed in again on the antisemitism debate when he told the weekly Welt am Sonntag that the security situation for Jews has “deteriorated” in major cities.

“On the whole I don’t tend to dramatize, but the situation has by and large really deteriorated,” Schuster said. ‘’It has been the case for a while now that Jews are at risk in some major cities if recognizable as Jews,” he added.

The so-called ‘’kippah debate’’ was triggered last week by German government’s anti-Semitism Commissioner Felix Klein who warned that the Jewish community in Germany should avoid donning kippot  in some public spaces.

“I cannot advise Jews to wear the kippah everywhere all the time in Germany,” Klein said in an interview carried by the Funke media group on Saturday. “It is to be welcomed if this situation receives more attention at the highest political level,” Schuster said of Klein’s warning.

But Klein’s statements drew angry reactions from some Jewish groups and also in particular from  Israeli president Reuven Rivlin who said he was ‘’shocked’’ by the comments and spoke of a ‘’capitulation to anti-Semitism.’’

‘’Responsibility for the welfare, the freedom and the right to religious belief of every member of the German Jewish community is in the hands of the German government and its law enforcement agencies. We acknowledge and appreciate the  moral position of the German government, and its commitment to the Jewish community that lives there, but fears about the security of German Jews are a capitulation to anti-Semitism and an admittance that, again, Jews are not safe on German soil,’’ Rivlin said. .

‘’We will never submit, will never lower our gaze and will never react to anti-Semitism with defeatism – and expect and demand our allies act in the same way,” he said.

The number of attacks against Jews in Germany increased from 1,504 in 2017 to 1,646 in 2018 — a rise of 10%. The number of reported cases of violence against Jews rose from 37 to 62 over the same period, according to official figures.

Around 200,000 Jews live in Germany.

‘’All of society needs to be vigilant,’’ said German Justice Minister Katarina Barley.

“We must protect Jewish life with all the legal means of our constitutional state and hold perpetrators accountable right away,” she told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

‘’Increasing violence against Jews is shameful for Germany, ‘’ she added.

The U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, said the German people should take the matter into their own hands.  “Wear your kippa. Wear your friend’s kippa. Borrow a kippa and wear it for our Jewish neighbors. Educate people that we are a diverse society,” he tweeted.

Germany’s best-selling newspaper Bild printed an extraordinary front-page commentary with a cut-out kippah. The paper’s editor-in-chief , Julian Reichelt, wrote : ‘’Bild printed a kippah to cut out because it should not be allowed that Jews in Germany have to hide after the Holocaust in order to be safe. Our society has failed” if Jews in Germany cannot wear kippot.’’

He  appealed to the paper’s readers to put together and wear the kippah, “so your friends and neighbors can see it. Explain to your children what the kippah is, and post pictures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.”

Reichelt urged readers to “Go on the street wearing the kippah.” On page three of the mass circulation paper, there are instructions on how to assemble the kippah from the cut out.