After living in France and the USA, Mendel Gurewitz, who was born in Brooklyn in 1974, has lived with his family in Offenbach since 1998. The rabbi heads the Jewish community, which has around 700 members, and was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse last Friday, January 1, 2021. He and his family were violently insulted as they left the synagogue. As the rabbi himself reports, thanks to the courageous intervention of neighbors, the attacker, a drunken resident, was quickly apprehended.
Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke picked up the phone on this occasion and had the rabbi personally describe what had happened. Schwenke assured Gurewitz of the solidarity of the city and the magistrate. Even if expressions of solidarity are often of little help in specific individual cases, they are nevertheless important for the general mood. "The rabbi is one of us, an Offenbacher. He is welcome here and must be able to move freely and safely," says Schwenke, making it unmistakably clear what applies to him and all members of the municipal council.
"I am proud and happy to live here with my family," emphasized the rabbi in a telephone conversation with the Lord Mayor. It was very important to him to express this. Attacks of this kind are always shocking, Gurewitz also wrote on his Facebook page, especially in Germany in 2021, but he was overwhelmed by the reaction of his neighbors, residents and passers-by, with people from different backgrounds defending him, the rabbi. "Offenbach is a good city, with the best people," said Gurewitz in his post.
"I'm glad that the neighbors reacted the way they did. That's exactly what matters: not looking away, but helping. Anyone who engages in anti-Semitic ranting must feel that not only the city council, but also the majority of people, civil society, does not want this," concluded Dr. Schwenke.