Following criticism from Jewish groups, the German government has added two Jewish members to its anti-Semitism committee, a group launched last December by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere ‘’to resolutely combat anti-Semitism and continue promoting the sustainability of Jewish life in Germany."
Jewish groups said the lack of Jewish representation was unacceptable and pledged to set up a rival body.
The two new members are Marina Chernivsky, who heads an organization in Berlin that fights anti-Semitism, and Andreas Nachama, director of the Topography of Terror Foundation, the organization which operates Berlin's museum on Nazi era.
Members of the commission includes Klaus Holz, the secretary general of the Evangelical Academy, Patrick Siegele, who runs the Berlin branch of the Anne Frank Center, and Juliane Wetzel, a historian at the Center for Anti-Semitism Research - but none of them are actually Jewish.
The commission will investigate anti-Semitism in Germany over the next two years and present its findings to the government as a basis for a discussion on how to tackle problems.
Anti-Semitic violence has been on the rise in Europe, including in Germany where, during last summer’s conflict in Gaza, protesters waving Palestinian Authority flags and pictures of late PA leader Yasser Arafat shouted anti-Semitic slogans at rallies against the Israeli military operation against Hamas.