Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt advises taking Germany's Far Right seriously

When Angela Merkel threw open Germany’s borders to millions of Middle Eastern migrants in 2015, the public, who hadn’t been asked, were uneasy about such an influx from countries with cultures completely alien to Western democracies. Almost a decade on, they’re feeling betrayed, ignored, and patronized on immigration, and they’ve made their feelings clear at the ballot box. In East German state elections on September 1, extremist anti-immigration parties scooped up close to half of all votes.

Amid the subsequent hand-wringing and high-horse mounting by an aghast political class, an appeal not to ignore these seismic results emerged from a most unlikely source. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, head of Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and a figure closely associated with Europe’s centrist establishment, issued a statement warning that the results represented real concerns expressed by voters that were being ignored by mainstream parties.

“If the political center will continue to ignore those issues, those political parties will disappear and the threatening, extreme ones will only grow stronger,” his statement said.

Indeed, the results were grim for Olaf Scholz’s ruling center-left coalition of Social Democrats, Free Democrats, and Greens. All three parties scraped the single digits, while the hard-right AfD finished first in Thuringia and missed victory in Saxony by 1.3%. The far-left BSW, an unorthodox fusion of left-wing economics and cultural conservatism founded only months ago, scored in the double digits.

Speaking to Mishpacha, Rabbi Goldschmidt doubles down on his concerns that the political center has ignored immigration for too long, and events conspired to prove his point: Hours before the interview, an armed Austrian-born Islamist attempted to attack the Israeli consulate on the 52nd anniversary of the Munich Olympics massacre, less than 100 meters from the CER main office.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Rabbi Goldschmidt is deeply worried about the practical implications of the AfD’s rise: “They say, ‘The last 80 years we’ve been apologizing for the Holocaust. Enough, we’ve paid and said enough.’ ”

He believes this could lead to less support for the Jewish community — and for Israel, whose strongest EU ally is Germany. Rabbi Goldschmidt offers two reasons why centrist politicians have been so reluctant to respond to voters’ concerns on immigration.

“Until now, they thought danger only comes from the right,” he says. “It comes now from Islamic radicalism even more than from the extreme right. And they’ve been very liberal in accepting everyone without checks. The world has changed. People are worried about their security — they don’t recognize Europe anymore. To stay relevant to voters, they have to start giving solutions.”

These results are far from anomalous. They follow 4 million votes in July for border hawks Reform UK, and a near-victory in June by Marine Le Pen in France. Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni have also reaped political dividends from their anti-immigration stances.

Rabbi Goldschmidt acknowledges that the tide is beginning to turn in the public discourse in recognition of voter sentiments. “Today, there are strong reactions in Germany and other countries to immigration, as well as to imams preaching radicalism.” He tempers this, however, with a note of caution: “The response is getting stronger, but we’re not there yet.”

And Then There Were Five

Five contenders remain in the race to become leader of an unprecedentedly diminished UK Conservative Party. Former home secretary Priti Patel was knocked out in the first parliamentary stage, having garnered the fewest votes from MPs. In rank order, here are the survivors:

• Robert Jenrick, former minister and immigration hawk who’s suggested concrete policies to address the party’s malaise, and is trying to shake his old moniker “Robert Generic” to prove he’s anything but.
• Kemi Badenoch, former Business Secretary and a strong cultural conservative with a penchant for confrontation (“the kind of person who would take nuclear weapons to a pillow fight,” as one wag put it), says she can find long-term solutions for complex problems.
• James Cleverly, former Home Secretary and a popular figure, is offering statesmanlike experience and unity.
• Tom Tugendhat, former Security Minister and perceived centrist, has dangled some quite right-wing policies in a bid to win the decidedly right-of-right-of-center party membership. Some polls show he’s the most popular with the public.
• Bringing up the rear is Mel Stride, former Work and Pensions Secretary, widely expected to drop out at the first stage, and has the lowest name recognition.

There’s still almost two months to go before a winner is picked, so this race is still wide open.

Barnier’s Back

To the horror of Brexiteers, Michael Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, who made no attempt to disguise his disdain for the Eurosceptics during the Brexit negotiations, is back at the top of French politics, after French president Emmanuel Macron tapped him for prime minister.

But old grievances aside, Barnier’s revival hardly signals an end to the chaos in French politics that has paralyzed the government for two months. The conservative Barnier was appointed with the approval of National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, and with the far-left NFP coalition vowing to back no-confidence motions that could topple the government, Barnier relies on the right to prop up him up.

Figures in Macron’s own camp have accused the embattled president of cozying up to the right. Remember, Macron called the elections for the express purpose of shutting out the far right. Talk about unintended consequences.

US Office Space Glut Sparks Fears

One of the last Covid-era holdouts has been the shift to remote working. Four years on, banks and investors have begun to accept that commercial property may never return to pre-pandemic values. A bipartisan effort is underway to make it easier to convert office blocks into residential housing, but for some buildings, that’s too little, too late.

Almost $1 trillion in commercial real estate loans come due this year, and high interest rates mean mortgage holders face a far more expensive refinancing. Worryingly for lawmakers, 70% of commercial mortgages are held by smaller and regional banks, which lack the capital and reserves of the big players to protect themselves from the shock of plummeting property prices.

Scott Rechler, one of New York’s largest commercial landlords, has admitted that more loan extensions will not solve the underlying problem; the demand for office space has simply plunged. “At some point or other, the day of reckoning needs to come. I think it’s here.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1028)