Antisemitism in Switzerland

History of the Jews in Switzerland reaches back at least a thousand years. Jews and Judaism have been present in the territory of what is now Switzerland since before the emergence of the medieval Old Swiss Confederacy in the 15th century.

Switzerland has Europe's tenth-largest Jewish community, with about 17,500 Jews,^[1] roughly 0.2% of the population. About one-third of the Jewish community lives in the Zürich metropolitan area. As of 2009, there were 38 synagogues in the country.

History

1754 drawing of the Jewish cemetery in Endingen by Johann Caspar Ulrich.

Early history

A ring with a Menorah depiction found in Augusta Raurica (Kaiseraugst, Switzerland) in 2001 attests to Jewish presence in Germania Superior.^[2] The Encyclopaedia Judaica mentioned a first documentation in 1214. In the Middle Ages, as in many places in Europe, they frequently suffered persecution, for example in 1294 in Bern, when many Jews of the city were executed and the survivors expelled under the pretext of the murder of a Christian boy. Another pogrom occurred among other cities in Zürich in 1249; at the location of the former synagogue at Froschaugasse 4 in the former Neumarkt quarter,^[3] a plaque was mounted.

Early Modern period

Jews were banished from Swiss towns in the 1620s, and from 1776, they were allowed to reside exclusively in two villages, Lengnau and Oberendingen, in what is now the canton of Aargau. At the close of the 18th century, the 553 Jews in these villages represented almost the entire Jewish population in Switzerland. An important source for the situation of Swiss Jews in the 18th century is the 1768 Sammlung Jüdischer Geschichten by Johann Caspar Ulrich.

Beginning in 1603, the deceased Jews of the Surbtal communities were buried on a small Rhein river island, the so-called Judenäule ("Jew's island") which was leased by the Jewish community. As the island was repeatedly flooded and devastated, in 1750 the Surbtal Jews asked the Tagsatzung to establish a cemetery in the vicinity of their communities in the Surb valley. Once a year, the communal chevra kadisha (hevra kadishah, Aramaic: חברא קדישא, Ḥebh'ra Qaddisha, meaning "holy society") visited the graves on the island. In 1750 the Tagsatzung 'allowed' the Jewish communities of Endingen and Lengnau to acquire woodland on a small hill between Endingen and Lengnau to establish the Endingen cemetery. The cemetery has been expanded several times; based on an 1859 agreement, two-fifths of the cemetery belong to the Israelite community of Lengnau, and three-fifths to the Israelite community of Endingen.^[4][5]

Two separate doors (one for Jews and one for Christians) on a house in Endingen

In accordance with the resolution of the Tagsatzung in 1678, Jews were allowed to settle in the communities of the Surb valley. After 1776, they were further restricted to living in only Endingen and Lengnau. This immigration slowly but steadily changed the appearance of the communities. The village of Endingen never built a Christian church, only a Jewish synagogue. The local Christians traveled to neighboring villages for church. Jewish and Christian families were often under one roof.

However, the Jewish resident were only allowed to enter a few professions, such as trade. Houses were built with two separate entrances, one for Jews and one for Christians.^[6] They were under the high and low courts of the Baden bailiff and had to buy "protection and safety" letters from the authorities.^[7]

Napoleonic era

In 1798, the French under Napoleon I invaded Switzerland and set up the Helvetic Republic. The Republic attempted to modernize and centralize the Swiss Confederation. As part of this new, liberal state, Swiss reformers attempted to enforce the emancipation of the Jews in the new central Swiss Parliament in Aarau. When that failed, they attempted to get the French to force this change on the new Swiss government. The changes of the Republic were not embraced by many of the Swiss and the issue of emancipation for the Jews became another contentious issue between the old order and the new government.

Finally in 1802 the population revolted and turned against the Jews. The mob looted the Jewish villages of Endingen and Lengnau in the so-called Zwetschgenkrieg ("Plum war"). At the same time other revolts, such as the Stecklikrieg, stretched the French Army too far. Napoleon lacked the troops to bring peace to Switzerland, and also he needed the Swiss regiments for his campaigns. Seeking a peaceful resolution to the uprising, in 1803 he issued the Act of Mediation. The Act of Mediation was a compromise between the Ancien Regime and a Republic. One of the compromises in the Act was that no further rights were granted to the Jews.^[8]

Modern Switzerland

By the mid 19th century the village of Endingen had about 2,000 inhabitants, about half Jews and half Christians. By comparison, the town of Baden had about 1,500 people at the same time.^[6]

The Jewish population was fairly well tolerated, self-managed and maintained its own school. In 1862 the Jewish community of Zürich, the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich (ICZ) was founded, and in 1884 the Synagoge Zürich was built at the Löwenstrasse road.^[9] In 1879 a Jewish village of Neu-Endingen was built. It remained mostly independent until 1983 when it merged back into the village of Endingen.^[7][7]

The right to settle freely was not restored to Jews with the Swiss constitution of 1848, and was only granted with the revised constitution of 1874. Article 49 of the 1874 constitution guarantees the freedom of religion.

In 1876, the Jews were granted full equality in civil rights and allowed to travel. By 1920, most Jews had left the Surb Valley. During the late 19th to early 20th century, many Jews from Alsace, Germany and Eastern Europe added to this core group. In 1920, the Jewish population had reached its peak at 21,000 people (0.5% of the total population), a figure that has remained almost constant ever since.

Language

Jews living in the Surb Valley once spoke a dialect of Western Yiddish, traces of which can be still found today in the region. Western Yiddish is mainly a mixture of High German dialects, with Hebrew and Aramaic words, and inklings of Romance languages, distinguished from Eastern Yiddish in that it has far fewer Slavic loanwords (see Yiddish). Unlike Eastern Yiddish, which is spoken to some degree by Polish and American Jews, Western Yiddish has almost disappeared. Today there are only a few, mostly elderly Jews who know the dialect of the Surb Valley Jews, and the Sound Archives at the University of Zurich have begun recording what is left of the dialect.

Antisemitism in Switzerland

Expulsion and Emancipation

In 1622, Most of the Jews except for physicians were expelled from all of Switzerland except two villages in the Aargau canton. The one which allowed to stay did not get treated the same way as the rest of the Swiss society in financial fields (School budgets) and Family rights (Marriage). The emancipation managed to help make a slight positive change for the Jews in Switzerland. Countries as England, France and the U.S pressured Switzerland to give all of her citizens a full settlement right, which was officially granted and was written in the constitution in 1874.^[10]

The Struggle for Sh'chitah

Meat that has been Kosher Slaughtered

Despite granting full religious equality in 1874, certain religious requirements were not allowed, particularly ritual slaughter (shchitah kshera). In 1886, organizations which are against cruelty to animals demanded the government to forbid kosher slaughter according to the Jewish religion. In 1893, their efforts managed to gain government recognition of the face that Kosher slaughter / Shechita is illegal in the state of Switzerland. No change in the Swiss Constitution was made to this day.^[10] The Jewish community of Switzerland battled for a decade to have the right to make a Kosher slaughter. In 2002, the Swiss government allowed to Jews to import A kosher meat, but that compromise did not satisfied the Jewish Community, and Alfred Donath (president of the Jewish Federations) said that this law is "discriminatory and a violation of human rights and religious freedom".^[10] One of the opponents to the demands of the Jewish community, Erwin Kessler (president of the Vaud section of the Society for the protection of animals) said: "either become vegetarians or leave Switzeland". Some say the real motive at the time was to limit Jewish immigration.^[11]

The Holocaust

On the hand Switzerland gave refuge to approximately 23,000 Jews, And on the other hand the government decided to stay neutral and to be only a country of transit. Those refugees did not get treated that same way as the other refugees from other religions as to financial support, and even the Swiss government persuaded Germany to stamp "J" on the passport of Jews, making it easier to refuse Jewish refugees.^[10] When thousands of Jews tried to flee Austria after the Anschluss of March 1938, and again in 1942-1943 when Jews tried to escape deportation from France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, The Swiss borders were completely sealed to Jewish refugees.^[11] Till the Second World War was finished, 25,000 Jews were accepted in Switzerland as a refuge, and around 30,000 Jews were denied from entering the country. Most of the refugees has left the country around 1953.^[11]

Post-World War II

Switzerland has in general been supportive toward Israel, while maintaining its known neutrality. This support was strengthened by an Arab terrorist attack in 1969 against an El Al plane in Zurich and an act of sabotage on a Swissair plane bound for Israel in 1970. However, like the rest of Europe countries, anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment has increased since the year of 2000 according to the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism.^[10]

Switzerland's Middle East policies have caused tension towards Israel and the Jews worldwide. For example, a Swiss utility has signed a natural gas purchase contract with Iran, the Swiss foreign minister said that's a move that may irritate Washington as it seeks to isolate Tehran over its disputed nuclear plans.^[12]

In 1998, According to the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune — Anti-Semitism has spread in Switzerland in reaction to the recent scrutiny of the country's Second World War actions. A yearlong study found that inhibitions against the open expression of racist views had been swept away during the controversy over Switzerland's responsibility to compensate Holocaust victims for assets lost during World War II. The controversy broadened into a wide-ranging examination of Switzerland's role in the war.^[13][14]

Grad missile hitting Beersheba, Israel. Might be the cause of the rise in Antisemitism.

A survey from 2014 has exposed that More than one in four Swiss residents are anti-Semitic, making Switzerland’s population one of the most anti-Jewish in Western Europe, according to an online report released this week by the Anti-Defamation League.^[15] Another reason that might be the cause for the rise of the antisemitism in Switzerland in 2014 might be the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. According to a report of the CFCA [The coordination forum countering antisemitism], There has been dramatic increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in Switzerland. Since the beginning of July and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Switzerland have reported twice as many incidents as occur during an entire year.^[16] The report conclusions are that the current situation is far more dramatic then other wars in the middle east that have cause a similar reaction by the Swiss population. In 15 of the incidents complaints were filed with the police. The statements appearing in letters or on Facebook have become far more violent. The Federation also reported insults and threats.^[16] The European Jewish Congress supports those statistics of a "Huge increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Switzerland", quoting a different survey made by the Intercommunity Coordination against Anti-Semitism and Defamation - CICAD.^[17] The CICAD reported a physical assault against a Jewish man, five incidents of threats, three incidents of damage to property and three incidents of graffiti.^[18] One of those incidents was reported at the Haaretz Newspaper: "An Orthodox Jew from Belgium was lightly wounded in an assault in Switzerland, which witnesses called an anti-Semitic attack. The victim, identified only as A. Wachsstock, was walking toward his car, where his wife and four children were waiting for him, when a man in his sixties began hitting him and shouting anti-Semitic profanities, including “Juden raus,” or “Jews, get out” in German.^[19]

References