Merkel honored by WJC for role in fighting antisemitism
BERLIN (JTA) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive a World Jewish Congress Theodor Herzl Prize honoring her role in fighting antisemitism.
Merkel, who will receive the prize on Sunday in Munich, became chancellor in 2005 and said she will step down after elections in 2021.
The annual prize recognizes individuals who represent Herzl’s commitment to building a safer, more tolerant world for the Jewish people.
“This prize is a statement against antisemitism,” said Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria and who serves as the WJC representative of the Jewish World Congress for Holocaust Remembrance.
Knobloch noted that the honor comes a few weeks after a violent neo-Nazi attack on the synagogue in Halle in the state of Saxony-Anhalt near Berlin, which took two lives. It also comes near the anniversary of the shooting attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, leaving 11 worshipers dead.
Also receiving a Theodor Herzl Prize this year will be former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who will be honored next month in New York City.
Some critics in Germany and abroad have decried awarding the prize to Merkel, suggesting that while she sincerely condemns antisemitism, her government is soft on Iran and on Hezbollah. In addition, they claim, the arrival of more than a million Muslim refugees since 2015 has made Germany a more dangerous place for Jews.
Past prize winners include: the Rothschild family; former US secretary of state Colin Powell; former US vice president Joseph Biden; former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres; Elie and Marion Wiesel; former US secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger; George P. Shultz; and posthumously former US president Ronald Reagan and Axel Springer.