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Synagogue Attacker Hoped to Inspire Further Anti-Semitic Attacks, German Authorities Say
(Washington Post) Luisa Beck and Rick Noack - The assault on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, prompted questions about the safety of the Jewish community in the country. Authorities said the death toll would have been higher had the assailant's weapons and explosives not malfunctioned. Max Privorozki, chairman of the Jewish community in Halle, said German officials had rejected his requests for more police protection before the attack. German Public Prosecutor General Peter Frank said the attacker "wanted to imitate others, but he also wanted to instigate others to imitate him." Deborah Lipstadt, a prominent Holocaust historian, said that Holocaust education alone will not prevent attacks of the kind that occurred in Halle. Anti-Semitism is "so deeply in the weeds, in the roots of our society, that to think that educating about a horror will stop anti-Semitism is being fanciful."