The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in The New York Times, about the rise of the far-right AfD party in Germany and why it is a red flag for the international community in general and Jews in particular:
June 29, 2023
To the Editor:
Re “As German Worries About Future Rise, Far-Right Party Surges” (news article, June 21):
The expanding and emboldened far-right element in Germany is not solely a concern for Germans; it is also troubling for the international community in general and Jews in particular.
Extremism fueled by xenophobia and a deep sense of nationalism in a country that carried out the systematic murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust is foreboding and a grave threat to democracy.
With global antisemitism increasing at an alarming rate and Nazism experiencing an unsettling resurgence, the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany and the political gains that it has made are a proverbial red flag.
When extremism becomes normalized and gains a foothold in the mainstream political arena and people flagrantly fan the flames of fanaticism, we have a societal and moral obligation to sound the alarm.
N. Aaron Troodler
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
