Basel Jews to get police protection on Shabbat and holidays for first time
Separately, a kosher butcher shop in Basel serving the Jewish community there was vandalized on four occasions during October.
By JEREMY SHARONUpdated: NOVEMBER 16, 2018 03:22Basel, Switzerland 88 248(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt looks set to provide state resources for the protection of the Jewish community in the region, for the first time in Switzerland.The governing council of Basel-Stadt drafted and presented a series of security measures at the end of October which it will provide for the Jewish community in the city Basel, including providing police personnel to secure communal sites in the city.There are currently two functioning synagogues in Basel which will be secured every Shabbat and on Jewish Holidays, while another two Jewish community sites may also be protected under the security measures.The proposals come as a result of negotiations conducted by the Jewish Community of Basel with the governing council, and says it is confident that the Grand Council will approve the measures.The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, the umbrella body for Swiss Jewry, has been seeking to secure federal support for the costs of security measures for Jewish communities in the country since 2015, owing to the high financial burden such requirements have placed on the community in recent years given the heightened terror threat on the continent in general.At the beginning of July 2018, the federal government announced it would provide 500,000 Swiss Francs a year to the Jewish community to relieve this financial burden, set to take effect in 2019.
