Merkel condemns attack on Jewish nursery

Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned an arson attack on a Jewish nursery school in Berlin on Thursday, calling it a horrifying attempt to disrupt Jewish life in Germany.

A leader of Germany's Jewish community said in an interview with Reuters that anti-Semitic violence had reached a new and worrisome level with Sunday's attack on the nursery school. The attackers also defaced the building with anti-Semitic slogans.

Merkel sent a letter to the head of the Jewish nursery promising the state's full support to catch the assailants. There were no injuries but the nursery was damaged by fire.

"Any attack on a Jewish institution is an attack on our democracy," Merkel said, adding she felt "dismay and disgust." "The attackers will not succeed with their goal of disrupting Jewish life in Berlin."

'A line has been crossed'

On Thursday, government officials attended a prayer for tolerance in a synagogue to show solidarity after the attack, where a burning object was hurled through a school window.

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he was alarmed by growth in anti-Semitism.

"The fact that the attack was aimed at children shows a line has been crossed," he said. "We're seeing inhibitions against these sort of crimes disappearing in Germany."

Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

There has been an upturn of anti-Semitic crimes in recent years, especially in the formerly Communist east, but most of the criminal acts had stopped short of violence.

That changed last year. On Nov. 9, German neo-Nazis shouting "Sieg Heil" rampaged in the eastern town of Frankfurt on Oder and destroyed wreaths placed to mark the 68th anniversary of the 1938 Nazi pogrom against Jews, the "Kristallnacht."