In Berlin, Rivlin urges world Jewish leaders to help return missing IDF soldiers

President Reuven Rivlin rounded up his visit to Germany on Wednesday evening by meeting with the heads of Jewish communities alongside the relatives of two Israeli soldiers whose remains are being held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas terror group.

The leaders of 20 communities in the United States, Turkey, Argentina, Australia, South Africa and other countries participated in the meeting where the president also heard how Jews are dealing with rising anti-Semitism, his office said in a statement.

“The president asked the heads of the communities to put the issue of the return of the soldiers before all relevant bodies in their home countries, and to help in any way possible to raise the profile of the issue,” the statement said.

Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza, is believed to be holding the remains of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, whose bodies it captured when they were killed during the 2014 war known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge.

Family members of the two soldiers were invited by Rivlin to accompany him to Germany.

“We are one family,” Rivlin said. “Everyone has their own difficulties in their country, but we all stand together. Our sense of mutual obligation must be heard in a single voice demanding the return of Hadar and Oron.”

Zehava Shaul, the mother of Oron Shaul told the meeting: “I stand with you and I ask you to stand with us, with our son. Help us bring him home and fulfill the religious obligation of recovering hostages.”

The Jewish leaders told Rivlin about the challenges Jewish communities are facing due to rising anti-Semitism and changes over recent years that have brought fear of communal gatherings, the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Rivlin, together with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble, met participants from pan-European student exchange program that deals with anti-Semitism.

Also Wednesday, Rivlin addressed the Bundestag in Hebrew on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and highlighted growing anti-Semitism across Europe, delivering thinly veiled criticism of Germany’s far-right AfD party. He further called on Berlin to isolate the Iranian regime rather than trying to accommodate it.

Rivlin spoke at great length about the Holocaust and the establishment of diplomatic ties between Berlin and Jerusalem.

“Israel and Germany walk together with tension and with courage between past and present,” he said. “Between the obligation to remember and never to forget, and the commitment to the future, which tells us to look forward and to work together on the basis of shared values and interests.”

Germany bears a heavy responsibility for fighting rising anti-Semitism, Rivlin went on.

Stressing that the world is not on the brink of a new Holocaust, he nevertheless urged the German lawmakers not take lightly “the old-new anti-Semitism, the racism and xenophobia directed particularly against Jews, Muslims and foreigners, that is once again raising its head.”

The Goldin and Shaul families were also present when Rivlin spoke at the Bundestag.

It has been reported in the past that Germany facilitated indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel over a possible exchange of Israeli captives and the remains of soldiers held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Three Israeli civilians, who apparently entered Gaza of their own accord, are also believed to be held by Hamas.