Germany's foreign minister Joschka Fischer on Tuesday received the annual Leo Baeck Prize from the Central Council of Jews in Germany whose president Paul Spiegel who praised him for efforts to help secure peace in the Middle East. The prize, named after a Berlin rabbi and scholar who survived the Holocaust, is endowed with €10,000 (US$ 13,000). Fischer had become "an important part of the process of understanding between Jews and non-Jews in Germany, as well as between Germany and Israel," Spiegel pointed out. He praised him for pushing for a fair settlement "in times of increasing, anti-Semitic criticism of Israel." In his acceptance speech, Fischer said he detected growing pessimism among Germany's Jewish community and signs of increasing anti-Semitism in Europe, adding that the prize underlined his personal responsibility to fight the phenomenon. Recent efforts by Germany's far right to paint Germans as victims of Allied bombings ignored that Germans had "organized and mercilessly put into effect" the Shoah, Fischer said.
