Overview
- Abraham Lehrer, vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, left an international Reformation Day service at Jerusalem’s Church of the Redeemer after reading a sermon translation that described Gaza as experiencing “genocide.”
- The sermon by Palestinian Bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar was delivered in Arabic, while printed English and German texts used “genocide” and “Völkermord,” including the line, “But what does Reformation look like after two years of genocide?”
- Lehrer was attending as part of a North Rhine–Westphalia delegation led by Landtag President André Kuper, and the group declined to attend the post-service reception in solidarity.
- NRW antisemitism commissioner Sylvia Löhrmann denounced the phrasing as “appalling and shameful” and called it a perpetrator–victim reversal, noting the sermon did not mention the October 7 Hamas attack.
- Westphalian church head Adelheid Ruck-Schröder labeled the incident a scandal on Reformation Day and apologized to Lehrer, while no retraction or further statement from the preacher was reported; the EKD supports the German-speaking church work in Jerusalem.