As antisemitic incidents surge across Europe, the Jewish community in Germany is refusing to hide. Leading that defiant stance is Rav Yehuda Teichtal, the Chabad shliach and chief rabbi of Berlin, who sat down for a pointed interview on WELT, one of Germany's most influential media networks, as part of the current-affairs program "Freedom of Expression," hosted by Nana Brockhaus.
WELT, owned by the Axel Springer media group, is among the most-watched outlets in Germany. The interview with Rav Teichtal drew unusually high viewership and was quickly flagged on the network's website under the "Most Watched" (Meistgesehen) category. Across German social media, the segment sparked widespread reaction, from the Jewish community and from the broader German public, many of whom praised the unapologetic Jewish presence on screen.
"Our strength is to stand up and act"
In the interview, Rav Teichtal laid out a clear position: the way to confront hatred is not retreat, but presence, activism and spreading good. He stressed that the answer to antisemitism is not only increased security, but a deeper shift in mindset. "Our strength and power is when we stand up and say: where there was darkness, we will bring light," the rav said.
The fight against hatred, he explained, requires patience and small, daily actions that accumulate into large-scale change. "Will we succeed in changing all the problems of the world in one day? No," Rav Teichtal said. "But we will do it piece by piece, step by step, with light and with real action."
The central message the rav sought to convey to viewers, and which inspired many across Germanym was about replacing negative energy with positive, unifying action, in the spirit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
"In every place where there was hatred, we will be there to give love," Rav Teichtal said.
