(JNS) Rabbi David Lau, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, along with several European Jewish rabbis, called on German Jews to keep wearing kippahs in public following a recommendation by a German Jewish leader that they find alternative head coverings.

In an interview with Radio Berlin in light of a rise in anti-Semitism, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster said Jews should not wear kippahs in public. “Defiantly showing your colors would in principle be the right way to go,” he said. “Nevertheless, I would advise individual people against openly wearing a kippah in big German cities.”

Chief Rabbi Lau responded this week, saying that the best way to battle anti-Semitism is to immigrate to Israel, but that all Jews in Germany and throughout the Diaspora must continue to wear the kippah and other Jewish symbols.