German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the state “must protect Jewish life.”

Earlier today, Steinmeier visited the site of a right-wing extremist’s failed attack on a Jewish synagogue that left two dead – one in front of a nearby Jewish cemetery and one at a Turkish kebab restaurant.

He met with Jewish leaders at the synagogue in Halle, in eastern Germany.

“It must be clear that the state takes responsibility for Jewish life, for the security of Jewish life in Germany,” he told them, according to reports.

Local officials, and Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, also visited the site with the president.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the attack. “The representatives of the constitutional state must use all means available against hate, violence and misanthropy. There is zero tolerance,” she said on Thursday.

Last night, Merkel joined a solidarity vigil at a historic synagogue in central Berlin, where she also condemned the attack.