DuBow Dgest American Edition february 2015

DuBow Dgest American Edition february 2015

• 1.
  1 AN AMERICAN JEWISH– GERMAN INFORMATION & OPINION NEWSLETTER [email protected] AMERICANEDITION February 2015 IN THIS EDITION WE’RE MOVING ! PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE – Make sure you get our new address. (Information below) UNDERSTANDING PEGIDA – It’s troublesome. Learn about it. STUMBLESTONES IN MUNICH These tiny Holocaust memorials my finally come to Munich. Why are they being held up? THE GERMAN STATE OF THE UNION – A more sensible way of presenting it. PHOTOS: 1935 IN NAZI GERMANY Scary! Even 80 years later. ANOTHER PERSON I SHOUD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT – He joins a long list. AN IMPORTANT DECISION – On anti-Semitic language. A TROUBLING POLL – Germans look at Jews & Israel. THE TRIVIALIZATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM – By an institution supposedly dedicated to fighting it. Dear Friends: This is not a quiet or uneventful time in Germany. The difficulties Germany and the EU have with Greece’s new government which want something done about its debts, the semi-war going on in Ukraine which the Chancellor is trying to bring to some sort of cloture and the rise of a domestic populist (with neo-Nazi involvement) movement which calls itself Pegida are making a cold winter even more uncomfortable.
• 2.
  2 With all thisgoing on, amazingly the population seems very happy with its coalition government. TheLocal.de reported, “The poll commissioned by Die Welt newspaper and ARD's Tagesthemen programme shows that 57 percent of Germans are either "very happy" or "happy" with the job the "Grand Coalition" between Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Only 34 percent said they were less satisfied with the government while seven percent said they were not at all happy. Pres. Obama and the Republican Congress would give their eyeteeth for such numbers. Even though the domestic scene is relatively peaceful, there is much to talk about. However, before we get to that, I want you to know that DuBow Digest and I are moving to new digs with a new e-mail address. I have described that below. So, now on to the news… WE’RE MOVING ! PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE On (or about) March 15th my wife and I will be moving to what is called an “Independent Living Residence” on the other (East) side of the Hudson River in the Village of Sleepy Hollow, NY. The Residence is called Kendal on Hudson and if you’re interested you can look it up on the Internet at www.kohud.kendal.org The DuBow Digest mailing address will be 4319 Kendal Way, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 Its new e-mail will be [email protected] . All editions will continue to be posted at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com BTW, DuBow Digest will continue to be published as before from its new editorial offices (my new den). Hopefully, there will not be an interruption even though the March edition might be a bit later coming to you than usual. UNDERSTANDING PEGIDA In the last couple of editions I have been reporting about a relatively new populist movement in Germany which calls itself Pegida. The movement has sponsored some very large demonstrations, mostly in Dresden, and, it appears, it cannot just be quickly written off as some sort of extremist entity. At least that is the way some of the country’s leading politicians see it. Melissa Eddy writing in The New York Times has tried to provide some understanding of the Pegida movement. A portion or her piece follows. German leaders are struggling with how, and how much, to engage with supporters of a protest movement formed around fears of an “Islamization” of their country.
• 3.
  3 Local leaders havestarted reaching out to supporters of the group known by its German acronym, Pegida, or the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, to listen to their complaints and try to forestall the movement. Although still largely confined to Dresden, it has found sympathizers in other cities across Germany. The grass-roots movement, representing a swath of people fed up with the political and media culture in Germany and complaining that their elected officials are not listening to them, has grown swiftly since emerging in October, taking German leaders by surprise. But concerns about Pegida’s roots, as well as its support from neo-Nazis and extremists, have tainted the group’s motives and created a split among elected officials over how seriously they should take some of the group’s grievances about the country’s immigration and social fabric. Some of leading politicians have met with members of the group including Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. The moves are a shift since Ms. Merkel’s New Year’s address, which urged Germans to shun the Pegida rallies and their organizers, who she said had “prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts.” The chancellor’s speech has since become a source of derision at Pegida marches and rallies, amid calls for more power for the people and limits to the number of immigrants who are allowed into the country. Supporters also denounce what they perceive as a growing threat of Islamic extremism to their culture. Even after last week’s outreach events, thousands again crowded the cobbled square outside Dresden’s opera house on Sunday, waving German flags and calling for changes to immigration laws. The event was the first time the movement had gathered since the police banned all demonstrations in this eastern German city for 24 hours last week, after reporting terrorism threats against a Pegida leader who was forced to step down when an image of him dressed as Adolf Hitler emerged. Many of the supporters’ grievances are similar to those of the early Tea Party movement in the United States, though their goals for government could not be more different: Tea Party supporters want less government, while Pegida supporters are calling for more government involvement in their lives. Both, though, share a disenchantment with their elected leaders and the political system. Hans Vorländer, a professor of political science at Dresden’s Technical University, interviewed 400 people at several Pegida marches between Dec. 21 and Wednesday, following them over the weeks to identify better who they are and what they stand for. He described the movement as driven by a feeling of “we down here and you up there.” His study found that a majority of supporters were middle-class, middle-aged men with solid incomes. Only a quarter of the 400 people surveyed openly expressed fears of Islam, despite the name they convene under. Instead, many named a general dissatisfaction with politics and their elected leaders as a key reason for taking part in the marches, forcing officials to listen to their complaints. Groups and individuals involved with Pegida — and uncertainty about who is behind the
• 4.
  4 movement’s origins —have made many politicians leery, but also concerned that the group could grow and taint 70 years of history in which Germany has tried to promote an image of tolerance and inclusion. But after the photo of the Pegida leader posing as Hitler and weeks of denials of any Nazi sympathies by organizers despite chanting by a far-right bloc at many of the 12 previous marches through Dresden and in other cities, some said the need for dialogue appeared even more critical. Not only for the country’s social cohesion, they said, but to prevent a tarnishing of its reputation abroad. “I do not believe that there is more far-right extremism in Germany,” Mr. Gabriel said. “But there is certainly a growth of populism on the right which has to do with parties and the social elites too often believing that their debates are identical with those of normal people.” But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, warned Sunday in comments to the mass-circulation weekly Bild am Sonntag that Germans were underestimating the damage that Pegida’s “xenophobic and racist slogans and placards have already had.” “Whether we want it or not, the world is watching Germany with great attention,” Mr. Steinmeier said. Pegida is something that has to be watched carefully. A political split in Germany is one thing. Large street demonstrations are something else quite different. Right-wing populist movements which contain extremist elements are very dangerous. I think the Chancellor and her government are trying to find a way to productively deal with them. Time will tell if they will be successful. STUMBLESTONES IN MUNICH Those of you who have walked around in Berlin (or other European cities) may have come across small square brass plaques imbedded in the sidewalk with names and dates. If you haven’t already figured out what they are, they are Holocaust memorial plaques known as 'Stolpersteine', in English called “Stumblestones”. According to The Local.de, “For nearly 20 years, pedestrians have been stumbling across the names of Nazi-era victims on coaster-sized brass plaques embedded in the pavement in front of their last known addresses. The 50,000th Stolperstein was laid this month, ahead of the 70th anniversary on Tuesday of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, and they can now be found in more than 1,000 cities and towns throughout Europe. Sculptor Gunter Demnig started the project in 1996 to bring the unfathomable dimensions of the Holocaust down to a human scale. Each Stolperstein bears a stark text, with the name of the victim, birthdate, date of deportation and, if known, date and place of death.
• 5.
  5 One would havethought that these little Holocaust memorials would be welcome in almost every German city. However, Munich was the exception. Strong resistance came from an unusual source – the leader of the Munich Jewish community. However Munich, which was the historical home of the Nazi movement, is the only major German metropolis to outlaw the blocks in public places. The strongest opposition came from an unexpected place: the leader of Munich's 4,000- strong Jewish community, Charlotte Knobloch, who argued that victims' memories would be desecrated once more when passers-by walked on the plaques. The ban was so sweeping that two Stolpersteine, for Jewish art dealers Siegfried and Paula Jordan, were dug up again soon after the 2004 decision. Frau Knobloch, one of the great leaders of today’s German Jewry has maintained her position. However, “The tide, however, may well be turning in favour of the Stolpersteine since the election last year of a new mayor who backs the project, joining proponents including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israel's Yad Vashem memorial. An initiative lobbying for Stolpersteine in Munich led by Terry Swartzberg, an energetic American Jew who has lived in Germany for nearly four decades, believes it now has a majority on the city council to overturn the ban as soon as next month. There is more to the story which you can read by clicking on this link. http://www.thelocal.de/20150121/pressure-mounts-on-munich-to-allow-stolpersteine As for me, I find it hard to disagree with Fr. Knobloch who I have known for many years. She’s a great lady. However, I think these little plaques raise awareness of the Holocaust and for that reason, especially at this moment in history; I think they are enormously valuable. Munich will not be the worse for them. THE GERMAN STATE OF THE UNION The German Chancellor does not, as such, offer an annual “State of the Union” speech. In forgoing this mostly for TV event the German people do not have to sit through half of its legislature cheering some part of the leader’s speech while the other half sits on their hands. In addition they also miss (thankfully) the introduction of a few “regular” people who have done great things and now get recognized in a very political setting. All this is not to say that the Chancellor keeps the public in the dark about her plans for the nation. According to TWIG (This Week in Germany) “The German government does not broadly lay out its political agenda in a single annual speech, but the head of government does take a similar approach: every few weeks (or in some cases, months), the Chancellor holds a so-called Regierungserklärung ("declaration of government") at the parliament in Berlin. This tradition began with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1949. The Chancellor typically only calls for a Regierungserklärung if there is an important topic to address (last year, Chancellor Angela Merkel scheduled nine of them). At a
• 6.
  6 minimum, however, theChancellor is required to hold a speech at the start of his or her term in the Bundestag. In January 2014, Merkel called for a Regierungserklärung to explain the goals of the newly-formed grand coalition. This January, however, her Regierungserklärung had a more somber tone and addressed the attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. During the January 15 speech, the Chancellor emphasized the importance of press freedom, laid out plans to counter terrorism in Germany and promised to protect all German residents - regardless of religion. So while the US president's State of the Union broadly focuses on a diversity of domestic and foreign policy topics, the German Chancellor's Regierungserklärung is more frequent and reflects the government's policy on important issues and events. It seems to me that the German system is somewhat more serious than our own. However, the governmental systems are different – Chancellor Merkel is actually a member of the legislature, the Bundestag, and they have a parliamentary system while we have – I’m not sure what to call it. In any case, neither is changing but I thought you might be interested in the difference. PHOTOS: 1935 IN NAZI GERMANY We have just passed the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The question continues to remain; how could it have been perpetrated by such a modern country as Germany was even at that time. Any reading on the subject at all leads one to understand that the anti-Semitism in Germany was a growing virus and even by 1935, only two years after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the disease had achieved epidemic status. Y-Net News recently reported, “Eighty years ago, a Dutch photographer went into Nazi Germany to collect evidence of the raging anti-Semitism in the country, sent by Jewish journalists who were hoping to alert the world to the situation in the Third Reich, before it was too late. The photographer crossed Germany on a motorcycle in 1935 and documented signs along the way, all with one unified message: "Jews are not wanted here." The Dutch motorcyclist photographed 22 signs along the road connecting the border town of Bad Bentheim to the capital Berlin, some 500 kilometers away. He found them on the sides of the road, in entrances to villages and in front of picturesque houses. But the photos, which were distributed to media organizations all over the world - including in the Land of Israel - did not produce the desired reaction. "It was a war that was doomed from the start," according to the National Library in Jerusalem, where the photos have been kept all these years. The photos are coming to light now, ahead of the International Holocaust
• 7.
  7 Remembrance Day andthe 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The Dutch photographer, who remained anonymous, was sent into Nazi Germany by a news agency formed by two Jews who escaped Germany to the Netherlands - Hans Richman and Alfred Viner. They had one main goal: To expose the true face of the National-Socialist Party that came to power in those days. "The photographs were meant to stir as much publicity as possible, to make people aware of what's going on in Germany, but even in the Land of Israel they didn't understand what they were being warned from," said archivist Gil Weissblei. In January of 1936 Richman and Viner also sent an album with copies of the photographs to the National Library in Jerusalem, in the hopes of raising awareness in the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. The photo album was filed at the National Library, where it collected dust over the years and was seen by only a handful of people. The newspapers in the Land of Israel did not print the photos. "It's possible the journalists then didn't think this was a story," Weissblei said. "They were used to displays of anti-Semitism and it didn't seem like something special to them. They didn't imagine where this would lead." "It's only today, in hindsight, that we understand the significance of these photos. You may not see skulls, blood or murder there - they're just texts - but they led to one of the greatest crimes in human history," Weissblei went on to say. "We can also see that many of the signs were an initiative taken by the locals, who accepted it and viewed it part of the norm. It's a testament of the levels of hate that eventually led to mass murder." Some of the pictures accompany the article written by Polina Garaev. You owe to it yourself to click on the link below and see them. Once you have you will better understand what was going on in Germany in 1935 and how the Holocaust became almost inevitable. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4618891,00.html ANOTHER PERSON I SHOUD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT In the January edition I embarrassingly wrote about an anti-Nazi philosopher, Dietrich von Hildebrand, a man I should have known about – but didn’t. There are probably many who should be on my recognition list but aren’t. One of those is Reinhard Strecker. Herr Strecker was 14 when World War II ended so he in no way could have been a 1930-40’s anti-Nazi. However, in 1945 when the German regime came to an end not all those who were active Nazis did not go “poof’ and disappear. In
• 8.
  8 fact, many ofthem wound up in the new German government. According to DW, Reinhard Strecker “now aged 84, lives a quiet life in the Friedenau district of Berlin. His study is lined on one side with books - including many classics of British and American literature - and on the other with what remains of a vast store of courtroom files from the Third Reich. His parents were decidedly anti-Hitler. "Unlike I'd say 90 percent of lawyers at the time, my father was never a member of the party," he says. "That had to do with the fact that for my parents, church and religion still meant something." As earnest Christians, Strecker's parents were politically active in the doomed struggle to keep the Protestant Church free of Nazi organizations, and did all they could to keep the young Strecker out of the Hitler Youth, which was mandatory. When the war in Germany ended, Strecker aimed to get out of the country as soon as he could. ("School didn't seem important at the time.") At 16 he hitchhiked first to Italy and then headed for London - "English was always the language of liberation for me." But he only made it as far as Paris, where he spent several years at school. Despite being the only German in the class, he says he never faced mistrust from his French fellow students. "They just thought of me as one of the leftovers," he said. He also met and was deeply affected by the Spanish republicans who had fought fascists in the Spanish civil war. These travels gave Strecker a new, outsider's perspective when he returned to Germany in 1954 - and found it wasn't a country that had changed as much as he would have liked. "I had a very bad impression of Germany when I came back," he says. "I didn't like any of the personnel at all - the Adenauer-Globke system. Adenauer had just one aim - he wanted to restore Germany's reputation in the world. That took up all his time. He wanted to prevent any Nazi crimes from facing German courts. And he largely succeeded." Under Adenauer's chancellorship, it was left to individual German states, rather than federal authorities, to investigate Nazi crimes. On top of this, a memo has been discovered from 1963, when Germany and Israel were negotiating new diplomatic relations, in which Adenauer asked Israel to stop pursuing former Nazis. "This is intolerable for the reputation of Germany in the world," the chancellor wrote. Strecker was catching up with his German education, studying Indo-Germanic languages at Berlin's Free University, and gathering a handful of students to prepare his exhibition. He eventually got help from the Socialist German Student Union (SDS), an association that became a burden, since much of the West German press, along with the government, would denounce him as a communist in the pay of the Soviet Union. ("Bulls--t," is all Strecker will say to that.) "But I never thought my work would be a success, because you couldn't damage this concrete mafia of old Nazis in Germany," he said. "Especially since the government successfully prevented any Nazi crime ever reaching a federal German court. Only the state judiciaries dealt with the issue, and only later."
• 9.
  9 After the Nurembergtrials (1945-49), which were set up by the Allies, no Nazi crimes went to trial in Germany until Frankfurt in the 1960s, by which time Adenauer's tenure had ended. So Mr. Strecker started to do research on Nazis in the then current German government . He wrote an expose that, “…was little more than a collection of legal files, photographs, and newspaper clippings from the archives of the Third Reich. But all the documents related to one man, Hans Globke, who in 1961 was one of the most important civil servants in the West German government, state secretary and senior advisor to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Entitled "Dr. Hans Globke - File Extracts and Documents," the book showed that Globke had helped draft some of Germany's anti-Semitic laws in the early 1930s - even before Adolf Hitler's accession to power - and had later been one of Eichmann's most important officials, with a brief that spread across several departments in Hitler's government. His work, “…work caused many sweaty palms among top West German officials in the 1950s and 1960s. For as he wrote in the introduction, "Globke is no unique case." In spring 1960, Strecker filed charges against 49 former judges who had actively participated in the Nazi regime and continued serving in West Germany. In the same year he displayed his research in an exhibition - 105 ring-binders of laboriously photographed files laid out in the back room of a student bar in Karlsruhe. "It was completely improvised - but it was totally packed out," remembers Strecker. And its impact was seismic. The exhibition, called Ungesühnte Nazijustiz ("Unpunished Nazi Judiciary"), grew and toured a number of universities across the country, causing rows between students and faculties, and attracting national and international media. The exhibition was tailored to each city in which it was displayed, highlighting local state prosecutors and judges. ("After all, there was someone with a past everywhere," Strecker once said.) In addition to causing much embarrassment to the Adenauer administration, and not a few quiet early retirements of judges and state attorneys, Strecker's work ultimately fed into the intergenerational tension that was gathering pace in Germany in the 1960s, which would culminate in the 1968 student movement In 1963 Globke's past became an embarrassment for the Adenauer government, as he was given a life sentence in absentia at a show trial in East Germany with the obvious intention of painting the anti-Communist, West German government as "old Nazi wine in new flasks". Herr Strecker’s book on Globke changed many things in Germany and raised the questions about the Nazi time that many young people began to ask their parents. I feel badly that I did not know about him earlier. As an early “whistle blower” I think we should feel indebted to him.
• 10.
  10 AN IMPORTANT DECISION Frequently,important legal decisions are first made in local courts and then reach national prominence when they are appealed to higher courts where they are sustained or rejected. Even those that are not sustained can have an impact on legal matters and future personal conduct. What follows below is an instance that might have future importance in shining some light on anti-Semitic behavior in Germany. .Amanda Borschel-Dan writing in The Times of Israel reported, “The wheels of justice move slowly, but they are inching forward in Germany. In an unprecedented case heard half a year after these violent anti-Israel demonstrations, last week in Essen, German Judge Gauri Sastry convicted 24-year-old Taylan Can for incitement against an ethnic minority for events at a July 18, 2014, anti-Israel demonstration in the town. Eyewitness accounts report hostile anti-Israel chants and stones thrown from the anti- Israel camp to the smaller group of Israel supporters. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a breakaway group headed toward a local synagogue, intending to attack it. A YouTube video of the demonstration shows fields of Palestinian flags and Turkish flags, and a motley group of young men running and chanting “Adolf Hitler” and “Death to the Jews.” In the video, popular Essen Muslim rapper Sinan-G speaks to the camera explaining this is a counter-demonstration against the Jews. “The Jews insulted us, man, this is crazy stuff,” he said. Born in Germany to a Turkish family, Can is well-known for his anti-Israel activism. According to Die Welt, Can was caught on tape at a Copenhagen protest shouting into a borrowed police megaphone, “Death to the Jews,” “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas chamber.” At his Essen hearing this winter Can was prosecuted for his use of the term “Zionist” as incitement against a minority. During the hearing, Can claimed he was not an anti-Semite and had nothing against the Jewish people but only against the Zionist state. In response, Judge Sastry is quoted by Die Welt saying, “‘Zionist’ is the language of anti-Semites, the code for ‘Jew.'” Sastry’s judgment, which does not form a binding precedent in German law, essentially semantically equates anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Can was sentenced to three months’ probation and a fine of 200 euros. He has until Friday to appeal. It’s a very brave verdict… The court has said clearly what our political scientists have known for decades,” said Nathan Gelbart. Gelbart heads Germany’s Keren Hayesod.] “It will cause a lot of attention, especially among those who claim they’re not against Jews, but only against Zionists,” he said. Gelbart, who is a lawyer, explained there are many politicians from across the political spectrum, including parties in the German
• 11.
  11 parliament, who usethe word “Zionist” to express hatred against Jews while avoiding prosecution. He doubts the case will stand on appeal since the defendant can be acquitted if there is even a shadow of doubt that he did not intend to incite against the Jewish minority. “We have an anti-Zionist industry across Europe who are living off this legitimacy to spread hatred through using the word ‘Zionist,'” said Gelbart. I don’t think that whether or not the conviction stands is of great importance. The significance of Judge Sastry’s ruling sets down a marker against those hiding behind the term “anti-Zionist”. Let’s hope it becomes a “game changer” when it comes to the use of anti-Semitic language in Germany. A TROUBLING POLL I don’t usually put too much faith in polls because they are just a snapshot of people’s thoughts at a particular moment in history. However, when poll after poll seems to report the same set of thoughts or feelings one must give the latest one more weight. Late in January the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany, a highly respected institution, released a poll on German attitudes toward Jews and Israel that is troubling. Kirsten Grieshaber reporting from Berlin in The Times of Israel wrote, “Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz, some 58 percent of Germans say the past should be consigned to history, while three-quarters of Israelis reject the idea of putting the past behind them. Some 48 percent of Germans also say their opinion of today’s Israel is poor and the Germans’ view of the Israeli government is even worse, with 62 percent expressing a negative opinion. Israelis have a much better view of today’s Germany, with 68 percent saying they have a positive image of the country, while only 24 percent have a poor opinion. According to the study, the perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has an increasingly dominant impact on the way Germans view Israel as a whole. Some 35 percent of Germans equate Israeli policies toward the Palestinians with Nazi policies toward the Jews, an increase from 30 percent in 2007, when the foundation conducted a similar study. Nonetheless, a majority of both Israelis and Germans believe that Germany still has a special responsibility toward Israel because of its history. “In Germany the persecution of Jews is viewed as a dark chapter in German history, but not as an essential part of its identity; quite the opposite, Germans would prefer it as an
• 12.
  12 anomaly,” the authorsof the study wrote in an analysis of their findings. I guess no one should be surprised. World War II and the Holocaust ended 70 years ago. The vast majority of the German population was born after 1945 and grew up in the 1950’s and much later. Both the War and the Holocaust, I am sure, seem like ancient history and, as time goes on with fewer survivors of that time still alive, the retreat from memory and meaning will certainly continue. This leads me to feel strongly that there is a very large and important educational job to do. Germany, being the centerpiece of Europe, is just too important to have the collective Jewish back turned to it. The situation of Jews, the seeming permanence of anti-Semitism and the meaning and importance of Israel (to both Jews and Germany) are matters that should not be forgotten or even put on the back burner. There is much to do. THE TRIVIALIZATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM I shiver when I hear some people say that there are those that make too much of a fuss over anti-Semitism today. After all, they say, Jews are not being killed in any great numbers (only a few here and there) and there are others being discriminated against in much worse ways. Evidentially these people haven’t read their history books and do not realize the harmfulness of this virus not only to Jews but to democracy but eventually to non-Jews as well. In today’s democracies it is in “bad taste” to espouse open anti-Semitism but, perhaps just as harmful in Germany, are attempts to trivialize it and to charge “Jewish and civil society organizations with exaggerating and exploiting anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin for their own gain” It is particularly upsetting when an academic institution that is focused on the study of anti-Semitism seems to have adopted this sort of trivialization and, worse, used one of its studies to broadcast it widely. My AJC colleague in Berlin, Deidre Berger issued a press release noting, “AJC Berlin is disputing a new study by the Technical University’s Center for Research on Anti- Semitism (ZfA) that charges Jewish and civil society organizations with exaggerating and exploiting anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin for their own gain. "We need studies that clearly define the problem of anti-Semitism instead of questioning its very existence," said AJC Berlin Director Deidre Berger. “Trivializing hatred of Jews is dangerous.” “At a time when the future of Jews in Germany and in Europe as a whole is being called into question, downplaying the danger of anti-Semitism is unacceptable,” Berger continued. “The new ZIA study displays a disturbing lack of sensitivity to the justified
• 13.
  13 fears of Berlin’sJews, which have grown considerably in the wake of the numerous anti- Semitic incidents last summer.” Berger expressed surprise about charges of exaggeration, saying, “Instead of taking seriously concerns in the Jewish community about the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism, the study charges Jewish organizations and individuals with biased judgment. Such sweeping generalizations defame and vilify Jews and Jewish organizations.” The recent study, “Anti-Semitism as Problem and Symbol – Phenomena and Interventions in Berlin,” was compiled by the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism on behalf of the Berlin state government’s State Commission against Violence. The goal was to obtain an overview of anti-Semitism manifestations and develop strategies for dealing with them. Instead, the study focuses much of its attention on what it terms the “symbolism” of anti-Semitism. “Anti-Semitism is not a symbol,” said Berger. “It is an attack on democratic values. Instead of providing insights into the nature and sources of contemporary anti-Semitism, the study delivers a political broadside against postwar German democracy, which the authors accuse of instrumentalizing anti-Semitism, German-Israeli relations, and Holocaust memory.” She added: “Rather than providing an objective academic analysis, this report promotes an anti-Israel and anti-German government political agenda.” Berger noted that the study seems to defend anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments within Muslim society by linking it to “direct personal painful experience, or experience of the parents’ or grandparents’ generations, related to the conflict in the Middle East,” and by asserting that anti-Semitic statements uttered by young Muslims are the consequence of the widespread discrimination and racism that they experience in Germany. “Anti-Semitism – regardless of the circumstances in which it is expressed – can never be justified,” said Berger. “Characterizing Muslim pupils primarily as victims of discrimination is paternalistic and robs them of the opportunity to assume their rightful role as responsible citizens in the fight against anti-Semitism.” AJC Berlin has issued a commentary, “Defining Anti-Semitism: The Battle for Interpretation,” which warns about the dangers of trivializing anti-Semitism by deeming it a justified reaction to policies of the Israeli government. It suggests specific measures to fight anti-Semitism, including the incorporation of background information and counter-strategies in training programs for teachers, police, law enforcement authorities and other government officials. Another suggestion is a major revision of police reports on anti-Semitic incidents to provide greater detail about the circumstances and perpetrators. Since the opening of the AJC Berlin Lawrence and Lee Ramer Institute for German- Jewish Relations in 1998, AJC has worked on strategies and educational programs to combat anti-Semitism. With its bi-monthly Taskforce: Education on Anti-Semitism
• 14.
  14 meetings, AJC Berlinprovides an ongoing platform for NGO representatives and educational experts to exchange best practices on pedagogical approaches to fighting anti-Semitism. Copies of “Defining Anti-Semitism: The Battle for Interpretation,” can be obtained by writing to [email protected]. *********************************************************************************************** See you again in March. DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be reached at [email protected] Both the American and Germany editions are posted at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com