„full of fish, by the way“

European diary, 31.12.2020: So now Brexit is done. 1200 pages of “deal”, a few hundred pages of which Boris Johnson already held up to the camera at Christmas during his three-and-a-half-minute Christmas speech on Twitter, promising his countrymen that there was plenty of fish in it. His whimsical speech about hope, turkey, pudding, Brussels sprouts and brandy butter will go down in history. As what, this very history will still prove. Literarily, at any rate, as a parody.
It has spread good cheer on the island. The European friends on the continent, who declared the negotiations concluded on Christmas Eve, were somewhat less credible in their good mood. There is no triumph involved, at most the relief that a superfluous torment has finally reached its at least halfway bearable end. This morning, the British ambassador in Vienna was also allowed to make an attempt to create a good mood on the radio. This was much more difficult for him than for his prime minister.

The Erasmus program, which has brought hundreds of thousands of young people from the mainland and the islands closer together, has come to an end. Even Leigh Turner couldn’t turn that into brandy butter. But when asked whether the Brexit agreement and Britain’s exit from the EU would bring any advantages, he could only proudly emphasize that the trade agreement that has now been concluded would be better … than a no-deal Brexit. We would have thought of that, too.

What remains is fish. The fishing quotas of European fishermen in British waters are now to be reduced by 25% over the next few years. That won’t ruin the EU. Nor will it help British fishermen much. If they ever wake up from their stupor. For the money that the Brexit has cost – and will still cost, e.g. to carry out customs controls, for duties that should not be levied – the British fishermen could probably have been better helped. But the dream of restoring Britain to its former stature as a global leader was stronger. A dream that is admittedly torn between two claims, the idea of itself as the center of the Commonwealth representing a supranational empire, and the old colonial feeling of representing a superior culture.
But “the proof of the pudding comes with the eating”. Whether much will remain of these dreams, other than more fish from British fishermen, only time will tell. For it is the Europeans on the continent who are supposed to buy this fish.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Christmas on Lesbos

European Diary, 22.12.2020: In two days it will be Christmas. The “provisional” Kara Tepe camp on Lesvos, where the inmates of the burned-down Moria camp were forcibly relocated, is sinking into the mud. Then the water is pumped out. Then it sinks into the mud again. It gets cold. Instead of self-made wooden huts, which they could still build in Moria, 7500 people, 2500 of them children, now live in tents without heating. The inhabitants try to produce a little warmth with their gas camping stoves. More and more often they are treated with burns. It is dark in the tents. After three months, there is still no hot water. There are no sanitary facilities either. From 5 p.m. on, it is pitch dark in the camp because there are no working streetlights. There are also no schools or childcare facilities. The inmates are allowed to leave the camp once a week, for four hours, to go shopping.
The camp is located on a former military training area by the sea. The mud is full of lead-containing practice ammunition. Many children do not drink in the evening because they are afraid of having to go to the “toilet” at night. A toilet that does not exist. Many have massive sleep disorders, panic attacks and nightmares. A three-year-old girl has been raped in the camp. Some children commit suicide attempts. The foreign aid workers who look after refugees in the camp no longer know what arguments to use to talk the children out of committing suicide. Some of the helpers work for SOS Children’s Villages. The organization has been running a small child protection center on Lesbos near the new camp for years, which is actually supposed to be closed down at the end of the year. For months, they have been demanding to be allowed to set up at least one daycare center for some of the children in Kara Tepe instead.
For some time, the inmates of Kara Tepe went for a bath in the sea until it became too cold for that. Since people can no longer wash, scabies spread through the camp. Colds and pneumonia are also rampant. And more and more children, not least babies, are suffering from rat bites, Doctors Without Borders report. Things don’t look much better in the other camps on the islands. In the Vathy camp on Samos, 3700 people live in a camp set up for 600 people. Here, residents recently had to be vaccinated against tetanus because of the increasing risk of rat bites.

The Austrian government continues to prevent provinces and municipalities in Austria from accepting refugees from the Greek islands. Pressure is also growing in the ÖVP on the chancellor to finally abandon the populist blockade. But Kurz announced years ago that there would be “ugly pictures.” His policy relies on deterrence, child abuse, torture, bodily harm and deprivation of liberty. Why should he back away from this at the height of his success?

Hostages of this policy are also the Greens, who in parliament on Monday again practiced coalition discipline and together with turkish-blue-blue rejected an SPÖ motion for the admission of refugees. And yet there now seems to be a Turkish-blue double strategy. After all, there are only a few days left until Christmas. The feast of refugees and emergency shelters. Of innocent children. The warmth of hearts.

A PR advisor to the chancellor, Wolfgang Rosam, has long had the idea for an ingenious PR stunt against frostbite on the heart. Now they remembered the SOS Children’s Village, which has been begging for months to be allowed to do something for the children on Lesbos. After the unsuccessful appearance of bouncer Nehammer, who let himself be filmed wide-legged in front of a fat Russian airplane after the fire of Moria, the cargo of which in the meantime gathers in some Greek warehouse (“Help on the spot”) – now the chief diplomat of the empire has to move out.

A few days ago, SOS Children’s Villages was surprised by the joyful news from the Foreign Ministry. There are to be a few less ugly pictures for Christmas after all. And a day care for children in Kara Tepe. However, there is no approval from the Greek authorities yet, and also otherwise it is not really clear if and when the “safe place” for children – at least a few hours a day – will exist. But Foreign Minister Schallenberg let himself for it on the weekend already once in the news time in the picture celebration. A nice picture, the image of a self-satisfied man doing good. At least to himself and his chancellor.
Whether the diversionary maneuver will allow the children on Lesbos at least a small escape from misery remains to be seen. The director of SOS Children’s Villages would also prefer to bring them to Austria right away. But the search for shelter in this country is probably once again in vain.
Merry Christmas.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof and the language of mankind

European Diary, 15.12.2020: 161 years ago today Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof was born in Bialystok. In 1887, under the pseudonym Doctor Esperanto, he was to found a planned language that is still spoken and cultivated today by people who hope that the Babylonian confusion of languages will one day no longer stand in the way of a united humanity.
A hope that seems today more than ever in vain.

Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, 1908

Zamenhof grew up in a multilingual world, a multilingual city where Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish were spoken as a matter of course. His father was associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement, the Haskala, saw himself as a Russian and as an atheist. He worked as a language teacher of French and German – and became a Russian school inspector and censor. Zamenhof’s mother, on the other hand, was religious and spoke Yiddish. Lejzer, who soon adopted the non-Jewish first name Ludwik, drew his own lessons from this cosmos full of contradictions that were not mutually exclusive at the time. First, however, he studied medicine, first in Moscow, then in Warsaw, and became an ophthalmologist.
The pogroms of 1882 led the young Russian, as whom he too initially saw himself, to the early Zionist movement. But the goal of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East seemed unrealistic to him. He saw the future of the Jews in a reconciled world, without linguistic, cultural or religious walls. And consequently became an internationalist.
Even as a child, Zamenhof was enthusiastic about the richness of languages, mastering Russian and Yiddish as a matter of course, learning Polish, German and French at an early age, and Greek, Latin and English at school. He also learned Hebrew, as he was later to translate the Hebrew Bible into Esperanto.
His real dream, however, was an easy-to-learn world language in which a divided humanity could find its way to each other. Not to forget their “own” languages, but to gain a common basis. Already on his 18th birthday he sang a song with his friends in the Lingwe Uniwersale.
Finally, in 1887, he published his final draft under the name of Dr. Esperanto, and began publishing his own magazine, La Esperantisto, address books and dictionaries. And he worked on a universalist-humanist worldview, which he first called Hillelism (after the eminent Jewish scholar of pre-Christian times) and finally, in Esperanto, Homaranismo.
The Esperanto movement soon counted thousands of followers in various European countries. Many families taught the language to their children, including George Soros’ family in Hungary. But the nationalistic self-destruction of Europe during World War I could not stop his movement any more than the peace movement.
Zamenhof experienced the beginning of the war in 1914 in Cologne, on his way from Warsaw to Paris for the 10th Esperanto World Congress. During the war years, Zamenhof withdrew, worked on his translation of the Hebrew Bible into Esperanto, wrote a memoir To the Diplomats, which he called upon not to forget the minorities in the coming peace negotiations, and struggled with his heart disease, which finally defeated him on April 14, 1917. Zamenhof lived to the age of 57. On his last journey to the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw, a large crowd accompanied him, including many of his poor Jewish patients.

To this day, there are Esperanto groups in many countries that at least uphold the memory of Zamenhof’s dream. In 2017, even Unesco had included Zamenhof’s 100th death anniversary in the list of official commemorative days of the year. The city council of Bialystok, dominated by the right-wing nationalist party PIS, however, refused to honor the famous “son of the city” with a Zamenhof Year. They really did not want to adorn themselves with a Jewish internationalist.

 

A plea for open discourse

European diary, 10.12.2020: This morning, the “Initiative GG 5.3 Weltoffenheit” (world openess) was presented at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, a growing working group of cultural and academic institutions in Germany that is concerned about freedom of art, science and opinion, in a situation of a growing and disturbing instrumentalization and abuse of accusations of “anti-Semitism”, which increasingly place critical discourse about racism, colonialism, but also about the Middle East under blanket suspicion and prevent necessary debates. In addition to major institutions such as the Humboldt Forum, the Goethe Institute, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of Wo9rld Cultures), the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin or the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal cultural foundation), and the Alliance of International Centers of Cultural Production, the Einstein Forum in Berlin, the Moses Mendelssohn Center, the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism in Berlin – and the Jewish Museum Hohenems were also involved. Here is the link to the plea and the complete list of those involved so far. The press conference at the Deutsches Theater is the prelude to a series of further events.
Please see page three of the link for the English translation of this joint declaration.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14WBPlOswuU8Vm2pQm1cteCLrDnPs7FZ5/view?usp=sharing

 

 

“We are the new Jews”

European Diary, 4.12.2020: One of the leading figures and closest confidants with whom Viktor Orban has been bringing Hungarian cultural creators and institutions into line for years is Szilard Demeter, the director of the Petöfi Literature Museum in Budapest – and a member of numerous committees in which decisions are made on the allocation of grants to the literary and music industry. Szilard did not become known for his rather moderately successful literary and musical attempts, but rather for his marked right-wing slogans and threats of violence. Now he has also gone a little over the top, even for Orban’s best friends, the Israeli government.

George Soros, the Hungarian Holocaust survivor and former investment banker who has been the most popular target of anti-Semitic campaigns by the Hungarian government for years, made Europe his “gas chamber”, according to Szilard in a commentary on the Internet portal origo.hu last Saturday. “Poison gas flows from the capsule of a multicultural open society, which is deadly to the European way of life.” “The liberal Führer, and his liber-Aryan army” would try to erase the Christian and national identity of the European peoples. “We are the new Jews,” writes Demeter, referring to Poland and Hungary, and the intention of the European Union to punish violations of the rule of law in the future, which Poland and Hungary want to prevent by blocking the entire EU budget.
Demeter, who calls himself a “fanatical Orbanist”, has half-heartedly backed down after strong protests by the Jewish community in Hungary, numerous organizations and yes, even the Israeli embassy. Of course, there is no question of resignation or dismissal. After all, the fact that Soros allegedly wants to “flood” Europe with Muslims is the core of Orban’s daily propaganda, in which he is advised by close confidants of the Israeli head of government, Netanyahu. The fact that Szilard has made a few mistakes with the text modules here will not really hinder his career in Hungary.

“We are the new Jews,” wasn’t it with these words that the chairman of an Austrian right-wing party in 2012 complained about being insulted on the way to the ball of fraternity members. “It was like the Reichskristallnacht”. Only five years later the man was vice chancellor. Szilard Demeter must have a brilliant career ahead of him. Well, at least for a while.

Omri Boehm: Rethinking Israel

European Diary, 3.12.2020: Yesterday the Israeli philosopher and political thinker Omri Boehm was our guest, in a Zoom event organized together with the German-Israeli Society of the Lake Constance Region.
His book “Israel – a Utopia” is causing lively discussions and joins a growing number of critical voices that no longer cling to the failed phantom of a “two-state solution” but explores new visions for a binational state.
Our Zoom-webinar with him was attended by 150 guests from Vienna to New York and Berlin to Zurich. Here is the recording of the talk, that was mainly conducted in English.

 

There is a blatant contradiction between a Jewish state and a liberal democracy, says the Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm. For a Jew (and thus a fully-fledged Israeli citizen) is only someone who is ‘of Jewish descent’ – or religiously converted. In his great essay, he sketches the vision of an ethnically neutral state that overcomes its nationalist founding myth and thus finally has a future.
Israel has changed dramatically in the last two decades: While religious Zionism is becoming increasingly popular, both leftists and liberals lack convincing ideas and concepts. The two-state solution is widely considered to have failed. In view of this disaster, Omri Boehm argues for a rethink of Israel’s statehood: Only the equal rights of all citizens can end the conflict between Jews and Arabs. The Jewish state and its occupied territories must become a federal, binational republic. Such a policy is not anti-Zionist; on the contrary, it lays the foundation for a modern and liberal Zionism.
Omri Boehm, born in 1979 in Haifa, studied in Tel Aviv and served in the Israeli secret service Shin Bet. He received his doctorate at Yale with a dissertation on “Kant’s Critique of Spinoza.” Today he teaches as professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He is an Israeli and German citizen, has conducted research in Munich and Berlin, and writes about Israeli politics in Haaretz, Die Zeit, and The New York Times.
The book:
Omri Boehm: Israel – eine Utopie,
Propyläen Verlag, Berlin 2020, hardback, 256 pages,
€ 20.60, ISBN 978-3-549-10007-3
The English edition, A Future for Israel: Beyond the Two-State Solution, will appear in April 2021 at New York Review Books.

Avraham Burg: Reading Stefan Zweig

European Diary, 1.12.2020: A few days ago the Willy Brandt Center in Jerusalem celebrated Stefan Zweig’s birthday together with us and other partners. Avraham Burg shared his personal reflections on Stefan Zweig’s autobiography The World of Yesterday. Memories of a European, reading the book several times in various translations. A journey from education sentimental to a vivid portray of present challenges. Thanks to the Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem for the permission to share Avraham Burg’s thoughts here.

Ischgl 2.0 ?

European Diary, 29.11.2020: Austria has managed to get to the top again, this time not as a poster boy for anti-corona measures, but as a corona hotspot together with France and Italy. The number of corona victims in all three countries now exceeds the record number of deaths in the USA in relative terms.

What is being discussed in Italy and France, in Belgium and in Germany? How to prevent Christmas and ski tourism from undoing the hesitant success of the second lockdown. After all, Austria was already at the top, in the production of contagions and in the impudence with which one first wanted to cover them up, then play them down and then forget them. To this day, Austria, Ischgl and Tyrol, those responsible for the disaster have never apologized to anyone, even though the small town in the Paznaun valley was the most infectious place in Europe during the first corona wave of the year. And this for reasons that have not changed at all to this day: the budding of a few “real men” in the cable car business and in politics, who have not yet understood that economic success also goes hand in hand with growing responsibility. And probably with a few other things as well.

So now the Bavarians and the Italians and the French are thinking about how to slow down and postpone skiing and everything that goes with it this winter. And they still remember very well that Austria was one of the first states to make some borders tighter again with travel warnings and quarantine threats. As Chancellor Kurz said so beautifully on August 16: “The virus comes to Austria by car.

What is being discussed in Austria? Whether the ski resorts should be allowed to open again as early as next week. And Finance Minister Blümel already knows who should pay if the tourists from Germany and Italy, from France and Switzerland simply don’t come. The EU, of course. He has not yet revealed why “the EU” should do this. Neither can the EU close ski resorts in Austria, nor force the Germans to ski in Ischgl. But it should pay.

Stefan Zweig: Café Europa

European Diary, 28.11.2020: 139 years ago on this day Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna. On February 23, 1942 he took his life in exile in Petropolis, Brazil.
On the way to this last refuge, during the months of his exile in the USA, he wrote his autobiography Die Welt von gestern. Memories of a European. In Hohenems 2014, when we took a look back at the first Europeans, at the Habsburg Jews until World War I in 1914, Stefan Zweig’s critical, melancholic and ironic retrospective view of the “World of Security”, the “dream castle” of the Habsburg monarchy and of Europe inspired by the belief in humanity and progress, which turned out to be a deadly illusion from 1914 to 1945, formed the epilogue, so to speak. We were able to borrow some pages from his manuscript in the original from the Library of Congress in Washington.

Stefan Zweig about the Hohenems Family of his mother Ida Brettauer

In the foreword to his autobiography, Stefan Zweig wrote about the upheavals in Europe and what it meant: “as an Austrian, as a Jew, as a writer, as a humanist and pacifist, to have stood precisely where these earth tremors had the most violent effect. (…) But I do not complain; it is just the homeless man who becomes free in a new sense, and only he who is no longer connected with anything needs to take no more consideration for anything. (…) I was born in 1881 in a large and powerful empire, in the Habsburg monarchy, but one does not look for it on the map: it has been washed away without a trace. I grew up in Vienna, a two-thousand-year-old supranational metropolis, and had to leave it like a criminal before it was degraded to a German provincial city. My literary work has been burnt to ashes in the language in which I wrote it, in the same place where my books have made friends of millions of readers. So I no longer belong anywhere, a stranger everywhere and at best a guest; even the true home that my heart chooses, Europe, is lost to me, since it has been suicidally torn apart for the most part in the war between brothers.
Stefan Zweig was the first and last European at the same time. In front of one of the houses where his Hohenems family lived in the 19th century, a sculpture today reminds one of Walter Benjamin and his “angel of history” – who, like Zweig’s “world of yesterday”, became his legacy before he took his own life on the border in 1940 while fleeing to Spain.
Stefan Zweig managed to escape, but the destruction of Europe also haunted him into exile, until that day in February 1942, when the strength to continue had apparently left him. Years later, his farewell letter was to end up with another emigrant in Petropolis, also a descendant from Hohenems.

The Willy Brandt Center in Jerusalem invites you to an online event in memory of Stefan Zweig on Saturday, November 28, 2020, from 13.00 to 21.00 (Central European Time).

Access to the zoom video livestream:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83094429169?pwd=bG4wU1dWaEhmc0c4bWJ5Y2tUcTg1UT09

The birthday party for Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) offers readings, reflections and music from Jerusalem and Ramallah, Hohenems and Vienna, Berlin and Addis Ababa, London, Paris, Tel Aviv and Zurich.

The Hohenems session begins at 4.30 pm (CET) and reminds us of Zweig’s Hohenems origins and his last journey to Brazil, of the first and last Europeans. Hanno Loewy, the actor Michael Schiemer and the “World of Yesterday”, and the Brazilian musician Sergio Wagner will be heard.
Thanks to Petra Klose for the wonderful idea and organization of this event.

Here is an overview of the entire program:
1pm (CET) Jerusalem Session – in English
We will welcome you with stunning views from the roofs of the Willy Brandt Center and the Austrian Hospice,
followed by a performance of Stefan Zweig’s text about Viennese coffeehouses by Guy Bracca who will read to us from the Café Triest.
After that enjoy with us a musical performance of Zweig’s favourite composers Beethoven and Mozart by pianist Dima Milenova
followed by an interview with the young writer Iman Hirbawi, participant of the Willy Brandt Center’s Young Writers Project.
2pm (CET) Addis Ababa Session – in English
Filmmaker Terhas Berhe presents to us the Ethiopian world of coffeehouses and ceremonies in Addis Ababa
2.30pm (CET) Berlin Session – in German
Actress Joanna Castelli reads from Stefan Zweig’s World of Yesterday and his discovery of freedom in Berlin.
3pm (CET) Talk with Avraham Burg – in English
Avraham Burg speaks about Stefan Zweig’s universal approach to Judaism, his concept for Europe and his legacy today.
3.30pm (CET) Tel Aviv Session – in German
Interview with journalist Peter Münch about what Stefan Zweig tells us today from a European perspective.
4pm (CET) Zurich Session – in German
Dramatic reading with actor Christian Manuel Oliveira about Stefan Zweig’s impressions of wartime Zurich
4.30pm (CET) Hohenems Session – in German
Sergio Wagner brings music from Brasil to the Café Europe.
Hanno Loewy, director of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems talks about the current exhibition “The last Europeans” and Stefan Zweig’s family connections to Hohenems,
followed by a reading of actor Michael Schiemer.
5.30pm (CET) Paris Session
Musical performance of Debussy’s Prélude “Danseuses de Delphes” by pianist Emmanuel Strosser
6pm (CET) Vienna Session – in German
Readings by the authors Anna Goldenberg, Doron Rabinovici and Timna Brauer
In cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum Tel Aviv
7pm (CET) London Session – in English
Introduction and a performance by Rita Manning and Chris Laurence
7.30pm (CET) Vienna Session – in English
Readings by the authors Julya Rabinowich and Nadine Sayegh with a musical performance of oud player Marwan Abado
In cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum Tel Aviv
8pm (CET) Ramallah Session
Performance of “La Vie en Rose” from the Palestinian artist Café Garage by accordion player Mohammad Qutati
8.30 pm (CET) Jerusalem Session – in English
Presentation of the Young Writer’s Project with photographer Iuna Viera and young author Hagar Mizrachi Dudinksi.
We will close the program with a dramatic reading of Stefan Zweig by actor Alex Ansky.

Yad Vashem: A Memorial, a Name, a Controversy

European Diary, 26.11.2020: Almost exactly ten years ago, an aspiring nationalist politician from Austria visited the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. It was at the beginning of December 2010. Instead of wearing a kippa or a hat, he entered the memorial site with a fraternity cap, a symbol of the right wing, often Antisemitic traditional students organizations in Austria and Germany. At home in Vienna, right-wing extremists of all colors were thigh tapping happy about this macabre joke. Others were worried that the demonstrative pro-Israel course could now make right-wing populists presentable in Austria as well. If Israel welcomes him into the country like this, “sooner or later no one in Austria will be able to say anything. He makes himself capable of governing”, a representative of the Viennese Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance warned. Well, seven years later the strange guest from Austria was Vice-Chancellor of Austria. And he would probably still be today, if he had not run into a fake oligarch on Ibiza, a trap created by critical journalists who exposed the corruption of these right wing politicians.

Now there is a dispute about Yad Vashem again. Also this time it is about a right-wing extremist racist. But according to Benjamin Netanyahu, this racist is not supposed to visit, but to take over the management of the “World Holocaust Memorial”: Effi Eitam.

Eitam’s military career as a brigadier general culminated in the fight against the Palestinian intifada. Four of his soldiers beat a Palestinian prisoner to death on his orders and were – after all – sentenced. Eitam got off with a reprimand, but was no longer promoted.
Consequently, he was drawn into politics, where he attracted attention as a member of the Knesset and as a minister with racist statements, among other things, when he called Arab Israelis a cancer and demanded that these citizens be deprived of the right to vote. He demanded that Palestinians be forcibly expelled from the West Bank and that one of the most popular Palestinian leaders, Marwan Bargouti, be murdered.

The planned appointment has triggered protests worldwide, from Holocaust survivors as well as scientists, memorials, archives and Jewish museums. Finally, Yad Vashem is also a scientific institution and one of the most important archives in the world. Should it be the plaything of nationalist politics and the explicit oppression of minorities in the future? On Tuesday, survivors of the Shoah took to the streets in Israel and protested outside the offices of the responsible minister Ze’ev Elkin. “The way Eitam talks about our citizens and neighbors reminds me of what I heard when I was a child,” one of the aged and apparently awake and young protesters, 92-year-old Eva Morris, told the Jerusalem Post.

In the conflict over this occupation, of course, only those contradictions that have long been a problem are revealed in a grotesquely exaggerated way. And not only in Israel. Memorials are and have always been a plaything of nationalist politics. Whether in Poland, where for decades in Auschwitz the Polish suffering was celebrated as “Jesus among the nations,” and the Jewish victims were appropriated among the Polish. Or in Buchenwald, where the “true” Germany, liberated from fascism and capitalism, ranked among the peoples of the world whose salvation consisted in communism. Whether in the “Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny”, where an inflated copy of a “Pieta” by Käthe Kollwitz since 1993 also commemorates all Jewish and other victims of mass extermination in Christian iconography and as anonymously fallen soldiers. And thus at the same time declared victims of an equally anonymous evil that had nothing to do with Germany. Or in Yad Vashem, which, as a memorial, not only claims to be a universal world memorial, but at the same time incorporates all victims of the Holocaust not only in an understandably Jewish but also in a nationalist narrative. As a “memorial to the martyrs and heroes of the State of Israel in the Holocaust”, Yad Vashem (following an Israeli law) declares the dead posthumously as Israeli citizens. My grandfather would turn over in his grave – if he ever received a grave.

The path through the history museum of Yad Vashem, which was reopened 15 years ago, does not end with an architectural gesture of trauma, no authentic or staged expression of what the survivors since 1945 have to cope with. No, the path through the museum ends on an imperial balcony, a view from above in triumph over the land – and with a side view of that hill on which the village of Deir Yassin stood, whose inhabitants were massacred by right-wing militias under the orders of Menachem Begin in 1948.

As early as 1988, Yehuda Elkana captured the inner contradiction of every Holocaust remembrance in a memorable formula. There are two conflicting imperatives that lead to completely different consequences: “this shall never happen again” – or “this shall never happen again to us“.
At the same time, the conflict over Eitam also reveals the fundamental dilemma of the Israeli state, which wants to be both a democracy and a Jewish state. Omri Boehm has described this in his new book “Israel- a Utopia” with good reasons as an attempt to say something like: “A square is square in so far as it is round, and a circle is round in so far as it is square. One asserts nothing more than a contradiction, but with pathos, and believes in it.”

As a “national memorial”, Yad Vashem, too, is supposed to be a squaring of the circle, a manifesto against racism and the oppression of minorities, and at the same time an institution for the establishment of Jewish Israeli identity, which symbolically excludes a growing number of Israeli citizens. Effi Eitam would indeed be the man to “dissolve” this contradiction. With fatal consequences, of course. For Yad Vashem is also one of the most important archives in the world, a research site where many people have seriously dedicated their lives to the memory of the greatest crime of humanity. A crime that can only be remembered if its universal and Jewish dimensions are taken into account equally. Without abusing it for national political purposes, that is, for domination over others.

And finally, the dispute over Yad Vashem reveals a growing contradiction between Jews in the Diaspora and the Israeli state, which usurps Jews even against their will, dead or alive, and plays them off against the Arab citizens of Israel and against the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. A dispute that has now even encompassed the occupation of leading positions in Zionist organizations around the world, decisions that the Israeli government has made the sole concern of its internal coalition deals, instead of coordinating them with Jewish organizations in the diaspora as it has done in the past.

If the appointment of the chairman of the board of directors of Yad Vashem is now also the subject of a coalition dispute between Israel’s “best enemies”, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and Benjamin (Benny) Gantz, then it is not because Benny Gantz has problems with abusing Yad Vashem as a place of nationalist brainwashing, but because a number of top positions within Israel are currently being occupied again. And both of them want to make a good cut. After all, Netanyahu needs people in leading positions in the judiciary who will spare him the threat of a trial.
Ze’ev Elkin, the minister responsible for Yad Vashem, who wants to hold fast to Eitam’s occupation, has already reached the peak of cynical hypocrisy:  He hopes, he told the Israeli daily Haaretz, that “Yad Vashem will not become a hostage in a political game. There are things that are above politics. If Effi Eitam can be prevented, a bitter aftertaste will remain. And much to do. We need to know that.

Barbara: Göttingen

European Diary, 24.11.2020: Twenty-three years ago today, Barbara Brodi died. Born in 1930 as Monique Andrée Serf, she was known, of course, primarily under the name with which she conquered the chanson stages of the world: Barbara.

Barbara in Amsterdam,        19. October 1965

Her father Jacques Serf came from Alsace, her mother Esther Brodsky from Odessa. In 1940 she fled with her Jewish family out of the German-occupied part of France. She was finally able to go into hiding in a small rural community in southeastern France, and in 1944 she experienced liberation in hiding, now near Paris. A music teacher from the neighborhood heard her singing, and soon she received singing and piano lessons. She had her first musical appearances in a Parisian cabaret and soon moved to Brussels where she sang chansons by Edith Piaf and Juliette Greco. Back in Paris she also performed songs of her new friends Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens.

At the beginning of July 1964, even before her big breakthrough one year later, Barbara came to a guest performance at the “Young Theatre Göttingen”. She had only hesitantly accepted, and finally, perhaps to put the seriousness of this first invitation from Germany to the test a little, insisted on playing on a grand piano. When she entered the stage on July 4, 1964, however, there was only a little piano – and she refused to perform. The grand piano was finally borrowed by an old lady in Göttingen and carried through the city by ten students. The concert began two hours late. And Barbara stayed for a week. On the last day she wrote a song that was to become a melodious symbol of French-German peace and friendship, sung by a Jewish singer: “Göttingen”. In 1967, when she was to perform again in Göttingen and this time in the sold-out Stadthalle, the municipal concert hall, the concert was broadcast live in France.

And here the text in French and English.

Barbara

Göttingen

Bien sûr ce n’est pas la Seine
Ce n’est pas le bois de Vincennes
Mais c’est bien joli quand même
À Göttingen, à Göttingen

Pas de quais et pas de rengaines
Qui se lamentent et qui se traînent
Mais l’amour y fleurit quand même
À Göttingen, à Göttingen

Ils savent mieux que nous je pense
L’histoire de nos rois de France
Herman, Peter, Helga et Hans
À Göttingen

Et que personne ne s’offense
Mais les contes de notre enfance
Il était une fois commence
À Göttingen

Bien sûr nous, nous avons la Seine
Et puis notre bois de Vincennes
Mais Dieu que les roses sont belles
À Göttingen, à Göttingen

Nous, nous avons nos matins blêmes
Et l’âme grise de Verlaine
Eux c’est la mélancolie même
À Göttingen, à Göttingen

Quand ils ne savent rien nous dire
Ils restent…

Göttingen

Certainly, there is no Seine
And also the forest not of Vincennes,
But there would be a lot to say
From Göttingen, from Göttingen

Paris is sung about again and again,
There are no songs about Göttingen,
And love blooms there as well
In Göttingen, in Göttingen.

It seems to me, we are far worse connoisseurs
In terms of “France’s great men
When Hermann, Helga, Fritz and Franz
In Göttingen.

Here also played without question,
The fairy tale of our childhood days:
“Once upon a time…” Yes, where did it begin?
In Göttingen.

Certainly, there are no Seine
And also the forest not of Vincennes,
But I never saw such beautiful roses
In Göttingen, in Göttingen

The dawn is not the same
Like Verlaine, the silver-pale one,
But sadly it is also true for the French
In Göttingen, in Göttingen

It does not get further with words,
Then know that smiling is smarter:
It can achieve even more with us,
The blond child in Göttingen…

What I say now, that certainly sounds
For some people unforgivable:
The children are exactly the same
In Paris, as in Göttingen.

Let this time never return
And never again hatred will destroy the world:
There are people I love,
In Göttingen, in Göttingen
But weapons should speak again,
It would break my heart!
Who knows what would be left over
From Göttingen, from Göttingen.

Beautiful roses bloom
In Göttingen, in Göttingen.
But weapons should speak again,
It would give me

break the heart!
Who knows what would remain
From Göttingen, from Göttingen.

Veto and no Sputnik Shock?

European Diary, 20.11.2020: The cabal was to be expected. The fact that the majority of EU members now want to get serious about tying EU funding to compliance with constitutional standards has led to the announced veto by Poland and Hungary against the EU budget, and thus also against the 750 billion in aid to cope with the economic, social and health policy consequences of the Corona crisis. Yesterday’s special EU summit did not change anything about the blockade of the EU budget by Poland and Hungary.

An EU rule-of-law procedure under Article 7 of the EU Treaty is already underway against both countries due to numerous and growing restrictions on freedom of the press and opinion, the independence of the judiciary and the sciences. Hungary and Poland leave out few opportunities to repeatedly sound out how far they can go with this.
Viktor Orban now claims that in reality the EU is trying to force Hungary to accept migrants and receives applause from the FPÖ in Vienna.

Both Poland and Hungary are indeed suffering from rampant emigration – well educated young people leaving Hungary and Poland to seek their fortune elsewhere. The expulsion of the Central European University from Budapest is only one link in a long chain of discouraging events that accelerate this bloodletting.

The EU, on the other hand, is not least concerned about the rampant corruption, which can no longer be fought by an intimidated judiciary. And the lack of public control of corrupt government action in the face of a press landscape that, in Hungary for example, is already almost entirely in the hands of Viktor Orban and his followers.

The laboriously negotiated compromise between the Council, the EU Commission and Parliament provides that a qualified majority of 15 states in the Council, representing at least 65% of the population of the EU, can block EU funds if there is a threat that the use of these funds is no longer subject to democratic, constitutional control. This is at least a first signal to the governments in Warsaw and Budapest, probably also to others who may feel that they are meant here.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa is now also attacking the German Council Presidency for wanting to implement the compromise negotiated in the Council only a few days ago with Slovenian approval. Jansa himself, of course, does not threaten to veto it. Probably because he does not really know what he is getting himself into.

The veto of Poland and Hungary could turn out to be a boomerang. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is already threatening to continue the regular EU budget as an emergency budget and to adopt the Corona Fund as a bilateral agreement between the other 25 states, with Poland and Hungary then going away empty-handed. In the meantime, Poland and Hungary are practicing war rhetoric. They are waging a “freedom fight” against “slavery”. This is not badly received by the Polish population. Hungary, on the other hand, ignited the next stage of escalation.

Viktor Orban demonstratively relies on the Russian vaccine Sputnik V in the fight against Covid-19, although the EU states have agreed on a joint distribution of vaccines approved in the EU. Russia’s space probe Sputnik 1 triggered the Sputnik shock in the West in 1957, because Russia had succeeded in launching the first artificial earth satellite, even before the USA. Sputnik 1 transmitted a short wave signal and finally burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere after 92 days of beeping. The Sputnik V mission was already a test for manned space flights. On board were two dogs, 40 mice and two rats, which landed safely back on earth one day later. A second Sputnik shock is certainly not to be expected. Russia will have enough to do to protect its own population. At the moment the number of corona deaths in Russia is also increasing dramatically. The waiting for the Sputnik miracle is still going on.

Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek spoke with Professor Andrea Petö on 10 September 2020 in Vienna about “illiberal democracy” and the situation of the constitutional state in Hungary, about the situation of women between corona and right-wing populism – and about the emigration of the Central European University to Vienna.

 

An extreme right wing politician as chair of Yad Vashem?

There is international resistance to the announced appointment of the extreme right-wing politician Effi Eitam as the new chairman of Yad Vashem, the prestigious ‘World Holocaust Remembrance Centre’ and museum in Jerusalem. In a joint declaration, Jewish and non-Jewish scholars and employees of Jewish museums, Holocaust memorial sites, university and non-university research and educational institutions, and archives around the world protest strongly against this worrying move which threatens to instrumentalize one of the most important Holocaust memorial institutions in the world for partisan political interests. Within a few days, more than 750 international signatories have joined the appeal.
Scholars and professors of Jewish Studies and History in the USA, Israel, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, Hungary, Poland, South Africa, Canada, Brazil, France, Czech Republic etc: including Omer Bartov, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Michael Berenbaum, Deborah Lipstadt, Steven Aschheim, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, James Young, Sander Gilman, Norbert Frei, Aleida and Jan Assmann, Michael Brenner, Marion Kaplan, Derek Penslar, Ron Barkai, Alfred Bodenheimer, Dariusz Stola, Vivian Liska, Daniel Boyarin, Gertrud Koch, Shulamith Volkov, Peter Hayes, Konrad Kwiet, Christoph Schulte, Deborah Dwork, John Efron, Amos Goldberg, Moshe Zimmermann, Moshe Rosman, Lawrence Baron, Joel Rubin, Anson Rabinbach, Micha Brumlik, Atina Grossman, David Myers, Jacques Picard, Liliane Weissberg, René Bloch, Alan Steinweis, Christina v. Braun, Michael Steinberg and many more.

Directors and staff members of numerous Jewish museums, Holocaust memorials, educational centers, research institutes and archives in the USA, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey and Israel

including Zsuzsanna Toronyi (Jewish Museum Budapest), Volkhard Knigge (former director of the Buchenwald Memorial), Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Center for Research on Anti-Semitism, Berlin), Zygmunt Stępiński (Director of the Museum Polin, Warsaw), Sybille Steinbacher (Fritz Bauer Institute Frankfurt a.M. ), Miriam Zadoff (NS Documentation Center Munich), ), Lori Starr (former director of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco), Martha Keil (Institute for Jewish History of Austria), Miriam Rürup (Moses Mendelssohn Center, Potsdam), Daniela Eisenstein (Jewish Museum Franconia), Maros Borsky (Jewish Museum Bratislava), Barbara Staudinger (Jewish Museum Augsburg), Zanet Battinou (Jewish Museum Athens), Bernhard Purin (Jewish Museum Munich), Anja Siegemund (Centrum Judaicum Berlin) and many others.

Writers, artists and filmmakers including Lizzie Doron, Max Czollek, Doron Rabinovici, Amos Gitai, Ruth Beckermann, Melvin Jules Bukiet, Michal Rovner, Abraham Burg (the former speaker of the Knesset) and rabbis such as Andreas Nachama (President of the General Rabbinical Conference in Germany) have also added their names in protest.
For the initiators of the appeal:

Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek (independent curator and museologist, Vienna)
Hanno Loewy (Director, Jewish Museum Hohenems, Austria)
Joanne Rosenthal (former chief curator of the Jewish Museum London)
Cilly Kugelmann (Chief Curator of the Permanent Exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin)
Susannah Heschel (Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth, USA)

OPPOSITION TO THE SUGGESTED APPOINTMENT OF EFFI EITAM AS CHAIR OF YAD VASHEM

“For many years the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, its archives and research departments, has been one of the most important partners of our work, wherever we are situated, whether Jewish or non-Jewish scholars of Holocaust, Antisemitism and Jewish studies, active in universities, museums, archives, education or research.

Yad Vashem, the Israeli state ‘Memorial to the Martyrs and Heroes of the State of Israel in the Holocaust’ commemorates the Nazi extermination of the Jews. Its declared goal is not only documentation, research and education but also prevention – of barbarity and future acts of genocide. The International School for Holocaust Studies, which is part of the memorial, aims at combatting anti-Semitism, racism and exclusion within society at large.

This urgent mission – to encourage civil society to actively watch, involve and intervene wherever racism and hatred threaten religious, ethnic or other groups and communities – is now at risk of being handed over to the outspoken right-wing extremist and historically illiterate politician Effi Eitam.

We are shocked by this outrageous proposal and protest against it in the strongest possible terms. Eitam’s hateful rhetoric towards Israeli Arabs and Palestinians stands in opposition to the stated mission of Yad Vashem.

We add our voices to the protests of many notable Holocaust survivors in Israel who have spoken out against this proposed appointment. Appointing Effi Eitam as Chair of Yad Vashem would turn an internationally respected institution devoted to the documentation of crimes against humanity and the pursuit of human rights into a mockery and a disgrace.”

List of Signatories:
Gisèle Abazon, Interpreter, Israel
Irit Abir, Israel
Prof. Dr. David Abraham, Professor of Law, University of Miami, USA
Mr. Shai Adar, Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center, Volunteer and Board Member, Israel
Nance Adler, JDS Seattle – Jewish Studies, USA
Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center, New York, USA
Dr. Michal Aharony, University of Haifa, Editor, The Journal of Holocaust Research, Israel
Dr Avril Alba, University of Sydney, Australia
Mr Jonathan Alexandre, Israel
Mr Mario Dominic Alfonso, USA
Dr Jean-Rémi Alisse, Israel
Mr Yuval Alpan, Israel
Dr. Karen Alterthum-Wajsberg, Children and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Munich, Germany
Mr Eitan Amiel, Israel
Prof. Rabbi Yehoyada Amir, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Israel
Marita Anderson, Chaplain at Northside Hospital, USA
Claire Andrieu, History Professor, Sciences Po, Paris, France
Professor Shoshana Anily, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Mr Léo Apotheker, UK
Mrs Liliane Apotheker, UK
Jack Arbib, Israel
Mr Bertie Aronson, Israel
Professor Steven Aschheim, Emeritus, Hebrew University, Israel
Ofer Ashkenazi, Associate Professor, Director, The Koebner-Minerva Center for German History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Prof. Dr. Aleida Assmann, University of Konstanz, Germany
Dr Roger Assouline, Israel
Prof. Dr. Jan Assmann, Universities of Heidelberg and Konstanz, Germany
Dr Irene Aue-Ben-David, Director, Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, Israel
Karen Auerbach, University of North Carolina, associate professor of history, USA
Arie Avidor, Ambassador (ret.), Israel
Bernard Avishai, Visiting Professor of Government, Dartmouth College, USA / Israel רחל ארבל ,ישראל
פנחס ביבלניק ,האוניברסיטה העברית ירושלים ,ישראל
אריאלה בכר ,ישראל
Professor Anthony Bale, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
אילו בר ,עצמאי ,ישראל
Naomi Ban, Israel
Dr Ronald Ban, Israel
Rabbi Ehud Bandel, Israel
Dr. Yair Barak, Research fellow Cohn Institute Tel Aviv University, Israel
Miriam Barak, Israel
Prof. Emeritus David Bar-Gal, Hebrew University, Israel
Uri Barbash, Film and TV Director, Israel
Hillel Bardin, Israel
Ron Barkai, Professor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Thamar Barnett, Holocaust Educator, UK
Lawrence Baron, Professor Emeritus, San Diego State University (retired), USA
Professor Omer Bartov, Brown University, USA
Professor Neima Barzel, Oraim college of education, Israel
Prof. Dr. iur. J.Friedrich Battenberg, Technical University Darmstadt, Department of History, Germany
Ms. Zanet Battinou, Director, The Jewish Museum of Greece, Greece
Mrs Laure Baumgarten, France
Sammy Beck, Director, Practicing Medicine Program, Cornell University, USA Professor Annette Becker, Paris-Nanterre, Genocide Studies, France
Ruth Beckermann, Filmmaker, Austria
Dr. Michael Beigel, Director, Multimedia Assisted Learning, The Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University, Israel
Sylvia Beigel, Teacher, Alyn Rehabilitation Hospital, Israel Claudette Beit-Aharon, Child of Survivor, USA
Dr. Margalit Bejarano, Hebrew University (Research Fellow), Israel Ruth Belluco, Israel
Galit Ben Ami, Israel
Batsheva Ben-Amos, Shoah scholar, Philadelphia
Professor Dr. Shlomo Ben-Hur, IMD Business School, Switzerland David Ben Ishay, Direction de projets environnementaux, Israël
מנשה בן מאיר ,מרחב תרבות ,ישראל
Dr. Michal Ben-Nun, San Diego, CA, USA
Professor Ram Ben-Shalom, The Hebrew University, Israel
Ms. Orit Ben Shitrit, Film Department Chair, San Francisco Art Institute, USA
Professor Hanoch Ben-Yami, Central European University, Austria
Ohad Ben Itzhak, Israel
Mr Shmuel Ben-Tovim, Director, BTC Ltd., Israel
Nesim Bencoya, Turkey
Isaac Benguigui, Prof. University of Geneva, Switzerland
Tal Benoliel, Hebrew teacher, France
Ms. Anat Benson, Israel
Ms Valérie Bercovici, Israel
Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish University, USA
Elie Beressi, France
Professor Andrew Stuart Bergerson, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA
Bonnie Berkowicz, USA
Dr. Nathaniel Berman, Rahel Varnhagen Professor, Dept. of Religious Studies, Brown University, USA
Dr. Margit Berner, Austria
Daniel Bessis, Delegate for innovation, Israel and France
Dr. Henry Bial, Professor, University of Kansas, USA
Dr. Pinhas Bibelnik, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Professor (emeritus) Yoram Bilu, Prof. of anthropology and psychology Hebrew University, ISRAEL
Professor Marco Antonio Bin, PUC SP, Brasil Professor Daniel Blatman, Hebrew University, Israel
Mr Bruno Bloch, Cercle de Genealogie Juive, France
Carine Bloch, France
Professor René Bloch, University of Bern, Institute of Jewish Studies, Switzerland
Dr. Lisa Bloom, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Mr Remi Blum, Masorti congregation secretary in Neve Tzedek, Israel
Dr. Rachel Blumenthal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Mr Bruno Boccara, Socio-Analytic Dialogue, USA
Professor Alfred Bodenheimer, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland
Miriam Bodian, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Professor Dr Omri Boehm, The New School for Social Research, Israel/ USA
Dr. Maroš Borský, Jewish Community Museum and Jewish Cultural Institute, Bratislava, Director, Slovak Republic
Rabbi Dr Barbara Borts, Newcastle University, UK Professor Viviana Bosi, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Dr. Sabina Bossert, Fachreferentin Jüdische Zeitgeschichte am Archiv für Zeitgeschichte der ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Professor Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Prof. of Talmudic Culture, UC Berkeley, United States
Prof. Dr. Stephan Braese, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Dr. Elisabeth Brainin, Psychoanalyst, Vienna Psychoanalytic society (WPV), Austria Professor Zachary Braiterman, Syracuse University , USA
Caroline Bray, Museum Consultant, UK
Professor Michael Brenner, American University, Washington DC and University of Munich, USA Professor Haim Bresheeth, SOAS, University of London, UK
Claparede albernhe Brigitte, France
Mrs. Aline Brodt, Brodt Center for Jewish Culture, Israel
Susan Bronson, Executive Director, Yiddish Book Center, USA
Dr. Rivka Brot, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, Israel
Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus, Artist with ARC (Arts, Religion, Culture), USA
Dr. Micha Brumlik, Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin, Germany
Tal Bruttmann, Historian, France
Melvin Jules Bukiet, author, Sarah Lawrence College, Board Member of the American Friends of Yad Vashem
Mr Avraham Burg, Former Speaker of the Knesset, Israel
Rauzel Candib, Retired School Administrator, Montreal, Quebec
Dr. Katerina Capkova, Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Professor Marc Caplan, Dartmouth College, Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies, USA Steven Carr, Purdue University Fort Wayne, USA
Galia Chai, Israel
Isolde Charim, Austria
Prof. Israel Charny, Director, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide Jerusalem, Co-Founder, Internaitonal Association of Genocide Scholars, Israel
David Chemla, JCall, European general secretary, France
Nancy Civin, Baltimore Jewish Council, Holocaust Remembrance Council, USA
Tsila Cochavi, Israel
Carine Cohen Libermann, Law Student, Israel
Dr. Elliot (Yisrael) Cohen, Retired from Yad Vashem, Hebrew University, Israel
Professor Emerita Esther Cohen, Department of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Judith Cohen, Retired teacher, Ort, Israel
Julie-Marthe Cohen, curator, Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Prof. Richard Cohen, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Professor Veronika Cohen, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Israel
Ms Catherine Colloms, Trustee, Wiener Holocaust Library, UK
Alon Confino, Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies, Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
Dr Bryan Conyer, Bialik College, Australia
Jonathan Crewe, Dartmouth College, USA
Roz Currie, Curator at Islington Museum, formerly curator at Jewish Museum London, UK Sarah Cushman, Director, Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University, USA Anat Cygielman, Journalist, Israel
Dr. Max Czollek, Author, Germany
דפנה דה הרטוך ,ישראל
Talia Dadash, Israel
Sebastian Dallinger, Austria
danielle danielle, retraitée, CNRS, France, Israel
Patrick Danis, France
Paige Dansinger, Director, Better World Museum, USA
Emmanuel Darmon, France
Tamar Daus, Israel
Dr. Efraim Davidi, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Professor SIDRA DeKOVEN EZRAHI, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Aviv De-Morgan, Israel
Dr Anath Ariel de Vidas, CNRS, France
Dr. Irit Dekel, Assistant Professor, Jewish Studies and Germanic Studies, Indiana University, USA
Professor Mikhal Dekel, Professor and Director of the Rifkind Center for the Humanities & Arts, City University of New York, USA
Prof. Dr. Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Annalisa Di Fant, Historian, Italy
Emily Dische-Becker, Journalist & researcher, Berlin, Germany
Weill Dominique, Lawyer, France
Lizzie Doron, Writer, Israel
Dr. Axel Doßmann, University of Jena, Germany
Rachel Douieb, Author, composer, Musician, curator, France
Daniel Dratwa, former museum curator, Belgium
Dr. Werner Dreier, erinnern.at, director, Austria
Laura Dressel, Austria
Dr. Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Reader in History, the University of Manchester, UK
Marcel Drimer, Holocaust survivor USHMM, USA
Dr. Gali Drucker Bar-Am, Israel
Dr. Irith Dublon-Knebel, Minerva Institute for German History, Tel Aviv University, research fellow, Israel
Prof Arie Dubnov, Associate Professor of History & Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies Director, Judaic Studies Program The George Washington University, USA
Dr. Rina Dudai, Kibbutzim College of Education (retired), Israel Ms Joanne Dufty, Sydney, Australia
Shoshana Dweck, USA
Prof Deborah Dwork, Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity; Graduate Center–CUNY, USA
Dr. Tobias Ebbrecht Hartmann, Cardinal Franz König Chair in Austrian Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Monique Eckmann, Prof. em. University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Geneva, Switzerland
Professor John Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish History, University of California—Berkeley, USA
Daniela F. Eisenstein, Director, The Jewish Museum Franconia – Fürth, Schnaittach & Schwabach, Germany
Dr. Sagi Elbaz, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Dr. Yair Eldan, Law Faculty, Ono academic College, Israel
Allal Elie, France
Dr. Aya Elyada, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Pierre Ech-Ardour, France
Sandy Fainer, Canada
Mrs Yael Falk, Israel
Sandro Fasching, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI), The Future of Memory – Museum Simon Wiesenthal, Austria
Mr Sam Fayon, Director, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Liliana Ruth Feierstein, Humboldt Universität Berlin, Germany
Professor Jackie Feldman, Ben Gurion Universität of the Negev, Professor of Anthropology, Israel
Prof. Miriam Feldon, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Dr. Michaela Feurstein-Prasser, XHIBIT.AT, Curator, Austria
Jacques Fijalkow, Professor emeritus, université de Toulouse, France
Raymonde Fiol, Past President, Holocaust Survivors Group of Southern Nevada, USA
Chuck Fishman, Photographer / historian, USA
Louise Fishman, USA
Shlomit Fishman, Israel
Professor Henryk Flashner, University of Southern California, USA
Professor Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Rutgers University, USA
Dr. David Forman, Cornell University, USA
Professor Everett Fox, Glick Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies, Director, Program in Jewish Studies, Clark University, USA
Dr. Daniel Fraenkel, (Retired), Director of the Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Germany, Israel
Karen S. Franklin, USA
Ms Carol Freeman, Director, Melisma Arts, USA
Prof. ChaeRan Freeze, Professor, Brandeis University, USA
Prof. Dr. Norbert Frei, University of Jena, Germany
Laura Freidberg, UNAM, Mexico
Professor Eli Friedlander, Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Mr Dominique Friedman, Sept & demi Incoming Europe, Chairman, France
Jeanette Friedman, President, the Brenn Institute, USA
Jordan Friedman, Hebrew Seminary for the Deaf and Hearing, USA
Professor Dr. Judith Frishman, Leiden University, Jewish Studies, Netherlands
Eva Frojmovic, Associate Professor, University of Leeds, UK
Dr. Iris Fry, Israel
Professor Emeritus Michael Fry, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Sarah Gabbai, Retired Journalist, Israel
Professor Ofer Gal, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr Yoav Galai, Lecturer in Global Political Communication, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Professor Katharina Galor, Program in Judaic Studies, Brown University, USA Mr Tsahi Ganon, Israel
Dr. Daniel Gerson, University of Bern,Institute of Jewish Studies, Switzerland Dr. Sharon Geva, Kibbutzim College and Tel Aviv University, Israel
Erika Gideon, Switzerland
Noa Gidron, Retiree, Independent Holocaust researcher, Israel
Mr Binyomin Gilbert, UK
Smadar Gilboa, USA
Professor Abigail Gillman, Professor of Hebrew, German, and Comparative Literature, Boston University, USA
Professor Sander Gilman, Emory University , USA
Hans Jakob Ginsburg, Journalist, Germany
Prof. Yonatan Ginzburg, Professor of Linguistics, Université de Paris, France
Oren Giorno, Youth Director at Judaïsme en Mouvement, France
Rabbi Dr. Irving Yitz Greenberg, Senior Scholar in Residence,Hadar Institute, USA and Israel
Professor Amos Guiora, USA
Amos Gitai, Professor college de France, Israel
Mr. Carlos Gitin Hochberg, Son to a survivor, Brasil
Dr. Mario Glanc, Argentina
Tamara Gleason, University College London, UK
Yael Glickman, Israel
Nechama Gliksberg, Israel
Jason Gold, Legal Counsel, Canada
Prof. Amos Goldberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Jean Goldenbaum, Researcher at the European Centre for Jewish Music (Music University of Hannover), Germany
David Goldfarb, Independent scholar and translator, USA
President John Goldsmith, Anne Frank Fonds (Trust), Basel, Switzerland
Ms. Alexa Goldstein, AJEEC-NISPED, Resource Development Coordinator, Israel
Dr Noami Goldstein, Grand daughter of shoah survivors, Israel
Dr. Yossi Goldstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, lecturer, Israel
Rabbi Samuel Gordon, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Sukkat Shalom, USA
Geoff Gottlieb, USA
Alain Tsion Grabarz, Hashomer Hatsaïr (president), France
Professor Henry Green, Department of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies, University of Miami, USA
Dr. Jeffrey Green, Translator, Israel
Judith Green, Hebrew University, Israel
Prof. Charles Greenbaum, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Reesa Greenberg, Art and Exhibition Historian, Canada
Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, Rabbis For Human Rights, Israel
Dr. Leonard Grob, Professor Emeritus, USA
Ms Nili Gross, Israel
William Gross, Director of the Gross Family Collection, Israel
Professor Atina Grossmann, Professor of History, Cooper Union, New York, USA
Ruth Ellen Gruber, Author, “Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe”, Italy/Hungary/USA
Dr. Samuel Gruber, President, International Survey of Jewish Monuments, USA Dr. Karen Grumberg, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Rabbi Nardy Grun, Tkasim, Israel
Prof. Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, Professor of History, Founding Director USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, University of Southern California, USA
Yosef Grunfeld, Israel
Professor Francois Guesnet, University College London, UK
David Guez, France
Paula Guitelman, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Stefan Gunther, USA
Hila Gutmann, Israel
Rivka Gutman, Architect, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem, Israel
Prof. Ruth HaCohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Artur Rubinstein Professor of Musicology, Israel
DYNEL Hanan, Journaliste, ISRAEL
Sarah Harel Hoshen, Israel
Professor Galit Hasan-Rokem, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Peter Hayes, Professor Emeritus of History and Holocaust Studies, Northwestern University, USA
Georges Haymann, France
Professor emeritus Irene Heidelberger-Leonard, Professorial research fellow at Queen Mary College, London, UK
Barbara Heller, Researcher, Universidade Paulista (Brazil), Brasil Ms Claudia Heller, Unesp, Brazil, Brazil
Prof. Dr. Johannes Heil, Ignatz Bubis-Lehrstuhl, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, Germany
Viola Heilman, Journalistin, Graz
PD Dr. Susanne Heim, Berlin, Germany
Dr Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Independent curator, Austria
Professor Elizabeth Heineman, Professor of History, University of Iowa, USA
Mr Rami Heled, Israel
Dr. Lois Helmbold, San Jose State University, professor emerita, USA Tammy Hepps, Independent researcher, USA
Ariel Herman, Israel
Dr. Manja Herrmann, Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany
PhD Medical doctor Albert Herszkowicz, Chairperson Memorial98 association, France
Joel Herzog, Swiss Friends of Yad Vashem, Switzerland
Professor Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College, USA
Professor Hannan Hever, Yale University, USA
Brad Sabin Hill, Washington DC, USA
Dr Odelia Hitron, Israel
Dr. Sabine Hödl, Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs, Austria Mrs Osnat Hochman Gerhard, Legal Counsel, Israel
Esther Hoernlimann, Center for Jewish Studies, Switzerland Mr. Avi Hoffman, USA
Kitty Hoffman, Canada
Dra. Odile Hoffmann, Geographer, IRD, France
Professor Elie Holzer ,Bar Ilan University, Israel
Assumpció Hosta Rebés, Director, Patronat Call de Girona, Spain
Puttermilec Huguette, Teacher, France
Professor Curtis Hutt, Goldstein Center for Human Rights/Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
Agnieszka Ilwicka, USA
Dr Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, USA Laurent Israël, Israël
Dugi Israeli, meshek 58, Israel
Dr Saul Issroff, London
Dr Dror Izhat, Israeli Cinematheque library, Israel
Emeritus professor Andrew Jakubowicz, UTS, Australia
Dr Vivienne Jackson, UK
Daniel Jacoby, Secular humanistic rabbi, Israel
Busseuil Jacques, Particulier, Israel
Sr Simeão Jaime, Brasil
Gdalia Janine, Societaire de la SGDL, France
Peter Jassem, Padt Chair, The Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada, Canada Berman Jehan, Israel
Prof. Dr.Uffa Jensen, Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
Dr Eve Jochnowitz, Workers Circle, USA
Dr. Laura Jockusch, Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, USA
Ari Joskowicz, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University, USA
Jüdischer Salon am Grindel, Hamburg
Ms Ann Jungman, IJV Treasurer, UK
אברהם קלדרון ,החלוץ למרחב ,ישראל
Irene Kacandes, The Dartmouth Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College, USA
Mordechai Raphael Kadovitz, USA
Michal Kalfon, Switzerland
Dr. Moshe Kam, Dean of Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Dr. Tair Kantor, Israel
Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Marion Kaplan, NYU, USA
Harold Kasimow, George Drake Professor of Religious Studis [emeritus], Grinnell College, Holocaust survivor, USA
Caryn Katz, Canada
Professor Ethan Katz, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Jason Katz, USA
Tamara Katzenstein, Film-Maker at Philbus Production, Brazil
Uri R. Kaufmann, director, Alte Synagoge Essen. Germany
Dr. Martha Keil, Institute for Jewish History in Austria, Director, Austria
Alain Keler, Photojournalist, France
Rabbi Naamah Kelman, Israel
Arturo Kerbel, Yiddish House London, UK
Nili Keren, Research fellow, Bar Ilan University, Israel
Prof Zohar Kerem, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Lea Kibanoff-Ron, Writer and editor, ISRAEL
Dr Audrey Kichelewski, Strasbourg University, coeditor of Revue d’histoire de la Shoah, France
Andrea Kirchner, Fritz Bauer Institute Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Professor Emerita, New York University, Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator, Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, USA
Prof Michelle Kisliuk, University of Virginia, USA
Rabbinerin Elisa Klapheck, Frankfurt am Main
Joyce Klein, Israel
Ultrajante Alberto Kleinas, UNIVERSIDADE PRESBITERIANA MACKENZIE, Brazil
Professor Irena Klepfisz, USA
Mary Kluk, South Africa
Dr Brian Klug, St Benett’s Hall, University of Oxford, UK
Prof. Dr. Volkhard Knigge, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Director emeritus Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, Germany
Dr Anna Koch, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Leeds, UK
Prof. Dr. Gertrud Koch, Germany
Dr. Patrick B. Koch, Emmy Noether Research Group Leader, University of Hamburg, Germany
Leah Koenig, USA
Dr Szonja Komoróczy, Hungary
Yulian Kondur, Project coordinator at the Roma Women’s Fund “Chiricli”, Ukraine
Dr. Karen Körber, Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg, Germany
Dr. Eugene Korn, Israel
Professor András Kovács, Central European University, Austria/Hungary
Dr Alexandra Kowalski, Central European University, Austria
Ms Shirly Krakover, Social worker for Holocaust Survivors, Israel
Prof. Robert Kramer, St. Norbert College, USA
Ms. Yaffa Krindel, Israel
Tally Kritzman-Amir, Visiting Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Law, USA
Professor Bjorn Krondorfer, Director, Martin-Springer Institute, Northern Arizona University, USA
Cilly Kugelmann, Chief Curator of the new permanent exhibition, Jewish Museum Berlin, Germany
Dr. Sophie Kulaga, McGill University, Canada
Dr. Daniel Kupfert Heller, Kronhill Senior Lecturer in East European Jewish History, Monash University, Australia
Anna Kupinska, University of Alberta, PhD student, Canada
Daniel Kurtzer, Ambassador (Ret.), USA
Emeritus Professor Dr Konrad Kwiet, Macquarie University Sydney, Australia
Dr. Jacob Ari Labendz, Youngstown State University, USA
Dan Laloum, France
Dr Karine Lamarche, CNRS, France
Professor Michael Lambek, University of Toronto
Dr. Dana Landau, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Basel, Switzerland
Shawn Landres PhD, Senior Fellow, UCLA School of Public Affairs, USA
Frederick Langendorf, USA
Trudi Langendorf, Chicago, USA
Professor Ruth Langer, Theology Department, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Boston College, USA
Benjamin Lapp, Associate Professor of History, Montclair State University, USA
Yablonka Laurence, Israël
Dr. Hilla Lavie, The Hebrew University, Israel
Professor Nitzan Lebovic, Professor of History and Holocaust Studies, Lehigh University, USA Mr Bernard Lebrun, France
Hugues Lefevre, Stolpersteine en France, association member, Germany Pinchas Leiser, Israel
Dr Gerald Lejzerowicz, France
Professor Alan Lelchuk, Dartmouth College, USA
Dr Carole Lemee, Université Bordeaux teacher and researcher, France Rene Lenard, Brazil
Ronit Lentin, Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Dr. Manuel Lerdau, University of Virginia, Professor, USA
Professor Cathy Lesser Mansfield, The Sparks Fly Upward Foundation, Exec. Dir., USA Rebecca Lesses, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Ithaca College, USA
Mark Leuchter, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism, Temple University, USA PD Dr. Stefanie Leuenberger, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Mr Itamar Lev, Holocaust survivor testimonials translator at Yad Vashem, department of German language and history, bachelor of American history and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Ora Lev, Israel
Shiri Levi, Israel
Professor Noam Levin, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Ms Ora Levy, Israel
Mrs Roseline Lewin, Belgium
Dr. Tamar Lewinsky, Jewish Museum Berlin, Curator, Germany
Eva Lewitus, Perú
Dr Ricardo Lewitus, USA
Victor Lewitus, CEO Israion Technologies Ltd, Israel
אילן לב, ישראל
ישי לב ,ישראל
Laura Levitt, Temple University, USA
Professor Gayle Levy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Associate Professor, USA
Prof. Dr. René Levy, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Daniela Lieberman, Vienna
Richard Lippeman, USA
Professor Deborah Lipstadt, Emory University, USA
Sylvia Liska, President, Friends of the Secession, Vienna, Austria
Professor Vivian Liska, Professor of German Literature and Director of the Institute of Jewish Studies University of Antwerp/Hebrew University, Belgium
Professor Emeritus Marcia Sachs Littell, Stockton U. Founding Director, MA Program in Holocaust & Genocide Studies, USA
Mr. Scott Littky, Institute for Holocaust Education, USA
Dr. Anat Livne, Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum, Director (retired), Israel
James Loefler, Berkowitz Professor of Jewish History and Kolodiz Director of Jewish Studies, University of Virginia, USA
Dr Hanno Loewy, Director, Jewish Museum Hohenems, Austria
John Lombardo, USA
Ronit Lombrozo, Israel
Professor Yosefa Loshitzky, Professorial Research Associate, SOAS, University of London, UK Mr Shay Lotan, 2nd Generation, Israel
Prof. Dr. Andrea Löw, Center for Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, Deputy Director, Germany
Dr. Oded Lowenheim, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Naomi Lubrich, Director, Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Switzerland Mark Ludwig, Executive Director, Terezín Music Foundation, USA
Professor Ian Lustick, Bess W. Heyman Chair, Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Professor Shaul Magid, Dartmouth College, USA
Professor Shulamit Magnus, Professor Emerita Jewish Studies and History, Oberlin College, Israel
Dr. Daniel Mahla, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Germany
PD Dr. Stefanie Mahrer, Universities of Basel and Bern, PI, Switzerland
Helene Maimann, Historikerin und Filmemacherin, Wien
Professor Udi Makov, University of Haifa, Israel
Sandrs Malek, JGSLA, President, USA
Dr. Nir Mann, A Spiegel Felloe in The Finkler institute of Holocust Research, Bar Ilan University, Israel
Dr Davide Mano, Université de Strasbourg, France
Malka Marcovich, Historienne, ecrivaine, consutante internationale, France
Joëlle Marelli, Former head of program at the Collège international de philosophie, Paris, France Prof. Rabbi Dalia Marx, HUC-JIR, Israel
Lizzie Marx, Trustee, Wiener Holocaust Library, Netherlands
Florian Marxer, President of the Association of Liechtenstein Friends of Yad Vashem
Zeev Matalon, Coach, Israel
Eugene Matanky, Tel Aviv University, PhD Candidate, Israel
Dr. Anat Matar, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Jacqueline Mautner, Israel/Australia
Dr Eyal Mayroz, The University of Sydney, Australia
בתיה מקובר ,ירושלים ,ישראל
Mr Claude Meillet, Israel
Meira Meisler, Tel Aviv, Israel
Mr. Gilad Melzer, Beit Berl college, Israel
Dr. Meron Mendel, Anne Frank educational centre, Germany
Professor Paul Mendes-Flohr, University of Chicago and Hebrew University, USA
Christina Meri, Curator of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens, Greece
Mr. Omri Meron, Israel
Mr. Omer Messing, Partner-director ar Balasha-Jalon, Israel
Kobi Metzer, Professor Emeritus of Economics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Mr Shmuel Meyer, Novelist, Israel
Prof. Dr. Thomas Meyer, LMU Munich, Germany
Dr Joanna Michlic, University College London, UK
Gerhard Milchram, Wien Museum, curator, provenance-research, Austria
Dr. Avraham Milgram, former historian at Yad Vashem, Israel
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, Israel
Michael L. Miller, Associate Professor, Nationalism Studies Program, Central European University, Austria and Hungary
Professor Yair Mintzker, History Department, Princeton University, USA
Dr. Gali Mir-Tibon, Bar Ilan university, Israel
Fersztman Mondek, Belgium
Daniel Monterescu, Associate Professor, Central European University, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Hungary and Austria
Laura Morowitz, Wagner College Holocaust Center, USA
Prof. Amos Morris – Reich, Director, Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Naomi Moss, Israel
Jose Murciano, Israel
Professor Frederek Musall, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies, Germany
Professor David Myers, UCLA, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History, USA
Prof. Dr. Andreas Nachama, President, Allgemeine Rabbinerkonferenz Deutschland, Germany Dr. Lilach Naishtat Bornstein, Kibbutzim College of Education, Israel
Dr. Ron Naiweld, CNRS, France
Tali Nates, Director, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, South Africa
Roberta Newman, Writer and Researcher, USA
Prof. Francis Nicosia, University of Vermont, USA
Mrs Hagit Noam, Guide at Yad Vashem, Israel
Linda Novak, USA
Professor Stanisław Obirek, University of Warsaw, Poland
Margaret Olin, Senior Research Scholar, Judaic Studies, Yale University, USA
Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, USA
Professor Adi Ophir, Tel Aviv University, Emeritus, Brown University Visiting Professor, USA
Michelle Ores, USA
Dr Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Shanna Orlik, Israël
Professor Andrea Orzoff, History Department, New Mexico State University, USA
Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar, The Ven Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel
Dr. Heloisa Pait, UNESP, Professor of Sociology, Brazil
Mrs. Marla Palmer, Teacher; Board Member of South Carolina Council on the Holocaust, USA
Robert Parzer, Dokumentations- und Inormationszentrum Torgau, researcher, Germany
Chatelus Pascale, Israel
Mir Pascale, Citoyenne, France
Professor Avinoam Patt, Director, Center for Judaic Studies, and Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies, University of Connecticut, USA
Professor Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies, Appalachian State University, Leon Levine Distinguished Professor and Director, USA
Ms Peta Pellach, Director of Education, Elijah Interfaith Institute, Israel
Professor Derek Penslar, Harvard University, Professor of Jewish history, USA
Michal Perlman, Israel
Denis Peschanski, Senior Researcher at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), President of SAB Rivesaltes Memorial Camp, France
Prof. Dr. Erik Petry, Center for Jewish Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland
Teresa Petrzelka, North Shore Temple Emanuel, Australia
Mr David Picard, Collective Trauma Healing affiliate, Israel
Prof. Jacques Picard, Emeritus, University of Basel, Switzerland
Dr Kathrin Pieren, Director, Jewish Museum of Westphalia, Germany Prof. Amit Pinchevski, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
מינה פנצר,משרד החינוך ,ישראל
Professor Griselda Pollock, UK
Prof. Dr. Dina Pomeranz, Assistant Professor, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Professor Catherine R. Power, Assistant Professor, Glendon Campus, York University, Canada Dr Yael Poznanski, Achva Academic college and Ben-Gurion U Eilat Campus, Israel
Renée Poznanski, Professor emerita, Ben Gurion University, Israël
Dr. Lea Prais, Israel
Ronit Prince, USA
Eetta Prince-Gibson, Israel
Dr Jay Prosser, University of Leeds, Reader in Humanities, UK
Bernhard Purin, Director, Jewish Museum Munich, Germany
Dr. Marcus Pyka, Associate Professor of History, Franklin University Switzerland (Lugano), Switzerland
Alon Raab, Israel
Anson Rabinbach, Phillip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Princeton University, USA
Dr. Doron Rabinovici, Austria
Prof. Iris Rachamimov, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Mr Andrew Rajcher, Founding Board Member, Australian Society of Polish Jews & Their Descendants, Australia
Ben Ratskoff, Doctoral candidate, UCLA, USA Yehuda Rajuan, Israel
Ami Raz, Computer Technician, Israel
Dr. Michal Raz, Teacher at EHESS Paris, France Nomi Raz, Psychotherapist, Israel
Prof. Emeritus Shimon Redlich, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Professor Emeritus Stuart Rees, University of Sydney, founder, inaugural Director Sydney Peace Foundation, Australia
Drorit Regev, Israel
Dr. Anika Reichwald, Jewish Museum Hohenems, Austria
Dr. Steven Reisner, USA
Oren Richard, Denmark
Mr. Lorne Richstone, University of Oklahoma, Associate Professor of Music, USA
Jeremiah Riemer, Free-lance (formerly Asst. Prof. European Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins Univ.), USA
Dr. Rotraud Ries, Director, Johanna Stahl Center for Jewish history and culture in Lower Franconia, Germany
Dr. Michael Riff, Director, The Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA
Dr. Elisheva Rigbi, Music historian, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Avraham Roet, holocaust survivor, Israel
Professor Freddie Rokem, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Na’ama Rokem, Director, Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies, University of Chicago, USA
Dr. Stefan Rokem, Hebrew University, emeritus, Israel Dr. Adina Rom, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Katia Rom, Switzerland
Dr. Samuel Rom, Icz zürich, Switzerland
Jennifer Romaine, Visiting Profesor, Pratt Intitute, NYC, USA
Dr. Carmit Romano-Hvid, Denmark
Dr. Esther Romeyn, Center for European Studies, University of Florida, USA
Shoshana Ronen, Professor, head of Hebrew Studies, Department, The University of Warsaw, Poland
Professor Jacqueline Rose, Professor of Humanities, Co-Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, UK
Professor Robert Rosen, School of Law, University of Miami, USA
Prof. Tova Rosen, Literature, Tel Aviv University (Emeritus), Israel
Dr Anna Rosenbaum, Australia
Dr Ellen Rosenberg, Retired Faculty Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, USA
Joanne Rosenthal, Independent curator, former Chief Curator, Jewish Museum London, UK Martha Rosler, Rutgers University, New Jersey, Professor II Emerita, USA
Gaylen Ross, Film Director. Killing Kasztner, USA and Israel
Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University, Professor Emeritus of Jewish History, Israel
Dr. Brigitta Rotach, Head of the cultural programs, House of Religions, Bern
Rebecca Rotenberg Nadler, Canada
Dr Alice Rothchild, Harvard Medical School, retired Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, USA
Lilach Rotman, Educational counselor, Educational Ministry, Israel
Michal Rovner, artist, Israel
Dr. Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, USA
Estelle Rozinski, Australia
Prof. Emerita Minna Rozen, University of Haifa, Israel
Krzysztof A. Rozen, Association of the Jewish Historical Institute, Poland Deborah Rozenblum, Switzerland
Dr. Joel Rubin, Associate Professor, University of Virginia, USA/Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Ursula Rudnick, apl. Prof at the Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany
Prof. Dr. Miriam Ruerup, Director Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam, Germany
Professor Dirk Rupnow, Institute for Contemporary History & Dean, Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney, Australia
Avi Rybnicki, Psychoanalyst, Israel
Samuel Saada, photographer, France
Professor Angeli Sachs, Head of MA Art Education, Curatorial Studies, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
Ms. Kael Sagheer, Institute for Holocaust Education, Education Coordinator, USA Maayan Sagiv, Israel
Dr. Rochelle Saidel, Remember the Women Institute, USA
Christa Salamandra, CUNY, USA
Prof. Hagar Salamon, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. habil. Dorothea Salzer, Universität Potsdam, Germany
Rabbi Jan Salzman, Rabbi, congregation Ruach haMaqom, USA
Dr. Victoria Sanford, Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York, USA
Galia Sasson, Israel
Silke Schaeper, Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, Univerdität Hamburg, Germany
Teya Schaffer, USA
Professor Paul Scham, Director, Institute for Israel studies, UMD, USA
Dr. Silvina Schammah Gesser, Bar Ilan University , Truman Institute, HUJI, Israel
Prof. Emer. Eliyahu Schleifer, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, Israel
Professor Joachim Schlör, The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton, UK
Dr Christine Schmidt, UK
Prof. Dr. Benigna Schönhagen, Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde, Universität Tübingen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Julius Schoeps, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Moses-Mendelssohn-Stiftung, Berlin
Yara Schreiber Dines, Unesp Araraquara, Brasil
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Director Center for Research on Antisemitism, Germany
Prof. Dr. Christoph Schulte, Universität Potsdam, Germany
Mr L Tadd Schwab, WUPJ, USA
Professor Daniel B. Schwartz, George Washington University, USA
Dr. Johannes Schwartz, State Capital Hannover, Culture Department, Nazi Era Provenance Research, Germany
Professor Seth Schwartz, Departments of History and Classics, Columbia University, USA
Dr. Susanna Schrafstetter, professor of history, University of Vermont, USA
Michal Sela, Journalist and translator, Haifa, Israel
Professor Marcio Seligmann, State University of Campinas, Brazil
Mrs. Odile Senouf, ISRAËL
Dr. Shoval Shafat, Bar Ilan University, Faculty of Law, Israel
Yaara Shafrir, MA student, Israel
Prof. Dr. Galili Shahar, Chair, The Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem , Israel
Professor Jeffrey Shandler, Rutgers University, Distinguished Professor, USA
Professor Joshua Shanes, College of Charleston, Jewish Studies, USA
Carrie Shapiro, USA
Professor Susan Shapiro, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Dr. Noa Shashar, Sapir Academic College, Israel
Rosa Shein, Mexico
Prof. Orly Shenker, Philosophy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Professor and Senior Vice Provost Jeffrey Shoulson, University of Connecticut, USA
Professor Haia Shpayer-Makov, University of Haifa, Israel
Sam Shuman, University of Michigan, PhD Candidate, USA
Ms Eve Sicular, Music from Yiddish Cinema, USA
Rivka Siden, USA
Jodi Siegel, USA
Lea Sigiel-Wolinetz, Executive Director of World Society of Czestochowa Jews and their Descendants, USA
Dr. Anja Siegemund, New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Foundation, Germany Professor Carol Silverman, University of Oregon, USA
Daniel Silverstone, UK
David J. Simon, Director, Yale Genocide Studies Program, USA
Paulo Simon, Brazil
Mr Doronn Victor Sitruk, Spain
Prof. Jonathan, Skolnik, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Professor Dan Slobin, University of California, Berkeley – Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics, USA
Jean-Yves Slon, Israël
Mrs Sabine Smadja, Daughter of holocaust survivors, Israel
Dariusz Sobczyk, Friends of Polin Museum, Poland
Sahar Soffer, Israel
Dr. Orly Soker, Sapir College, Israel
Dr. Phyllis Soybel, Chair, History and Political Science, College of Lake County, USA
Mr. Matthias Spadinger, Chairman Verein GEDENKDIENST, Austria
רות שפרלינג ,ישראל
Professor Neta Stahl, Chair of the Stulman Program in Jewish Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA
P.I Stain, Professor of Exact sciences, Canada
Lori Starr, Former Director, Contemporary Jewish Museum, USA
Dr. Barbara Staudinger, Director, Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia, Germany
Ambassador ( Ret.) Shimon Stein, INSS Senior fellow, Israel
Prof. Dr. Sybille Steinbacher, Fritz Bauer Institute and Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Barbara Steinberg, USA
Professor Michael Steinberg, Barnaby Conrad and Mary Critchfield Keeney Professor of History, German Studies, and Music, Brown University, USA
Linda Steindl, Austria
Rabbi Dr. Oren Steinitz, Rabbi, Congregation Kol Ami; Adjunct Professor, ALEPH Ordination Programs, USA
Prof. Alan Steinweis, University of Vermont, Raul Hilberg Distinguished Prof of Holocaust Studies, USA
Adina Stern, Germany
Zygmunt Stępiński, Director, POLIN Museum, Poland
Prof. Frank Stern, Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, Curator Annual Film Series at the Mauthausen Memorial, Austria
Noga Stiassny, Postdoctoral fellow, Israel
Dr. Oren Stier, Professor of Religious Studies and Director, Holocaust & Genocide Studies Program, Florida International University, USA
Prof. Dariusz Stola, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Professor Jeremy Stolow, Concordia University, Canada
Professor Dan Stone, Royal Holloway, University of London. Professor of Modern History, UK
Moises Storch, Brazilian Friends of PEACE NOW – coordinator, Brasil
Professor Daniel Strum, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Hannes Sulzenbacher, Independent curator, Austria
Professor Adam Sutcliffe, Professor of European History, King’s College London, UK
Dr Chisin Sylvie, Israel
Ms. Annie Szamosi, Humber College Professor, Holocaust Scholar, Canada
Rachel Szymkowicz, France
Mats Tangestuen, Historian, Oslo Jewish Museum, Norway
Frida Tarrab, Israel
Pearl Taylor, Valley Beth Shalom, USA
Maximilian Teicher Dipl.Psych., Zurich, Switzerland
Samy Teicher Dipl.Psych., Psychoanalyst, Vienna Psychoanalytic society (WPV), Austria
Paula Teitelbaum, Yiddish teacher at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, USA
Dr Fabien Theofilakis, University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, France
Prof. emer. Michael Toch, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Idit Toledano, Former guide at Massuah for Holocaust studies, Israel
Marta Topel, Universidade de São Paulo (USP) Brasil, Brazil
Dr Zsuzsanna Toronyi, Hungary
Michal Trebac, Polin Museum, Poland
Danny Trom, Senior researcher, CNRS (French national research institute), France
Myri Turkenich, Musician, Germany
Ms. Yedida Turkenich, Psychoanalyst, Israel Psychoanalytic Society, Israel
Lesley Turner, Student, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Christiane Twiehaus, Head of Department for Jewish History and Culture, MiQua. LVR-Jewish Museum in the Archaeological Quarter Cologne, Germany
Dr. Peter Ullrich, Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin (fellow), Germany
Dr. Scott Ury, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Professor Robert Jan van Pelt, University of Waterloo, Canada
Edward van Voolen, Curator emeritus Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam, Germany
David Vanunu, Israel
Prof. Dr. Herom Vargas, Methodist University of São Paulo (Brazil), Brazil
Professor Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies, Director of Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, USA
Professor Giuseppe Veltri, Germany
Alana Vincent, University of Chester, UK
Emily Vogl, USA
Prof. Steven Volk, Oberlin College, Professor of History Emeritus, USA
Prof. Emer. Shulamit Volkov, Tel Aviv University, the Osrael Academy of Science and the Humanities, Israel
Dr Marc Volovici, Postdoctoral researcher, Birkbeck, University of London, UK Prof. Christina von Braun, Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin, Germany
Dr. Johannes Wachten, retired Chief curator and deputy director, Jewish museum Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Morgan Wadsworth-Boyle, Former Exhibitions Curator, Jewish Museum London, UK Dr Samuel Wajsberg, Jewish Hospital Berlin (retired), Germany
Dr. Ofer Waldman, Journalist, Israel/Germany
Anika Walke, Associate Professor of History, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Dr Murray Watson, Canada
Haim Watzman, Israel
Rabbi Lee Wax, Community Rabbi & Educator, UK
Tobaron Waxman, Artist, USA
Rony Webb, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Weckel, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Mrs Ruth Weinberg, Israel
Dr. David Weinfeld, Harry Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA Professor Dov Weiss, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Prof. haim weiss, Ben Gurion University, Israel
Prof. Dr. Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Dr. Deborah Weissman, Consultant to the international council of Christians and Jews, Israel
Prof. Dr. Dorothea Weltecke, Chair for Medieval History, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany
Katharina Hadassah Wendl, board member of Verein GEDENKDIENST, former GEDENKDIENST fellow at the Yad Vashem Archives (2016-17), Austria
Florian Wenninger, Institut für Historische Sozialforschung and former Gedenkdienst-Volunteer in Yad Vashem, Austria
Ms Karen Wesler, 2nd Generation Kindertransport, USA Dr. Evita Wiecki, LMU Munich, Germany
Romina Wiegemann, Germany
Professor Dr. Falk Wiesemann, Germany
Dr. Daniel Wildmann, Director Leo Baeck Institute London
רוחמה וייס ,היברו יוניון קולג ‘- ירושלים ,ישראל
Hannah Wilson, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Prof. Hana Wirth-Nesher, Tel Aviv University (Emerita), Israel
Prof. Hadas Wiseman, University of Haifa, Israel
Professor Rebecca Wittmann, Department of History, University of Toronto, Canada
Ruth Wodak Distinguished Professor, Chair of Discourse Studies, Lancaster University, UK/ University Vienna (Emerita), Austria
Fabian Wolff, writer and journalist, Berlin/Germany
Professor Paul Wolpe, Director, Center for Ethics, Emory University, USA
Dr. Kim Wünschmann, LMU Munich, Germany
Ms. Ayelet Yagil, Israel
Rabbi Dr. Iris Yaniv, Israel
Ophir Yarden, ADAShA, Jerusalem Center for Interreligious Encounter, Israel
James Young, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Founding Director, Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Dr. Amnon Yuval, Historian, Israel
Professor Israel Yuval, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Florian Zabransky, University of Sussex, UK
Rabbi Dr. Efraim Zadoff, Spiegel Fellow, The Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Dr. Mirjam Zadoff, Director, Documentation Centre for the History of Nationalsocialism, Germany
Dr. Noam Zadoff, Assistant Professor, University of Innsbruck, Austria
David Zakalik, Graduate Student, Cornell University, USA
Professor Motti Zalkin, Dept. of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Professor Michael Zank, Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, USA
Ms. Alexandra Zapruder, author and educator; founding staff member of USHMM, current Education Director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation, USA
Dr Danielle Zaslavsky, El Colegio de México, México
Professor/Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Zasloff, UCLA School of Law, USA
Dr. Ingo Zechner, Director, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History, Austria
Dr. Melissa Zeiger, Associate Professor, English Department, Dartmouth College, USA Professor Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University, US
Dr Alan Zemel, University at Albany SUNY, USA
Professor Yael Zerubavel, Founding Director, Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Emerita, Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies & History Rutgers University
Prof. Dr. Moshe Zimmermann, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

The Moment of the European Commission – the Persistence of the European Parliament

European Diary, 12.11.2020: Within a week, good European news comes from Brussels and Strasbourg. After the cleverly launched news of the breakthrough in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine by the German company Biontech the tabloids worry about whether “we” (i.e. mainly us and not the others) will get enough of the vaccine. So it becomes clear what would happen to all of us if competition, power and corruption alone decided on the supply of vaccines. Meanwhile, the EU Commission has concluded treaties to ensure an even distribution of resources in Europe. And this on a large scale. One may be curious to see what kind of troublemakers will emerge in the process. But Brussels seems determined to finally get its hands on the ball.

Meanwhile, the German-Turkish community is particularly happy about the good news. Back in April, the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel newspaper ran a report on Biontech with the ironic headline: “We are vaccine”. And revealed to the astonished readership who is behind the company and its current success: the founder Uğur Şahin and the medical director Özlem Türeci, both of whom are Turkish migrant children.

Even the European Parliament is now tired of being the toothless tiger in Strasbourg. The cutbacks in European projects in the fields of education and health, with which the Council and the Commission wanted to sweeten the expenses for the large Corona “aid package” in order to calm down the stingy Austrians and their consorts, have now been at least partially reversed. The real breakthrough, however, lies in the fact that the EU can actually take on debt together now and jointly generate revenue through its own taxes. This is exactly what all national chiefs have tried to prevent so far. For this is finally a further step towards shared sovereignty. And it also means an effective commitment to common standards under the rule of law.

In the debate on procedures under the rule of law, Parliament has now reached a compromise with the Commission and the Council, which at least sends a clear signal that violations of the rule of law, such as those now commonplace in Poland and Hungary, should actually be punished in future. And this would be the case even if the misuse of EU funds were a possible consequence, and not only when this has already happened (as the half-baked German compromise had proposed in between). Consequently, this would also mean: if the legal conditions in a member state would no longer guarantee democratic control over their use. Of course, the decision would still not be taken by the parliament, but by a qualified majority in the Council of 15 states (representing 65 percent of the EU population). So it remains to be seen whether the parliament has finally found its teeth. For basically the conditions for democratic control have already been largely dismantled in view of a press that is already largely controlled by the Orban regime in Hungary and a judiciary that is already under heavy influence by the ruling parties in both Poland and Hungary. And thus there is a need for action.
Poland and Hungary, on the other hand, continue to threaten to veto the budget and the “aid package”. Money from which they themselves would of course benefit disproportionately. So things remain exciting.

Tragedy or Farce

European diary, 9.11.2020: Lies have a short memory. But does memory make us smarter? There are days when you get dizzy: from the gap between all the good intentions to “learn” from history, and a reality in which the wounds inflicted by one event, memory and trauma are transformed into the next nonsense and sometimes worse. In Austria, November 9 is for most people a day like any other. In Germany it sometimes rather comes with an overkill of memories. The calendar page on November 9th is now an almost unreadable palimpsest.
On the same day that the French Revolution ended with Napoleon’s coup d’état in 1799 (and Robert Blum was shot dead in Vienna in 1848 after the suppression of the revolution), Philipp Scheidemann and Karl Liebknecht proclaimed two German republics on the same day in 1918. Five years later, Adolf Hitler and his followers wanted to undo this “black day” of the German nation and tried to march from republic to dictatorship in Munich. Two years later, in 1925 on November 9, they founded the SS. And since they had gathered on November 9, 1938, as they did every year, to commemorate the “national revolution” that had failed in 1923, this night finally offered itself as an opportunity to open the hunt for the Jews and their places of worship.

On November 9, 1989, the GDR leadership, in turn, proved to be quite awkwardly forgetful when Politburo member Schabowski stuttered in a legendary manner in response to a journalist’s question about the proclaimed facilitation of freedom of travel: “As far as I know … that’s immediate, immediate” and unleashed a storm on the Wall.

Five years ago, in November 2015, a certain Heinz Christian Strache wanted to turn back the clocks and seriously recalled the Iron Curtain as a possible “solution” to Europe’s “refugee problems” (he obviously dreamed of a firing order and death strip). Like many an Austrian politician before and after him, he deliberately relied on forgetting, the lie with the shortest legs. Karl Marx already knew, when he wrote about November 9 (the “18th Brumaire”): “Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world-historical facts and persons happen twice, so to speak. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce.” But when it comes to November 9, nobody knows today whether a tragedy becomes a farce or a farce becomes a tragedy.