American Jewish Committee Announces Plans For Gala Opening And Dedication Of Historic Berlin Office

American Jewish Committee
Tuesday, 13 January 1998

The American Jewish Committee today announced plans for the official opening and dedication of its European Office in Berlin. With this opening, AJC will become the first American Jewish organization to establish a full-time and permanent presence in Germany.

At a special news conference here, Eugene DuBow, Managing Director of the Berlin Office, and Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC's Director of European Affairs, who is based in Washington, DC, described the days of celebration that will launch the historic arrival of AJC in Berlin.

From February 8 - 10, 1998, a 75-member delegation of AJC's Board of Governors (Vorstand), along with Jewish leaders from other European countries, will travel to Germany for numerous events prior to scheduled meetings in Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. In Germany, the group will attend a special reception at Schloss Bellvue (the Presidential Palace) hosted by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Prof. Dr. Roman Herzog, and meet with the Federal Republic's Foreign Minister, Dr. Klaus Kinkel, who will speak at a gala dinner held at the Hotel Adlon. Eberhard Diepgen, the Lord Mayor of Berlin, will host the opening reception for the AJC group. In addition, AJC will be welcomed at the Jewish Community Center by Dr. Andreas Nachama, President of the Berlin Jewish Community, and Ignatz Bubis, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. They will also meet with U.S. Ambassador John Kornblum and Israeli Ambassador Dr. Avi Primor, and tour the New Synagogue/Centrum Judaicum. On the group's final day a panel discussion will be held on the future of Germany and German - Jewish relations.

"The opening of AJC's office in Berlin allows us to bring to Germany the creativity and intellectual stimulation of the American Jewish organization most deeply involved in all the critical issues surrounding German - Jewish relations," said Eugene DuBow. "As we embark upon this journey, we are ever mindful of the anguished bond thrust upon our peoples as a result of the Holocaust. AJC is seeking productive ways to come to terms with the past and learn the lessons that will allow us to work and live together for the betterment of all humankind."

Mr. DuBow, a veteran of the American Jewish Committee for more than three decades, most recently as former director in charge of supervision of AJC field offices across the United States, has long been involved in programs dealing with American Jewish-German reconciliation. In the early 1980's, Mr. DuBow was one of the early facilitators of AJC's exchange program with the Konrad Adenauer

Foundation. During that same period, he developed the first contacts with the isolated Jewish community of East Berlin (DDR) and served as a major American Jewish link to them for some years. After a series of negotiations with the East German government, he was able to arrange for a rabbi to move to East Berlin and become the first practicing rabbi to take up a pulpit in that country in more than 20 years. In 1995, he served as a Guest Professor in the Lehrstuhl fur Politische Soziologie at the Bayreuth University in Bavaria. In 1996, he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit) by order of President Herzog for his decades of devotion to the cause of improved German - Jewish relations.

Rabbi Baker commented that "AJC's presence in Berlin will drastically expand our programmatic outreach throughout Europe. The conferences, exchange programs, research and publications that we are already much heralded for will now take on a deeper and more immediate impact in the region."

AJC's Berlin Office will house the Lawrence and Lee Ramer Center for German - Jewish Relations. Mr. and Mrs. Ramer, of Los Angeles, California, have been dedicated supporters of AJC's programs in Germany for a number of years. Mr. Ramer is a National Officer of AJC. Further, the office will include the Dr. Hans Adler Library, in honor of the father of Dottie Bennett of Falls Church, Virginia. Ms. Bennett is a member of AJC's Board of Governors and president of the Washington, D.C., Chapter. The office will also include the Mitzi Spiegel Executive Office, named in honor of the mother of Daniel Spiegel. Mr. Spiegel, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, is also a member of AJC's Board of Governors. The Library, which will devote itself in large part to American Jewry, will be available to scholars and researchers.

The Berlin office was given to AJC rent-free for the next ten years as a gift from Hans Roeder, the Berlin builder who was developing the Mosse Palais Building at the new Leipziger Platz, the site of formerly Jewish-owned property. Mr. Roeder made the offer in consultation with University of Wisconsin Professor George Mosse, the former owner of the property, and his nephew, Hans Strauch, Mosse Palais architect. Mr. Strauch in turn conferred with David Squire, a member of AJC's Board of Governors and fellow Bostonian. Upon accepting the offer, AJC Executive Director David A. Harris noted: "Mr. Roeder's generosity has given wings to an historic event and made possible the extension of AJC's programs geared toward understanding and intergroup cooperation in Europe's center. By undertaking this enterprise, AJC hopes and expects that American Jews and Germans can expand still further their points of contact and develop additional projects of common interest as the new century dawns."

AJC's work with Germany dates back to the late 1940's when the agency supported programs to teach and strengthen democracy in the German school system following World War II. In the early 1980's AJC began exchange programs with the Konrad Adenauer, Fredrich Ebert, Friedrich Naumann and Heinrich Boell Foundations, which carry through to this day. In addition, AJC officers and staff continue to meet regularly with high-ranking representatives of the German government, the armed forces, the intelligentsia, the churches and other important segments of German society to discuss issues of concern and identify areas of mutual cooperation.

The American Jewish Committee, founded in the United States in 1906 by a small group of predominantly German-Jewish Americans, is America's oldest human-relations organization. AJC was established to combat anti-Semitism at home and abroad, and has since developed into an organization with a broad agenda encompassing domestic and international concerns to the Jewish community. AJC maintains thirty-two offices in cities across the United States, as well as an Israel/Middle East Office in Jerusalem and professional affiliations and partnerships in Poland, Great Britain and Australia. AJC has approximately 70,000 members and supporters.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org