AJC Co-Sponsors Major International Conference On Jews And Germany At Princeton University

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 15 April 1999

"Ironically, perhaps in a strange twist of history, Germans and Jews have been joined at the hip, perhaps permanently, by the Shoah. But will we be joined only by the horrors of the crimes perpetrated against the Jewish people during the Third Reich or increasingly by a common vision of the future?"

Making his remarks today at the opening session of a landmark four-day conference entitled "Jews, Germany and the Future of Memory," David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee, spoke of AJC's difficult history with Germany and looked ahead to what the future may hold.

AJC is a sponsoring organization and partner in this international conference, held from April 15 - 18 at Princeton University. Among the areas to be addressed by German government officials, academics, and communal leaders: museums, memorials, film and visual media, history and public perception, the politics of memory, and Jews in Germany today. Other AJC participants in the symposium are Eugene DuBow, Director of AJC's Berlin Office, and Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC Director of European Affairs.

"The AJC recognized early on the importance of engaging the new Federal Republic of Germany shortly after its establishment 50 years ago," said Mr. Harris. "It wasn't an easy decision. Most Jews understandably wanted nothing to do with Germany, new or old, except the talks, themselves not without controversy, on restitution and indemnification.

"But AJC's leadership, itself deeply involved in those talks, also understood correctly that history can't be frozen in time or place. Germany would move forward with or without us, and the country was simply too consequential to be ignored. We wanted to be involved in seeking to shape its future orientation."

Mr. Harris added that over time AJC sought out partners on the German-Jewish theme who could work to launch a process of writing a new chapter in German-Jewish relations against the backdrop of a painful past. He spoke with pride of AJC's success in this long-standing endeavor.

"We have created valued relationships in the national and state government, the political foundations, the Catholic and Evangelical churches, the intelligentsia, the Bundeswehr, and the media.

"This growing familiarization with and, yes, gradually increasing confidence in the Federal Republic led to our decision -- unique among international Jewish organizations -- to support German unification in 1990; and, most recently, it prompted our opening an office in the new Mosse Palais, housing our pioneering Lawrence and Lee Ramer Center on German-Jewish Relations and the Hans Adler Library, on the soon-to-be restored Leipziger Platz in the center of Berlin."

Mr. Harris further commended Germany for becoming a responsible international citizen whose close ties with NATO, support for European integration, and growing role in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations underscore its outlook. "It is particularly worth noting," he added, "Germany's special ties with Israel, which have made it Israel's closest friend in Europe -- a fact widely recognized in Israel, but unfortunately, much less so among American Jews."

Mr. Harris acknowledged, however, that it is "impossible to close the chapter on the Holocaust. The Holocaust will undoubtedly remain a central element in the conscience and identity of Jews; it will, I trust, remain a central element in the conscience and identity of Germans and Germany.

"Together, Jews and Germans have become the repositories for the world's knowledge of this horrific twelve-year period. More than others, it is German youth and Jewish youth who will continue to learn in depth the history in schools and homes, and it precisely we two peoples who will continue to be haunted by the implications of the truly unimaginable.

"Precisely because we both know so well the haunting vocabulary and topography of inhumanity," Mr. Harris concluded, "and the slippery slope that can lead even so-called civilized societies there -- can we not serve as an early warning radar system for a world too easily distracted, too self-preoccupied, too forgetful? Can we not together act in seeking to prevent future atrocities, wherever they threaten to occur? Can we not together stand tall for the values of democracy, human rights and mutual understanding, and against the forces of hate? Imagine, if you will, the potential impact, substantive and symbolic, of such German-Jewish collaboration."

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