Perspectives

»A New Epoch for Jews in Germany« - panel 16

“Today, we are celebrating the new growth of Jewish life in Europe.”

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (German Politician, SPD)

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“Non-Jewish Germans essentially show only a peripheral interest in Jewish people. If you ask people in Germany today: How many Jews are there? Some say: ‘There are no Jews in Germany’, and yet others estimate the number of Jews to as high as one million.”

Michael Fürst (chair of the Regional Association of Jewish Communities in Lower Saxony)

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“We have the same history but not the same stories. Although all of them are German stories.”

Charles Lewinsky (Swiss screenwriter and author, “Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude” – English: “A very ordinary Jew”)

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In the summer of 1990, a rumour spread around Moscow: Honecker is admitting Jews from the Soviet Union, as some kind of compensation for the fact that the GDR never contributed to the German payments for Israel… It got around quickly; everybody was in the know, other than Honecker maybe.

Wladimir Kaminer (German author, “Russendisco” – English: “Russian Disco”)

“The difference between the Holocaust survivors from the former Soviet Union and the Holocaust survivors from Western Europe are the dates. The western-European Holocaust survivors are the people from the 9th of November. The Soviet Holocaust survivors are the people from the 9th of May.”

Alina Feigin (social educator/social worker, director of the Social Services Department – German: Sozialreferat – in the Hannover Jewish Community, public law corporation)

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“What Jewish religion represents, I only learned in Germany. The awareness of being a Jew was always there.”

Lena Gorelik (German author, “Lieber Mischa… du bist ein Jude” – English: “Dear Mischa… you are a Jew”)

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Even an extremely unworthy opinion
Will cloud the heads like bad wine:
When there are problems, it’s the Jews’ fault,
When there are none, they are to blame.

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The world gets older but not wiser,
There is proof for this in heaps,
If there were no Jews to be rejected
They should to be reinvented.

Issai Spitzer (translated)

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“Emigration is a funeral whereupon life continues.”

Tadeusz Kotarbiński (Polish philosopher)

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We believe that Jewish life in Germany not only has a future but also is a part of the future.”

Dr. Josef Schuster (president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany)

 

Details

Exhibition: A New Epoch for Jews in Germany
Duration: From 11th December 2016 to 7th January 2017
Location: Bürgersaal, Neues Rathaus, Hannover
Panel: 15 from 15
Technique: Digital print on Alu-Dibond
Concept and texts: Kathrin Leibmann
Design: Stanislav Ivanchuk