Germany Edition

April 15,
2009
Dear
Friends:
When this issue
arrives on your e-mail list I will almost be winging my way south to Atlanta
and Pensacola, Florida
for a brief vacation. However, I hope to remain in computer contact during
the period each day when I will take time off to read your responses and
answer them. I hope to have the next edition arrive in early May right before
I leave for Washington and the American Jewish Committee’s Annual
Meeting.
IN THIS
EDTION
*Wanted: An American Ambassador to Germany
*Germany Rife for Anti-Semitism?
*UN Human Rights Council
*Springtime for Hitler?
*Spirituality vs. Peoplehood?
*Obama’s
Rabbi
*The Obama Seder
*The U.S., Iran and the New Israeli Government
*Personal
Notes
WANTED: AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY
The job of American Ambassador to Germany is, as of this writing, still
unfilled. I wrote a short article on the
subject but it is too long for a newsletter so I put it up on my blog/website.
If you want to read it click here:
http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/
(http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/)
GERMANY RIFE WITH
ANTI-SEMITISM?
An
article last week in The Local, an English language news service reporting
from Germany, carried the headline
“Jewish Council Says Anti-Semitism Still Rife”. Once you get below the
headline you see that it is not the total Zentralrat speaking but
its director, Stephan Kramer (Picture right). Kramer’s accusation is that the
banning of the neo-Nazi HDJ
(Heimattreue Deutsche
Jugend) and the political protests against it were
“windowdressing”. Talking to DDP, he said, “… anti-Semitism was once
again widespread in all areas of German society.” He (went on to
say) fighting it was, “mostly only a dutiful expression in the political
arena,” rather than real conviction.
He said the
presence of neo-Nazis in state legislatures was a damning indictment of all
democratic parties, and added, “The question must be must permitted
of whether Germany is at best a fair-weather democracy. Until now no-one
has been able to give a convincing answer to this question, in order to
contradict it.”
He said the NPD, the neo-Nazi party which remains legal despite
government attempts to ban it, played an important role
not only in fostering but also in enabling anti-Semitism in Germany.
“Although the NPD is tail-spinning from one institutional and
financial crisis to the next, there is no reason for an all-clear signal – just
the opposite, as the radical powers are going about taking over
the leadership of the far-Right scene.”
He said the concentration on the NPD had distracted from other, less
visible organisations. The
debate about whether to ban it was a pointless one he said, and simply
served as an alibi to show that the politicians were engaging with the
problem
while other problems were ignored.
The HDJ case simply illustrated what a broad basis the radical Right scene
already had, he said, adding,
“Happily it has now finally been banned, but it had already been carrying
out its mischief for far too long.” It demonstrated, he said,
“how the neo-Nazis are very successfully active with their long-term aims
of working on recruiting the next generation.”
He
warned, “The ban of the HDJ will remain just a cosmetic measure if we do
not now finally pay more attention to the area of youth work and offer
alternatives.” He criticised the family ministry for its inaction, saying it
continued to disappoint, particularly in youth work in rural
areas.
In reading (and re-re-reading)
the story it’s not at all clear to me whether Stephan (who I know well) is
speaking for himself or for the Zentralrat generally. If it is the
latter, then it is a serious institutional accusation.
No doubt, there remains anti-Semitism and extreme rightist sentiment in
portions of
Germany. However, I would have been more convinced if Stephan had
backed up his statements with some more facts, figures and research.
Certainly, more
can be done to counteract neo-Nazism among young people and it is a
disgarce that two State legislatures have NPD members but a wholesale
“finger pointing” doesn’t accomplish very much.
According to a recent report the NPD has 7,000 members. That’s
7,000 too many but in a country of 82,000,000, 7,000 is probably the
irreduceable minimum. Stephen is not some wild eyed radical. I think he
sees the
neo-Nazis with strength in some areas and that should concern everybody,
not only him. I think his last thought in the article about paying more
attention to youth work and offering alternatives is eminently sensible.
Let’s hope more actually gets done. . Read The Local article here:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090410-18563.html
(http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090410-18563.html)

UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

In 2006 the Human Rights Council of the United Nations was formed to take
over from the Human Rights Commission. The
Commission had lost all credibility because it had become a “one trick
pony” namely an Israel bashing institution. It almost routinely stayed away
from other genuine human rights violations because
its political masters were those countries that were actually perpetrating
the abuses.
The Council has turned out to be no better. The U.S.
Government has kept its distance because it did not want to be tainted by
even being associated with the gross violator nations that held power in
the
Council. The Obama Administration has chosen a different course and has
decided to seek a seat a Council seat in order to see if it could change
things by being in the middle of the action.

The American Jewish Committee maintains an institute in Geneva, UN

Watch
that monitors the Council’s compliance with the United Nations Charter.
Therefore, AJC has some genuine credentials when it comes to judging
the Council’s activities. David Harris, AJC’s Executive Director, recently
wrote on the subject and said, “AJC today urged the United States to use
its diplomatic leverage to reform the UN Human Rights Council, responding
guardedly to
the announcement that the U.S. will run for a seat in that body in May 2009.

“The Council is structurally biased

and deeply flawed, and must be overhauled,” said AJC Executive Director
David Harris. “But, unless like-minded countries join
Washington in a
sustained reform effort, the U.S. will likely end up as an isolated dissenter
in a politicized body. By declaring its candidacy, the United States has
taken on a major
responsibility, and we count on the Administration to follow through.”
I do not think there is much
more to add. Having changed course the American Government now has to
work on getting other right minded countries to come along and push for
badly
needed change. No UN human rights agency should have as its driving
force some of those countries that are the worst offenders. Only in a topsy-
turvy
world can that take place. Let’s see if the human rights ship can be re-
floated and righted.
Who will attend the Durban II Conference
on April 20th is still a question mark. The "resolution" is being edited and
changed to make it less anti-Israel and obnoxious. The U.S. Government is
studying it and, I assume, the German Government is doing the same. You
can follow it in your local newspapers and I will watch it carefully and
comment on it in my next newsletter. No matter who attends and who
doesn't, the UN human rights situation is a mess and needs radical
surgery.
SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER?
Der Spiegel Online recently reported that, “Berlin's Admirals palast
theater will break new ground in May by staging the first production in
Germany of the Mel Brooks musical "The Producers." Some, though, say
Germany isn't ready for
tap-dancing storm troopers and a camp Hitler singing "Heil Myself."
The
musical, based on a 1968 feature film written and directed by Brooks, is
about a Broadway producer and his accountant who decide that they can
earn
more money by staging a flop than a hit. So they put on the worst, most
inappropriate show they can find: "Springtime for Hitler," written by a Nazi
pigeon-fancier who has taught his birds to lift their wings in the Hitler
salute.

Disappointingly for them, the singing and dancing

Führer turns out to be so comic that audiences applaud the show as a
satirical masterpiece and it becomes a hit, so the heroes go to jail for tax
fraud. Mel Brooks's award-winning 2001 Broadway musical spawned a
remake of the movie in 2005.
Is Berlin and Germany ready for The Producers? While I’m not sure, what I
am sure about is that there will be many diverse
opinions expressed between now and May by all sorts of political and
cultural experts expressing all sorts of opinions on the suitability of such a
show actually being staged in Berlin. Reactions to this sort of thing are
very personal. One person thinks one thing and another
thinks something else.
As for me, I’m 100% undecided. I hope I’m not sounding “wishy-washy” but
I see good and bad
points on both sides. However, one thing does concern me. In the Der
Spiegel article, Mel Brooks the great comedian (who is, of course,
Jewish) and producer is quoted as saying, “…Germans tend to
misunderstand "The Producers" as being about Nazis and the Third Reich,
when in fact it's about two Jewish crooks trying to get rich. To which I say,
“What’s so wonderful about that?” Even great
producers say dumb things. If he wasn't Jewish we'd be accusing him of
anti-Semitism.
I guess we’ll all survive no matter what.
I’d appreciate hearing from you as to what you think, Write to me at
edubow@optonline.net (mailto:edubow@optonline.net)
To read the story
click here:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,617987,00.html
(http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,617987,00.html)
OBAMA’S
RABBI
Does President Obama, who is a Christian, have a rabbi? Well, it seems as
though he does
– a first cousin once removed of his wife. Michelle Obama’s cousin is one
of the few African-American Jews who actually has been
ordained (given “smicha”) and heads a synagogue in Chicago. The history
of black Jews is interesting and complicated. By and
large, they have not been part of the white Jewish mainstream but Rabbi
Capers Funnye seems to be changing that, (Picture right)
The New
York Times recently reported, that Rabbi Funnye “… celebrated Martin
Luther King
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/martin_luther
_jr_king/index.html?inline=nyt-per) Day this year in New York City at the
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a
mainstream Reform congregation, in the company of about 700 fellow Jews
— many of them black. The organizers of the event had reached out to
four of New York’s Black Jewish synagogues in
the hope of promoting Jewish diversity, and they weren’t disappointed.
African-American Jews, largely from Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens,
many
of whom had never been in a predominantly white synagogue, made up
about a quarter of the audience. Most of the visiting women wore
traditional
African garb; the men stood out because, though it was a secular occasion,
most kept their heads covered. But even with your eyes closed you could
tell who was who: the black Jews and the white Jews clapped to the music
on different beats.
Skip to next paragraph
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/magazine/05rabbi-
t.html?_r=1&hpw#secondParagraph#secondParagraph) Funnye, the
chief rabbi of the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation
in Chicago, one of the largest black synagogues in America, was a
featured speaker that night. The overflowing audience came out in a
snowstorm to hear his thoughts about two men: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
and Barack Obama
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_oba
ma/index.html?inline=nyt-per). King is Funnye’s hero. Obama, whose
inauguration
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/presidents
_and_presidency_us/inaugurations/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) was to
take place the following day in Washington, is family — the man who
married Funnye’s cousin
Michelle.
The New York Times
article, written by Zev Chafets, not only deals with Rabbi Funnye’s
relationship
with the Obama family but provides an in-depth look at black Jews in the
U.S., their origins, their religious
practices and their current status in the broader American Jewish
community. It is not short but well worth the time to learn more about this
most
interesting group of people. Go to www.nytimes.com
(http://www.nytimes.com/) and type in "Funnye" in Search and it
will come up.
THE OBAMA
SEDER
Since we’re on the subject of President Obama, it should be noted that for
the first time a sitting American President held
a Passover Seder in the White House. One of his press secretaries said that
it was to show his solidarity and affection for the Jewish community. More
critical and, perhaps, cynical observers were thinking that, perhaps, with
the Obama Administration moving somewhat away from the positions of
the
Israeli Government on the subject of a “Two State Solution” on the Israel -
Palestinian issue needed to make it clear
that the American Jewish community was still near and dear to his heart.
I’d like to believe the former interpretation that it was a
genuine expression of how much Jews and Judaism mean to the President.
It’s interesting that the Seder itself is being held directly by the
President who is, of course, not Jewish. The guest list includes both Jews
and non-Jews most of whom attended a Seder he held last year while on
the
campaign trail.
It’s interesting that the Passover Seder in the U.S. has been broadened out
by American Jews to include all sorts of people as guests.
For instance, the New York City Chapter of the American Jewish Committee
holds one for foreign diplomats. In addition there are many different
Haggadahs (order of the service) stressing the various themes (freedom,
Jewish continuity, etc.) celebrated during Passover. I would even go so far
as
to say that Passover is passing over (pardon the pun) from being a strictly
Jewish holiday into being one that is being more and more celebrated
as an American event. Christmas and Easter have their secular side
perhaps the same thing is happening to Passover.
SPIRITUALITY vs. PEOPLEHOOD?
The JTA reports that "Younger Jews are more
spiritually inclined than their forbears and are closing the “spiritual gap”
between Jews and other religions, according to a new study
from researchers at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
The $60,000 study, commissioned by the synagogue consultancy
Synagogue 3000, also
found that Orthodox Jews and Jews who have fewer than two Jewish
parents score higher than other Jews on spirituality indexes.

Taken together, the researchers conclude that ethnic identification is on the

wane
for American Jews, replaced with identification through spirituality, and
that this trend will have significant policy implications.
However in the same article, "Jack Wertheimer, a professor at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America who
is cited in the study as being dismissive of the notion of rising spirituality,
says he agrees with some of the report's findings. But he is concerned
about the implication that Jews are becoming more spirituality focused and
divorced from ritual behavior and the parallel decline in identification
with, and a sense of responsibility for, the Jewish people.

“I do think that synagogues and their religious leaders need to speak more
in
that kind of language,” Wertheimer said. “But at the same time, I don't want
that to come at the expense of the ethnic component, or
what I would call Jewish peoplehood.

"We Jews have believed that these two components of our identity mesh
with each other
and strengthen each other. I would not want to see spirituality come at the
expense of Jewish collective action. ”
I am not opposed to spirituality and the finding of deeper meaning in
religion. However, as Wertheimer points out, if this
new (it's really not so new) focus takes young American Jews away from
their ethnic identification that is very troubling. Jewish history for the last
5,000 years or so indicate strongly that Jews, in the long run, mostly have
had to count on themselves as a group in the staving off of destruction.
If American Jews lose that sense of peoplehood then our continuity and
security, even in this most wonderful of countries, may be at risk. If as a
group we weaken our communal agenda will suffer. If we merge ourselves
too fully into the general population we will become extinct through the
forces
of total integration.
In any case, it's something else for American Jews and their
leaders to worry about - as if we didn't have enough aggravation on our
plate already.
THE U.S., IRAN & THE NEW ISRAELI
GOVERNMENT
As we here in the U.S. end the Passover holiday, I believe that our
thoughts will begin to turn more seriously to what appears to be a
divergence in the way the governments of Israel and the U.S. look at the
problems
of the Middle East and how they should be addressed. It is an awful
situation for American Jews when the two nations that mean the most to
them not
only look at troublesome international situations differently but when their
policies might be going in different directions.
There is little
doubt that the Israelis (not only the government) see Iran as a much greater
threat to their security than any of the various Palestinian factions and the
Palestinian peace situation
in general. It’s very difficult at this moment to see what where the major
focus of the Obama Administration is or whether it is equally
concerned with Iran on one hand and the Two State Solution on the other.
There seems to be a lot of “Two State” talk coming out of Washington so
one must assume that it is high on their agenda – higher than on
the one the Israelis have. I continue to believe that “peace” is always an
important item but how that can be achieved with Palestinians
so devastatingly split themselves between Hamas and Fatah is something I
can’t figure out.

In any case, there seems to be a lot of unanswered policy questions on

both sides with both new
administrations not as yet fully settled on the directions they might take.
Prime Minster Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Washington at the end of
this month and that
should bring some clarity. In the meantime I hope that Netanyahu and his
own Foreign Minister, Advigdor Lieberman, can get their signals
coordinated
so that it appears they are reading from the same page. That has not been
the case in the last few weeks.
There is an excellent article
regarding this matter in The Jewish Week. Click here to read it:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c37_a15440/News/National.html
(http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c37_a15440/News/National.html
)

PERSONAL NOTES
Don’t forget! The DuBow Digest website is at
http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/
(http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/) You will be able to read the
American edition on the website.
In looking over what I have included in this issue,
it occurs to me that not all of it pertains directly to Germany. In putting this,
or any edition together, my main goal is to focus on things
with an American Jewish - German connection. However, a secondary goal
is to provide you, German connection or not, with news about the major
issues facing American Jewry. There are times when German - Jewish
matters are not front and center in the news. Therefore, you'll get more of
the
latter than of the former. Klar?
See you in May.