An American Jewish - German Information & Opinion Newsletter

1. AN AMERICAN JEWISH – GERMAN INFORMATION & OPINION
NEWSLETTER
dubowdigest@optonline.net
GERMANY EDITION
Nov. 17, 2012
Dear Friends:
With a shooting war going on between Israel and Hamas all other matters, all of a
sudden, do not seem very important. Like everyone else, I hope that it will come to
an end shortly but the rockets from Gaza haven’t lessened in any way. I remember
reading somewhere that that it is easy to start a war but extremely difficult to end
one. I hope that will not be the case here.
As you will read below, our election is finally over with almost no change in the
makeup of the government. Some of our economic problems may be finally faced
now that the vitriolic language of the campaign has ceased. If so, I’m sure that will
be of some benefit to the situation in Europe.
Almost all American politicians are supporting Israel in its latest conflict which is, of
course, welcome. Many in Europe, including the EU High Representative for Foreign
Affairs Catherine Ashton, usually very critical of Israel has put the blame where it
belongs – on Hamas.
Perhaps by the time you read this the violence will hopefully have ended. In the
meantime, let’s get on with the news…
IN THIS EDITION
GAZA – A troublesome situation that will not go away.
THE ELECTION AND THE JEWS – Obama and the Dems still reign supreme.
LARRY RAMER: IN MEMORIAM – A great leader in Jewish – Germany
understanding has passed away.
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2. BDS & ANTI-SEMITISM – Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions.
ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE U.S.: THE ADL REPORT: Less is better, but is that all
there is to it?
THE DIASPORA MEETING IN FRANKFURT – What should Jews do to remain
Jewish?
GAZA
Perhaps it is stating the obvious that the current Gaza affair ranks supreme in the
current concern of the American Jewish community. When Israel is under attack all
other issues pale in comparable importance.
As soon as the first Hamas missile fell (actually they’ve been falling continually for
years to the tune of about 1,000 per annum) the political blame game began. All too
frequently Israel is immediately pronounced as the aggressor, however, this time it
was pretty obvious that Hamas deserved that title. The German government got it
right. In a The Local.de article it reported, “The federal chancellor calls on the
Egyptian government to use its influence on Hamas to push it towards a moderation
of the violence," Merkel's deputy spokesman Georg Streiter told a regular
government news conference.
Streiter added that Merkel was following the escalation of the unrest in the Middle
East "with great concern" and stressed: "It is Hamas in Gaza that is responsible for
the outbreak of the violence."
"There is no justification for firing rockets on Israel which are causing massive
suffering to the Israeli population," Streiter added.
Merkel - in Moscow on Friday - wants an "immediate" stop to the rocket fire, the
official said.
"The Israeli government has the right and the duty to protect its population in an
appropriate way."
As I write this (Saturday morning) Israel continues its air war and Hamas continues
to fire its missiles. A ground war is a possibility but there is movement afoot to head
that off and arrange for, at least, a truce.
The fighting and killing will eventually cease but the political situation will still await a
solution. It is going to be a very long wait.
The current questions are, “Why did Hamas choose to upgrade its terror rocketing
now? What is its goal?” Aaron David Miller writing for CNN notes, “Part of the
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3. reason we've witnessed an uptick in the number of rocket attacks -- 750 this year --
is that a variety of smaller groups that Hamas cannot control, or chooses not to
control, have been operating with greater impunity. Some are former Hamas
militants, others are newbies, and they are testing the limits of Israel's reactions with
the rocket attacks.
In the face of this new competition, Hamas just can't fold up its tent and surrender
the field. That means the Gaza-based organization needs to compete with or control
these groups. And it's tough for Hamas to function as Israel's police officer,
struggling to contain the smaller jihadi groups. After all, part of Hamas' reason for
being is its championing of the armed struggle, a cause it can't abandon.
Now, with Hamas' external base of operation undermined in Syria as a result of the
popular uprising there, Gaza becomes the main seat and repository of its legitimacy.
And it must always demonstrate that it's the key actor there. Unlike Fatah and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, it doesn't want to launch a U.N.
initiative for statehood or even toy with the notion of negotiating with Israel.
Maintaining the military option remains paramount.
I think Miller is right as far as he goes. Obviously, Hamas does not have anywhere
close to the means to compete with Israel militarily. They can’t win a shooting war. I
don’t believe that is their goal. What they want is to supplant Fatah as the leader of
the Palestinian people and given the mindset of many (most?) Palestinians the only
way to do that is to show “muscle” through armed struggle. The numbers of
Palestinian deaths seem to be of little concern.
Given the fact of the “Arab Spring” Hamas also seems to want to strengthen its
position with the new leaders throughout the Arab world. With the Egyptian Prime
Minister and the Tunisian Foreign Minister visiting Gaza and supporting Hamas their
political positioning seems to have been enhanced.
As far as Israel is concerned, their ultimate goal has been the maintenance of the
status quo – no war, no violence. They do not have any desire to take over Gaza
again. They were glad to get rid of it when they gave it back to the Palestinians in
2005. However, the new threat of missiles supplied by Iran that can reach Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv adds a new element to their defense concerns. These weapons are
smuggled into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt and they pose a much greater
threat than Israel has been under previously. If there is a ground war, it is these
weapons that will be one of the most important targets.
When will it end permanently? Not soon. There cannot be any sort of real peace as
long as Hamas considers Israel illegitimate and is committed to its destruction. If
they conquered Israel what they would do with 6 or 7 million Jews is anybody’s
guess. The Israelis do not intend to find out what the answer might be.
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4. So, the best we can hope for is another truce that will have longer life than the last
one. Unhappily, some problems just do not have solutions. This is one of them.
THE ELECTION AND THE JEWS
Thankfully the American election is over and the blizzard of political TV ads has
ceased. Pres. Obama has been returned to office for another four year term and the
Democrats, contrary to early expectations, have maintained their majority in the
Senate. It has even been somewhat enhanced (55-45)
The Republicans continue to rule the House of Representatives and so, once again,
we have a split government. Some argue that the American people like it that way.
No one gets too much power and the parties have to reach consensus on major
issues. However, at present the two parties are very far apart, especially on most
domestic issues, so middle of the road bargaining is very hard to come by.
The Jewish community, as expected, remained loyal to the President and the
Democrats though with diminished numbers. The Jerusalem Post reported, “Jewish
support for US President Barack Obama slipped in the 2012 presidential race but
still far surpassed that earned by Republican Mitt Romney, according to exit polls.
On Tuesday, 69 percent of Jews cast their ballot for the Democratic candidate as
compared to 78% in 2008. Some 30% went for Republican Mitt Romney, up from
22% for the party’s candidate in the last presidential race.
Both parties took comfort in the outcome and used it to bolster their argument about
the political orientation of the Jewish community.
“In no way, shape or form was this a narrow victory,” said Democratic pollster Jim
Gerstein about the 2012 Jewish vote, which he said was closer to the 2008 results
than reflected in the exit polls. A group of academics and pollsters affiliated with the
National Jewish Democratic Council later adjusted the Jewish vote figure, which is
notoriously hard to track given the small sample size gathered in surveys, from four
years ago down to 74% after compiling more data.
Gerstein said that that means the drop in the Jewish vote - of about 5% - is
consistent with the drop in support for Obama overall among other key
constituencies such as Catholics and white voters. Nationally, Obama’s popular
support dropped from 53% of the vote to 50%.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, however, argued that this year’s exit poll had to be
considered in relation to the 2008 original exit poll number in order to get an
accurate comparison.
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5. “If the Democrats want to lower their expectations to make their candidate look
better, that’s up to them,” said RJC executive director Matt Brooks.
He maintained that the 8-point increase for the Republican candidate represented
“unambiguous inroads into the Jewish community” by the GOP, particularly given
what a large percentage jump it represented.
The RJC launched an unprecedented $6.5 million campaign for Jewish votes,
targeting swing states with phone calls, mailings, surrogate events and ads.
“I thought we got a good return on the investment we made,” he said.
Gerstein, who on Tuesday did an election night survey of Jewish voters for J Street
that found results similar to the exit polls, disputed the efficacy of the RJC efforts,
suggesting their efforts to peel away voters over topics like Israel and Iran was
misplaced.
According to his survey Tuesday, only 10% of Jews identified Israel as one of their
two main voting issues, and just 2% chose Iran.
The RJC, however, in its own Tuesday survey found that 77% of Jews surveyed said
Israel was an important issue to them compared to only 22% who didn’t.
Of course, each party “spins” the results to their own benefit. However, after all is
said and done, American Jews continued to remain basically liberal and very much
connected to the Democratic Party.
American Jews, always very involved in government, have maintained a goodly
number of members in both the House and Senate. The Senate will have 10 or 11
(depending on who one considers to be Jewish) Jewish members – 10 Democrats
and one Independent who actually caucuses with the Democrats.
The House will have 22 Jewish Representatives – all Democrats except Eric Cantor,
the House Majority Leader, and the second leading Republican in that body.
In summary, the number of Jews in the Congress is slightly less than in the previous
one, however, not much is changed. If you are interested in their names, click here.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/07/3111351/jews-in-the-113th-congress
LARRY RAMER: IN MEMORIAM
The field of American Jewish – German relations sustained a great loss recently with
the passing away of Lawrence “Larry” Ramer, the founder of AJC Berlin’s Lawrence
and Lee Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations. He died at his home in Los
Angeles after a long illness and was 84 years old.
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6. AJC noted in its press release, “Larry Ramer was a visionary,” said AJC Executive
Director David Harris. “He was one of the first to understand German unification as
an opportunity for advancing global security, for transatlantic relations, and relations
with Israel. This is a great loss for AJC, for the Jewish world, and for the numerous
cultural and academic institutions which he supported with passion.”
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that “Ramer was a great architect
of German-American understanding and a true friend of Germany.” The German
government honored Ramer in 2000 with the Federal Cross of the Order of Merit in
recognition of his achievements in enhancing German-Jewish relations.
The AJC Berlin Ramer Institute was created in 1993 to foster German-Jewish
dialogue, support post-war democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany, advance
German-Israeli relations, and monitor anti-Semitism and extremism. When the
Institute moved to Berlin in 1998, global media covering the gala opening called
AJC’s presence in Berlin an “embassy” of the American Jewish community.
Under Ramer’s leadership, AJC Berlin has strengthened enduring partnerships with
foundations from all political parties, deepened understanding among opinion
leaders of relations with Israel, initiated programs to fight anti-Semitism, launched an
outreach to Germany’s large Turkish community, and created civic education
programs with German educators now used widely in schools in Berlin and
Brandenburg.
“Larry Ramer’s faith in cooperation and partnership with Germany was a model of
reconciliation,” said Deidre Berger, director of the AJC Berlin Ramer Institute, who
worked closely with Ramer since 1999.
“He was tireless in upholding Holocaust remembrance, while reminding others to be
mindful of the need to secure democracy and promote security of the Jewish
people. He was beloved for his forthright engagement and commitment to common
transatlantic values,” Berger continued. “His presence will be deeply missed, while
we carry on the mission of the AJC Berlin Ramer Institute.”
Ramer was co-chair with Dr. Rita Suessmuth, former President of the German
Parliament, of the Ramer Institute Advisory Board, which includes notable public
leaders in Germany and the United States. During decades of involvement with
AJC, Ramer served on the organization’s Executive Committee for many years.
Ramer is survived by his wife, Lee, his children Doug, Stephanie and Susan, and
their families, and his brother Bruce Ramer, who served as AJC National President
from 1998 to 2001.
As the Founding Director of the Ramer Institute’s Berlin Office I had a great deal of
contact with Larry Ramer. He was not one to financially support the Institute and
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7. leave it at that. He was intimately interested in everything we did. He visited Berlin
frequently and undertook the responsibility for meeting many of Germany’s leaders
and explaining the complexities of American Jewry to them. His contacts were
always meaningful. He advocated strong German support for Israel and for those
other matters of importance to the Jewish people.
Larry Ramer was a lovely and sweet man. We have lost a real champion. He will be
sorely missed by many people including yours truly. His Institute continues on as a
legacy to his devotion to the improvement of relationships between Germany and
the Jewish people.
BDS & ANTI-SEMITISM
The major program of anti-Israel countries and organizations throughout the world is
generally known as “BDS” which stands for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions”.
Not being able to defeat Israel militarily, a strategy developed by Palestinian non-
government organizations is to isolate it by attempting to delegitimate it.
The BDS movement has raised a question in the minds of some as to whether by
promoting deligitimation and being anti-Zionist is it ipso facto anti-Semitic?
My AJC colleague Steven Bayme has written a masterful piece on the subject. In
part he says, “But does such delegitimation constitute anti-Semitism? I believe it
does and for two reasons: First, there is no shortage of nation-states in the
contemporary world based upon ethnicity and religion. Ireland, France, Italy,
Greece, among others all were established upon common ethnic and religious
factors. Far more so, Arab-Islamic states rest upon principles of ethnicity and faith.
Yet Israel alone is singled out as an illegitimate entity. This double standard alone
qualifies the delegitimation movement as anti-Semitic. Second, however—and
perhaps more significantly—as the late historian of Zionism Arthur Hertzberg once
argued, Zionism as an ideology represents the collective will of the Jewish people to
realize its national aspirations and to deny Zionism was to deny the right of the Jews
to be themselves.
This argument by no means connotes that Israeli policies are beyond criticism. Yet
there is a world of difference between opposition to one or another of Israel’s public
policies and denying Israel the moral right to exist as a nation-state. To be sure, pro-
Israel advocates should refrain from trivializing criticism of Israel’s policies as anti-
Semitic, as most indeed do. These critiques need to be addressed on the merits of
the case and not on the biases—real or imagined—of the critics. But these same
critics, who generally claim to crave peace in the region, ought to acknowledge that
so long as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians revolves around political
questions about borders, refugees, settlements, etc., the conflict does remain
soluble. However, when the conflict becomes an existential one over Israel’s
legitimacy as a nation-state, no meaningful peace is possible. Nor, frankly, would
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8. any other nation-state consent to its own dismantling. And these critics fully accept
the notion of an Arab state of Palestine with Islam as the state religion.
Last, the statement and its defenders ask whether in the mind of Israel’s friends any
form of anti-Zionism may be free of anti-Semitism. Historically, there has been no
shortage of respectable thinkers—both Jewish and non-Jewish—who were anti-
Zionist either because they perceived Jewish identity as exclusively religious or
because they perceived the Diaspora as the core ingredient of the future of the Jews
as a people. Both views have been discredited by history. A respectable anti-
Zionism theoretically may well exist. But in the context of the twenty-first century,
with Israel increasingly the hub of Jewish life and facing daily assaults upon her very
existence, those who embrace anti-Zionism need to acknowledge that they allow no
room for Jewish self-determination and reject the right of the Jews to sustain their
distinct and meaningful sense of peoplehood
There is more to Steve’s article which appeared on the AJC website. You can read it
by clicking here.
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?
c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=6178309&ct=12258181&notoc=1
If you would like to read more about Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) click
here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions
ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE U.S.: THE ADL REPORT
While I frequently write about anti-Semitism in Germany, I would not want you to
think that we do not have any here. We do! The major American Jewish organization
that tracks this disease is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
For those of you who are not familiar with the ADL, Wikipedia notes, “The Anti-
Defamation League (ADL) is an international non-governmental organization based
in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human
relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of
bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all," doing so through
"information, education, legislation, and advocacy."
Founded in October 1913 by The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, a Jewish service
organization in the United States, its original mission statement was "to stop, by
appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the
defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair
treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair
discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." The ADL has 29
offices in the United States and three offices in other countries, with its headquarters
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9. located in New York City.
Y-Net News.com recently reported, “Acts of anti-Semitism reported throughout the
United States in 2011 were at their lowest in two decades, according to the Anti-
Defamation League’s (ADL) annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.
The audit, released last week, shows a decline of 13% over the previous year with a
total of 1,080 incidents reported, compared to 1,239 in 2010.
“It is encouraging that over the past five or six years we have seen a consistent
decline in the number of anti-Semitic incidents across the country and that the
numbers are now at a historic low,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director.
“To the extent that these incidents serve as a barometer, the decline shows that we
have made progress as a society in confronting anti-Semitism and pushing it to the
far fringes, making expressions of anti-Jewish hatred unacceptable.
"These declining numbers, while promising, must nevertheless be viewed in the
context of other factors, including online expressions of anti-Semitism that are
impossible to quantify and often go unchecked.”
Not surprisingly, the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported was higher in states
with larger Jewish populations.
The top four states with reported incidents were California with 235; New York, with
195 incidents New Jersey, with 144 incidents in 2011, and Florida, with 111
incidents in 2011.
I guess I should be delighted that the number of anti-Semitic incidents is only at
slightly more than 1,000 for the entire U.S. It is an accomplishment. However, I’m
not sure what a lessening of overt acts really means. As I have spelled out before, in
my opinion anti-Semitism is a disease – like TB. It can be arrested and go
underground but all too often when difficult times face a society it re-emerges
sometimes violently. In addition, those who have strong negative feelings about
Jews have found a new, somewhat more acceptable, way of expressing those
feelings by criticism of Israel.
Let me state the obvious here. Not every criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Israel, like
all nations, is open to legitimate critical evaluation. That is as it should be.
In closing on this subject there is a bright side. Other “anti” feelings in the U.S. are
subsiding. Gay marriage is becoming more acceptable. We have an African
American president who has now been re-elected. The politicians have discovered
that we have a sizeable Hispanic population and they are being courted. Those
without citizenship may soon have a way of achieving that status. Asians are quickly
being incorporated into mainstream America.
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10. So why am I complaining? I’m old enough to remember when things weren’t so
positive and Jews had difficulties in getting certain jobs and being admitted to certain
universities. It wasn’t a million years ago. So, I guess I should be more positive
about the ADL report but certain memories are hard to erase.
THE DIASPORA MEETING IN FRANKFURT
Diaspora according to Wikipedia (A diaspora (from Greek "scattering, dispersion")] is
"the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or
ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one
location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".
The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of people with common
roots, particularly movements of an involuntary nature, such as the expulsion of
Jews from the Middle East) as is well known)
The Jewish diaspora, as is well known, is spread throughout the world, largely in the
United States and European countries. As one might imagine, the smaller the group,
the more difficult it is for the Jewish religion to be practiced, Jewish education for the
children to be established and for Jewish culture to become part of family and
community life. So, in this world of instant communication and easier travel,
meetings of representatives of the various Jewish communities coming together to
share strengths and weaknesses has become an important part of Jewish survival.
Such a meeting has recently taken place in Frankfurt.
Y-Net News.com recently reported, “The Jewish Studies Institute at Frankfurt
University is hosting a three-day international conference where experts from many
countries, and a variety of academic fields, examine the Jewish Diaspora and the
historic and cultural connections between Jewish communities around the world.
“We have people from the US, we have people from Israel, we have people who are
Orthodox, we have people who are not even Jewish, with everybody here who is
interested in it and everybody brings their own point of view,” says Elizabeth
Hollender of Frankfurt University.
“Being an historian," says Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig of Tel Aviv University, "I think
that we can only be enriched by different facets of whatever it is, not only religion but
any other concept, any other philosophical thought and I think it’s enriching the
exchange that is now by far facilitated through the new media.”
Like other ethnic diasporas, the Jewish Diaspora has faced many difficult situations
involving painful decisions, especially during the past century with the breakdown of
traditional Jewish life and the many challenges of modern ideologies and
assimilation.
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11. “We speak about Jews who assimilated and forgot many things about Judaism,
there are other Jews who acculturated, that is to say that they took part of the
general culture, but they also remained Jews and they integrated non-Jewish culture
into their own Jewish culture,” says Shlomo Berger of the University of Amsterdam.
According to Ephraim Kanarfogel of New York's Yeshiva University, “It is possible in
the United States to not only to be a good American citizen but to be a very good
student and practitioner of Judaism, and the basic ideas of Judaism, the basic
history of Judaism, I think it’s a tremendous unifier.”
“So we have a role there to explain what is Judaism," Shlomo Berger adds, "to
show the world how Judaism works, why is it important, what are the historical roles
of Judaism, and certainly in European history you cannot imagine European culture
without Judaism.”
“In Spain," says Esperanza Alfonso of the Spanish National Research Council,
"there was a very Spanish National Research Council long presence of Judaism in
the Christian kingdoms of the Peninsula and also in the Peninsula under Islamic
control, and there is a legacy, a huge Jewish legacy in the Peninsula which is
manifested in many ways, in the material culture that the Jews left there, in the
synagogues that are still in the country now days, and in many ways in which the
Jews influenced the Spanish culture.”
With the establishment of the State of Israel, most of the Jewish Diaspora reacted to
this challenge by adopting a position of supporting the new state while maintaining
primary loyalty to their home country.
“We, living in the Diaspora," says Shlomo Berger, "we have certainly a role in the
connection of Jews with the world of the non-Jews so to speak, maybe even a
bigger role than Israel because we have a double role in fact, the Diaspora vis-a-vis
Israel which is the center of Judaism, but we in the Diaspora must also operate vis-
a-vis the non-Jewish society.”
“Home, home for me for my parents for my children, and our future, safety," says
Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig. "My parents fought for the country, they were among
those who established it, I fought for it and I am very glad that my children love the
country.”
“Israel to me is the Jewish homeland," says Ephraim Kanarfogel. "It is also the
home not only of Judaism but of Jewish culture and of Jewish learning.”
With Jewish communities now present in 75 countries, Jewish identity and Jewish
culture are beginning to play an increasingly larger role in a globalized, multicultural
world.
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12. In reading the above quotes you will see some of the questions faced by those Jews
living in smaller Jewish communities surrounded by largely non-Jewish fellow
citizens and culture. In addition one can see the importance of Israel to these
people.
In my opinion the problems for American Jews are somewhat different but somewhat
the same. Here, with large Jewish communities in quite a few cities, finding culture,
learning and religious practice is not as much a problem. In fact, in some places it is
so strong that, as Kanarfogel (above) points out “it’s a tremendous unifier.”
However, the cultural magnetism of American life is very strong and so it is easy to
move away from a particular culture or religion and become a participant in the great
secularity America offers.
I hope that my adding this piece gives you some genuine insight to the problems
some Jews have in planning and implementing programs for Jewish survival and
growth. In addition, I’m glad the meeting took place in Frankfurt. Germany is one of
the places that I see Jewish life blossoming.
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DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted by
clicking here
Both the American and Germany editions are posted at
www.dubowdigest.typepad.com
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