T.O. event marks 50 years of Israeli-German relations

DJ Schneeweiss and Walter Stechel GERMAN CONSULATE PHOTO

TORONTO — Holocaust remembrance wouldn’t have been the proper focus for the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany, Israel’s consul general in Toronto, DJ Schneeweiss, told The CJN.

“It was the wrong thing to do for this occasion,” he said, explaining why the Israeli and German consulates decided to commemorate the anniversary with an event that highlighted certain shared cultural roots between the two countries.

Held June 9 at the downtown club Lula Lounge and attended by about 150 people from both Toronto’s Jewish and German communities, the evening kicked off with a VIP reception followed by short addresses from Schneeweiss and the consul general of Germany, Walter Stechel, as well as a talk given by Dan Deutsch, an Israeli PhD student studying music theory and Jewish studies at the University of Toronto.

Following the speeches, the band Di Meschugeles, a Klezmer group based in Berlin whose members hail from a range of countries, including Israel and the Ukraine, played a concert that was open to the public.

Schneeweiss declared that Israel and Germany share a unique history that “binds us together as much as it [once] tore us so much apart.”

It’s a relationship built on a great trust that “you couldn’t imagine could exist today, but does.”

He added: “Could you imagine a world today where Israel doesn’t have a strong relationship with Germany? That wouldn’t be a good world for Israel or for Germany.”

He referenced the countries’ shared affinities and values, exemplified in arenas such as culture, science, diplomacy and defence collaboration, as well as their shared commitment to remembering the atrocities of the past.

While initially in Israel there was understandable opposition to formalizing contacts and establishing relations with Germany, Schneweiss said “the role of leaders is not just to reflect the emotions of their societies but to understand the interests of those societies and try to meet them.”

Marking 50 years of diplomatic relations is important, he noted, because it reaffirms the significance of applying the lessons of what happened to Jewish people in Germany to the present.

Stechel acknowledged that for both countries, it wasn’t, at first, an easy decision to engage in diplomatic relations, and that for Germany, “standing up to German responsibility and guilt and starting to atone for it has required constant attention and nurturing.”

Deutsch’s talk emphasized the fluidity of cultural, historical and political boundaries and the intermingling of certain elements of Jewish culture with the world of German music.

The unique connection between Israel and Germany can be manifested in the seldom-mentioned impact of 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner on the man known as the father of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, he said.

He cited Herzl’s accounts of a period when he was writing his famous essay Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), in which he envisioned the founding of an independent Jewish state during the 20th century.

Deutsch quoted Herzl saying that going to hear Wagner’s operas during this time in his life became his sole recreation.

He noted the irony of this, since Wager was a well-known anti-Semite.

He also mentioned that, according to several scholars, Wagner’s notion of the “truth of the irrational Volkisch, which best translates to ‘nation,’ influenced Herzl’s shift from liberalism to mystical politics and to having a mission to make a dream a reality.”

While the point of his talk, Deutsch stressed, was not to overly focus on Wagner or defend the notorious anti-Semite, the spirit of Wagner’s ideas very much influenced both musical and political trends in the late 19th century, including the formation of the modern Zionist movement.

“Boundaries are fluid. We cannot just dismiss Wager as an anti-Semite because, apparently, he brought things that changed the face of things for the Jewish People.”