Voices

Welcome address from the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster, at the digital kickoff event to the 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany Year of Celebration in Cologne

 

I am delighted that we are officially kicking off the 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany Year of Celebration today. Though we are without a live audience, we won’t let the pandemic take away our joy as well!

This joy means having the opportunity over an entire the year to introduce a broad public to Jewish culture and traditions, to Jewish life that has been at home in German states for many centuries. And following written testimony, we discover that, north of the Alps, Jewish life has had its longest history here in Cologne.

To ignore the dark chapters of Jewish history in Germany would be wrong. We won’t make a jubilation out of this Year of Celebration. We need look no further than a few examples from Cologne to recognize the ups and downs of this history.

In the city center, there is an archaeological site. In a few years, the “Miqua” will be accessible to the public. It tells how Jewish life flourished, but also how Jews were marginalized and displaced in the Middle Ages. 



There are other impressive places and relics from recent history that bear testimony to the checkered history of Jews in Cologne. One example is the Torah scroll used by the synagogue community in services. It was saved by a Catholic clergyman from the burning synagogue in Glockengasse on the Night of Broken Glass in 1938.

In addition, the NS Documentation Center in the former Gestapo headquarters in Cologne is a horrific part of Jewish history in this city. And the stumbling stones, which began here in Cologne, tell the stories of Jews murdered in the Shoah.

Today, we in Cologne have a large Jewish community as well as a smaller liberal Jewish community and are pleased that these communities are active in the city.

Ladies and gentlemen, even these local testimonies allow us the opportunity to inform ourselves of German-Jewish history all over the country. And yet we sadly discover that public knowledge about Jewish history and the Jewish experience today is very poor.

Ladies and gentlemen, even these local testimonies allow us the opportunity to inform ourselves of German-Jewish history all over the country. And yet we sadly discover that public knowledge about Jewish history and the Jewish experience today is very poor.

Lack of knowledge about a certain group of people, especially a minority, nearly always leads to prejudice. This phenomenon, with all its terrible implications, is a common thread running through German-Jewish history. 

It is still true today: Even if you have never met a Jew personally or aren’t interested in Judaism at all, you are familiar with antisemitic prejudices. They are handed down from generation to generation – and remain even more stable the less you know about Jews. 

We have to confront this. Especially in our schools. We must impart more than knowledge about Judaism; we need to improve our children’s understanding of antisemitism.

If we can show how diverse Jewish life is across society, if Jews are no longer viewed as foreign, we can finally eradicate many prejudices once and for all.

I am optimistic: In the same way that we will master the corona pandemic, we can also immunize the populace more effectively against antisemitism. 

With this in mind, I hope for great success from this 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany Year of Celebration!