Jewish leaders in the United States and in Israel are encouraging an openness to what they describe as a \”new Germany,\” a place they say is truly atoning for its past. At the very least, they argue, it deserves the support of the American Jewish community because of its strong support of Israel and its embrace of Jewish immigrants who are streaming in at the rate of 10,000 per year.
Until last year, I held firm to that tribalist impulse familiar to many American Jews and refused to visit Germany (or fly Lufthansa or buy German products, etc.). Although no members of my immediate family had fallen victim to the Nazi terror, the resistance to things German was passed on from my parents\’ generation, which shared in the belated outrage (and desire to expunge feelings of inadequacy) of postwar American Jewry.
For all the recent hubbub over the worsening lot of Israel\’s poor, and the growing criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Barak\’s born-again Reaganite economic policies, it should be understood that in many key misery indices, Israel isn\’t doing too badly.
Are we destined always to play the role of history\’s outsiders? I am reminded of that question after reading the story about Ignatz Bubis, 72, who is president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (see page 12), a legislative body that represents all of Germany\’s Jews.
Imagine that it is 1940, and Great Britain is fighting Hitler\’s Nazi Germany almost alone. Imagine, further, that an American who loves both America and England and hates the Nazis works in American intelligence and has access to secret files concerning Germany that, for whatever reason, the United States has not shared with Great Britain. This American gives the secrets to England and is caught.
Perli Pelzig first knew he had talent at the ageof 5, when he would chalk life-size figures of animals on thesidewalks in his native Germany. These figures attracted attentionfrom passers-by, and, not long after, Pelzig was named \”wunderkind\”for his dazzling artistic capabilities.
Imagine that it is 1940, and Great Britain is fighting Hitler\’s Nazi Germany almost alone. Imagine, further, that an American who loves both America and England and hates the Nazis works in American intelligence and has access to secret files concerning Germany that, for whatever reason, the United States has not shared with Great Britain. This American gives the secrets to England and is caught.
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