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Prof. Alfred Donath
Speech given at the opening of the 3rd presidents conference of the European Council of Jewish Communities Basel, May, 27th, 2005 Europe needs the Jews more than the Jews need Europe On behalf of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, just created 100 years ago, it is for me an honour and a pleasure to welcome you to Basle, a city which occupies a very special position in our history, and particularly in the creation of the State of Israel. Was it not here, 108 years ago, that Theodor Herzl opened the first Zionist Congress, followed by many others during the following 50 years. It is a special delight to welcome the presidents conference of the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC). It was back in 1972 that for the first time I had the opportunity to take part in a meeting of this organisation, and I remember with respect and admiration its founder and first president, Fritz Holländer zl, who worked for its development with both intelligence and dedication. From the onset Switzerland has been active within the ECJC. Today, apart from the VSJF, our welfare organisation, there are 4 of our main communities which are members: two from Zurich, one from Geneva and one from Basle, our host today. More communities will become members in the near future. Gabrielle Rosenstein and Sabine Simkhowitch-Dreyfus, both members for the Board of Directors of our organisation, are also members of the Committee of the ECJC. With only 18'000 Jews living in Switzerland, the Jewish population is not particularly large, but I can say that it is one of the best organised and most democratic communal organisations. Over 80% of the Swiss Jews are members of a Jewish community. They are well integrated, but conscious of the belonging to the Jewish people. They are active in every professional domain, as well in politics as in the Universities, in the economic and industrial fields, in the army and even in sports. They are recognised citizens today and live fully as Swiss citizens, while at the same time retain their distinction if they so wish. Indeed not everything is perfect, and I can no better define our situation than by quoting a "midrash", of which you certainly are not aware, because it has never been published! When God created the world, He also created Switzerland, with white snow on its mountains, magnificent blue lakes and beautiful green forests. Being jealous of all this beauty, all other nations approached God and told Him: "How could You give so much beauty to one single country?" God thought about it and then answered them: "you are right, I must make up for that." And God created the Swiss..... In fact the Swiss are neither better, nor worse than any other Europeans. It is a fact that some latent anti-semitism has always existed, and is even increasing as everywhere. For over 100 years, the "shechita" is forbidden in this country, recently there were an arson in a synagogue, an other synagogue covered with graffiti and a graveyard desecrated. However our contacts with the authorities are excellent and their involvement in the fight against anti-semitism is not academic, but takes the form of teaching in public schools, seminars organised for teachers and their participation to visits to Israel with special lectures given to them in Yad Vashem. Switzerland also has an active Commission against racism, as well as laws providing the punishment to the those who publicly express their anti-semitism or their racism. But let us get back to the ECJC, which now exists since almost 40 years. At that time, the World Jewish Congress, under the remarkable presidency of Nahum Goldman zl, occupied the front of the stage and eyed scornfully this little brother who was trying to find a spot under the sun. Today, ECJC has become the most prominent Jewish organisation in Europe, the one which is able to convene Jewish leadership and has succeeded to maintain direct contact with its basis, with the Jewish communities. This was actually the brilliant idea of Fritz Holländer and his board. Instead of Jewish politicians representing their country officially, but practically without any contacts with their members, Fritz Holländer created an association where the presidents of the local communities and the fieldworkers are represented, the fundament of European Judaism. Today Europe itself is undergoing profound changes. The European Union is moving forward, but painfully and with many difficulties. Resistance to its structure is increasing. Many countries must face the problem of a fundamental transformation of society, which is loosing its Christian character, either because of the rise of an increasing secularness, or because of the rapidly growing Moslem immigration. The image of certain countries is changing rapidly. This phenomenon is portrayed in humorous anecdotes, but humour frequently hides some truth. As an example, the answer to the question about the only Arab country which does not have any oil is France. And the second language spoken in France is French. And what about the European Jews? They also are undergoing an important transformation. If today they are fully emancipated and have found their place inside the society, they are facing a severe identity problem. Many, tired of ongoing persecutions, prefer to assimilate. This occurs most often out of opportunity rather than through conviction. It is so easy to disappear, to be no longer distinguishable, to show no difference. If the grand-father was still pronouncing his prayers to God in Hebrew, the father prays in English, the son has given up praying and the grand-son is no longer a Jew. Nahum Goldman, truly a wise man, had already described this situation in his usual caustic way: " What is good for the Jews is bad for Judaism". Nothing is more facile than to give up Judaism. And yet, after the shoah, it is our obligation to live, remain alive, to live our lives as Jews. This is the our duty, it is the respect we owe to the 6 millions who were assassinated, we must perpetuate their names, in order to demonstrate to the whole world that Hitler's satanic plan was a miserable failure. But we must not only look backwards. Loth's wife did: because she looked backwards, she was transformed into a statue of salt. There is a future. Despite the horrors of the past, the shoah was not the definitive nothingness, the end of the history of the Jewish people, the bottomless abyss without any morrow. To walk towards the future means to welcome the next day, to welcome the uninterrupted chain of following days, and without disregarding Auschwitz, to welcome the return of the Jewish people into the continuum of its eternal history. Most striking is the fact that this morrow does not only symbolise a temporal return. To the time, a truly Jewish phenomenon characterised by the regular recurrence of the Shabbatot, has been added today the dimension of space: the creation of Israel, "Erets Israel", the State of Israel. 57 years ago we have re-entered the history of mankind. We have returned and again participate in human history. For two thousands years we have been out of politics. Our return was certainly not welcome, no open arms received us, but today Israel is a reality and is present, even if was confronted to many wars aiming at its destruction. Facing a situation unprecedented by no other State, it was compelled to invent ways to combat terrorism, the most terrible weapon. Even in such a situation, Israel has succeeded to achieve dominance in many fields, and primarily in the scientific area. Israel also succeeded to get the banner of the most ambitious democracy floating very high in the sky and even to occupy front positions in moral expectations. There are two untrue statements which repeatedly circulate in the world: first that it is the shoah which gave raise to the State of Israel: on the contrary, it held back its creation. Here in Basle we can affirm that the conditions for its creation existed in 1933 and that the war delayed it. How many Jewish lives would have been saved if the nations had then done what they ought to have while it was still possible! Just as well it is false to pretend that the new anti-Semitism is originated by the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. It is only since 1967 that the Arab nations call for the creation of a Palestinian State, while they deny Israel the right to exist from the time of its creation. Jews have always been regarded as a sismograph. When they are in danger, the whole humanity is threatened, and particularly its values are. Today evil has become banal, we observe a deterioration of morality, a vindication of violence. Fairness, justice, ethics are scorned. We, we Jews have given these values to humanity. We must remind the world of this truth and commit ourselves to the defence of these values. But this means that we are obliged to assume our role as Jews, to affirm our belonging to the Jewish people. We are in danger too, if we do not succeed reaffirming our Jewish identity and transmitting it to our children and to the next generations. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs once said that one is a Jew if his grand-children are Jewish. I am even more modest: "a Jew is one who has Jewish children". To reinforce Jewish identity is one of the main ends pursued by the ECJC. It does it competently, but it could even do it better, with greater intensity. Jewish education must become its main preoccupation, no effort can be neglected, no burdens are too heavy. One must create more Jewish days schools, with the highest standards. Our children must be able to blossom out, to adopt a modern way of life, but impregnated with our religion, our culture, our history, our philosophy and our moral values. In cities where there are not enough Jewish children in order to maintain a day school, ECJC must establish a "Talmud tora" of highest value, not only an hour or two every week. It ought to organise day camps, so that the most isolated children learn that they are not on their own, that there are more Jews than just their family. ECJC should develop summer trips to Israel, visits to the extermination camps, it should favour the possibility for every Jewish child to spend at least one year in Israel and to acquire the strongest Jewish identity there. Such a program, which is a top priority for ECJC, also implies that the social position of Jewish educators must be given a high prominence, so that it will encourage the best among us to choose this attractive profession and will allow the ones who devote their lives to promote a strong Jewish identity to enjoy the highly respected position they deserve. Only if we succeed to provide our youth a strong Jewish identity will we create a strong European Judaism. And at the same time we will help Europe to recover its moral health and get the opportunity to confront the problems and the dangers which threaten currently the old continent. Europe needs the Jews more than the Jews need Europe. It is my fervent hope that the ECJC will be the organisation which will succeed in saving Europe and overcoming this challenge. |