German-Jewish Dialogue
Welcome - Willkommen!

    Since the end of World War II and the Holocaust, Germans and Jews have been engaging in dialogue on multiple levels. The German organization Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP; German: "Aktion Suehnezeichen Friedensdienste," ASF), for instance, has been an important facilitator for dialogue between young non-Jewish Germans and Jews. Since the 1960s, ARSP has been sending Germans to Jewish organizations in Israel, the United States, Poland, France and eleven other European countries. (ARSP-website: www.actionreconciliation.org)
    One of its international partners is the American Jewish Committee (AJC) (www.ajc.org) based in New York City with thirty-two chapters in the U.S. as well as offices in Brussels and Berlin. The AJC was the first Jewish organization to reach out to West-Germany after World War II and the first to open a permanent office in Berlin. (For more information about AJC in Germany please visit (in German): www.ajcgermany.org)
    Together with ARSP and the AJC as well as other organizations on both sides of the Atlantic, this forum shall faciliate exchange between young, non-Jewish Germans and Jews in New York City, Washington D.C., and Toronto in Canada.  

Jeffrey Peck About This Website:

    This website represents, at least in part, the future of German Jewish Dialogue. Using contemporary technology that transcends conventional boundaries, it addresses a relationship whose representatives tried before 1933 also to overcome such borders and then after 1945 were in despair about any future common ground. Today, over 60 years after the conclusion of the German Jewish trauma, young people such as those who we see here and many others sponsored by ARSP and similar organizations promoting reconciliation are looking forward without forgetting the past. As representatives of a new generation of “Germans” and “Jews”–categories that no long capture the heterogenity of these two groups today–-they are open, engaged, and working to break down the barriers that have often kept these communities apart.

    Since the dramatic changes in Jewish life in Germany since 1989/1990 after the immigration of tens of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Germany’s Jewish population has exploded. This transformation has made Germany’s Jewish community the fastest growing in the world and the third largest in Europe, a situation that twenty years ago would not have been thought imaginable. With all the difficulties that such a massive shift has brought, it has still changed the status of Jewish life in the country that for so long as only known as “the land of the murderers.” On the American side, more and more Jews are visiting Germany precisely to observe this new Jewish life, at least in the capital city of Berlin. Many German and American organizations and foundations committed to such dialogue, such as the American Jewish Committee or the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, are also facilitating such exchange. More and more young (Jewish) Americans are coming to Berlin to enjoy its multicultural diversity and cosmopolitan atmosphere. Above all, by sending young Germans to do their civil service in Jewish institutions in the United States and Israel, the ARSP has created opportunities for contact that have, in fact, led to this German Jewish dialogue.

    This website project represents another very important vehicle for facilitating young Germans and Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, to learn from each other to overcome prejudices and stereotypes. The dialogue and exchange stimulated by such efforts of young people make it possible to learn about the past while moving towards a future of better understanding. Each of the participants in this enterprise have experienced the benefits of crossing a boundary, taking a risk, and opening themselves to challenging (and sometimes painful) questions. These experiences have changed them and continue to shape their personal, academic and professional lives. These steps are enriching even beyond the specifics of a German Jewish Dialogue since today, as we are all quite aware, peoples of all kinds are struggling with similar legacies of enmity and distrust. Consequently, this dialogue can be a model for others and these participants can be leaders for those who encourage tolerance and understanding of such difficult and emotional issues.

    As someone committed to this German Jewish dialogue, I welcome you to this website, encourage you to participate. I am sure that it will contribute to a goal to which we are all committed.

Jeffrey Peck is Professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and currently Visiting Professor at the Walter Benjamin Chair in Jewish History and Culture at Humboldt University in Berlin.  His latest book Being Jewish in the New Germany appeared with Rutgers University Press (2006).