Building Bridges

by Beny Maissner (originally published at holyblossom.org on April 13, 2015)

This is my personal family story. I grew up in the household of a generation that fled the inferno of Europe during the Shoah. Jewish life in Germany shattered with the broken glass of Kristallnacht. We cannot fully reconstruct the picture. We cannot rebuild the magnificent synagogues of the past. We can only collect the shards, the sounds, the images of what remains and look upon them as a faint reflection of what was and what is lost.

But from the ashes of a destroyed culture of European Jewry to present day, I have witnessed the slow rebuilding of trust and understanding between Germans and Jews, facilitated by the glorious music of Western European Jewry. Over the past few decades, my wife and I have travelled many times to Hannover, the city of my family and the city of a legend, the last Oberkantor (Chief Cantor), Israel Alter. His golden voice still resounds in the memory of the city and in my own personal memory. He was my uncle and mentor. I was privileged to participate in many official commemorative events, such as the liberation of Bergen Belsen, the marking of the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and recently, in the presence of high officials and dignitaries I marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In all of these celebrations, Western European Jewish Music has been featured, led by the visionary Professor Andor Izsak, the President of the European Center of Jewish Music, and sung by the most famous German choirs, namely the Hamburg, Heidelberg and European Synagogalchor.

And now, a new day of hope and reconciliation brings me back to my family’s roots, where I received Germany’s highest civilian honour, the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. This is in recognition of a significant contribution to the reconciliation between Christians and Jews and Germans and Jews, and for restoring and preserving the great Jewish musical heritage of Germany. I am proud to report that Jewish music is thriving in Germany once again, and many are to be congratulated for that.