A well-known men’s choir based in Berlin last week canceled a friendship concert at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, apparently because of a lack of funds.
The choir is the successor of the Erich Weinert Ensemble of the former East German army, which was notorious for its anti-Israeli standpoint. The event at Yad Vashem, which was scheduled for April 17, was planned as a special, highly symbolic gesture of reconciliation toward the Jewish state.
The budget committee of the Bundestag decided to cease funding the Carl Maria von Weber men’s choir. Even a “plea for mercy” by President Roman Herzog of Germany failed to change the position of the federal assembly.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
