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.
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