Because of doubts over German reunification and memories of the Holocaust, what was originally billed as the first World Jewish Congress meeting in Germany has been significantly scaled down.
Instead of holding a large-scale formal meeting of the group’s Executive in Berlin from May 6 to 8, as originally planned, the WJC is inviting its representatives from various nations to attend a ceremony in Berlin as individual members of a delegation accompanying WJC President Edgar Bronfman.
Bronfman, along with Heinz Galinski, the chairman of the West Berlin Jewish community, will take part in a formal reading of a Jewish declaration marking the 45th anniversary of V-E Day, at the invitation of the German Jewish community. The reading will take place at the Wannsee Villa, outside of Berlin, where Nazi leaders plotted the destruction of the Jews.
“We are going precisely to the place where they sought to destroy us, to say that we are here,” said Elan Steinberg, WJC executive director.
But members of the World Zionist Organization Executive who are also WJC officials have chosen to boycott the event.
In Jerusalem, WZO Chairman Simcha Dinitz, who is an ex-officio member of the WJC Executive, announced last week that he would not attend the Berlin meeting. He said it would send the wrong signal by implying Jewish approval of the reunification of Germany.
ABIDES BY DINITZ DECISION
Dinitz said he had reached his decision after consultations with the Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens. He said because of his decision, other WZO members were obligated to absent themselves, as well.
Kalman Sultanik, a member of the WZO Executive and a vice president of the WJC, said he would abide by Dinitz’s decision. “I am obligated as a representative of the Executive to the decision of the WZO Executive,” Sultanik said.
Steinberg of the WJC said he was “surprised” that Dinitz referred to conversations with the Israel leaders.
“The president of the World Jewish Congress met with the prime minister to discuss with him the need for a Jewish moral statement on the German question. The green light for this event came from the prime minister,” Steinberg said.
“Dinitz has the right not to go, and I think he’s making the wrong decision. He’s losing the opportunity to make our concerns known about German reunification,” Steinberg said.
Others active in the WJC see it differently.
Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, secretary of the WJC’s American Section, said he argued vigorously against the entire ceremony when it was first proposed.
“To go into a room, to breathe the air that was breathed by Hitler and Goering?” Schonfeld asked. He said he could not attend the ceremony, whether or not it was part of a formal WJC meeting.
“I cannot accept being in the room where they planned our extermination,” he said.
(JTA correspondent David Landau in Jerusalem contributed to this report.)
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