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September 16, 2008
‘Fourth Reich’ Comment Roils Germans
German Jewish organizations have demanded an apology from Liechtenstein’s prince for referring to Germany as the fourth Reich. Prince Hans-Adam’s remark came in a letter made public Sept. 11 in which he refused to lend a painting to the Berlin Jewish Museum for an exhibit on the looting of art from Jews during the Nazi era. The Central Council of Jews in Germany and the museum have called for his apology. The argument, however, apparently has less to do with art than with the prince’s anger at Germany for violating Liechtenstein’s bank privacy protection in chasing tax evaders. Hans-Adam said he would rather lend the painting, which the Nazis confiscated from Louis Baron von Rothschild, to any other country but Germany. Austria returned the work to the Rothschild heirs in 1988; the prince purchased it later at an auction. Writing to Jewish Museum director Werner Michael Blumenthal, Hans-Adam said, “We have survived three German Reichs in the past 200 years and I hope we will also survive a fourth one.” Sent in June, the letter was published last week by the Swiss Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. Hans-Adam said he “gladly” would have lent the work, which had belonged to Louis Baron von Rothschild and was confiscated by the Nazis in Vienna, “were the exhibit not in Germany.” Reportedly the prince has tried in vain to recover works he claims were taken by the Nazis from his own family. But he also was angry at Germany’s investigation of Germans for allegedly using Lichtenstein as a tax shelter. Early in 2008, it was revealed that Germany’s intelligence services tested the limits of European Union law, procuring protected client data from Liechtenstein banks to go after German tax evaders. Central Council vice president Salomon Korn said the prince may be justifiably angry, but his use of words was nevertheless regrettable. Korn told the Swiss paper that the remarks were “totally absurd,” and added that he expected the prince to apologize to Blumenthal, who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1939.
Berlin Cantorial School Opens
A cantorial school in Berlin opened with a concert and workshops featuring international guests. Saturday’s opening of the Jewish Institute of Cantorial Arts coincided with the annual Jewish cultural festival in the German capital. In Berlin’s recently renovated Rykestrasse Synagogue, institute director Cantor Mimi Sheffer performed “Arvit LeShabbat” by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun accompanied by choir and orchestra. The new training facility for cantors is part of the Reform Jewish seminary, the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam, founded nine years ago. The aim is to train cantors to lead services and provide religious education in congregations throughout Europe, the institute said in a news release. The institute plans to have close cooperation with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. Though the first four-year program is to begin a year from now, three students already are enrolled in a preliminary course. Germany, whose official Jewish population has more than quadrupled to about 120,000 with the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union since 1990, is sorely in need of spiritual leaders. Fewer than 30 rabbis are available for some 80 synagogues, and even fewer cantors. In September 2007, the Abraham Geiger College became the first institute to grant rabbinical certification in postwar Germany. Cooperating with the new program is the School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College-Institute of Jewish Religion in Jerusalem. Major sponsors are the California-based Breslauer Foundation, the Federal Government of Germany and the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
Jewish Challenger to Clark in New Zealand
Polls show the son of a Holocaust survivor is leading the incumbent for New Zealand prime minister. Helen Clark, who has led the island nation since 1999, on Friday announced a Nov. 8 date for new elections. Polls have consistently shown over the past 18 months that John Key, the National Party leader, is leading his Labor Party rival. Key’s mother, Ruth Lazar, fled Austria on the eve of World War II, escaping to Britain in 1939 where her aunt had paid a British soldier to marry her in a desperate bid to escape the clutches of the Nazis. Ruth’s brother, mother and grandmother made it out of Austria, but other members of the Lazar family weren’t as fortunate. One of Key’s two sisters, Sue, changed her surname back to Lazar after her marriage ended. She is active in the small Jewish community of Christchurch. While Key, 47, does not practice Judaism, he says he identifies with his Jewish roots. He has attended countless Jewish functions in the past year, the most recent on Sept. 7 when he appeared at the reopening of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation following its $6.63 million refurbishment and the celebration of the contribution of the Jewish community in Parliament on Sept. 9. If elected, he says he intends to visit Israel, where he has cousins, and pay his respects at Yad Vashem. Key would be the country’s third Jewish prime minister.