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Obermayer
German Jewish History Awards I am tremendously pleased to be here today for this award ceremony, which honors some outstanding individuals. I am sorry that I am unable to address you in German. Even though all four of my grandparents were born in Germany, by my generation the ability to speak in German has been lost. I would especially like to thank some of the people who have done so much to make this award possible. First, Mr. Walter Momper, the President of the Parliament, which has provided this elegant hall, the reception which will follow the award ceremony, and so much other support for this event. I also want to acknowledge the contributions of the other jury members from Germany, France, Israel and the United States, who have been helpful in many ways, and reviewed and evaluated a large number of fine nomination submissions in order to help us select the awardees whom we honor here today. Thanks also are due to Hendrik Kuebler and Betty Solbjor for the time and personal commitment they have devoted to this activity, and to Hendrik Klein, who prepared the profiles for the booklet which you have all received today. Finally, I would like to recognize my wife, Judith, who is here from Boston, and my son, Joel, and his friend Lani Harac, who are here from Washington, DC and played a major role in editing the booklet. One of the roles of people living today is to bridge the gap between the past and the future. All of the awardees here today recognize the importance of preserving and remembering past Jewish communities in Germany, but they have gone much further than that. They understand that to be fully meaningful, their work must connect to today's Jewish population, wherever it may be. The best indication of their success in reaching Jews in other parts of the world is that every one of the awardees today has in the audience anywhere from one to seven nominators who came here from America, England, and Israel at their own expense specifically for the purpose of honoring the awardees. Each nominator had ancestors in the community in which the awardee has been active, and these connections have been brought to life again in a very meaningful way by the established relationship. I should now like each nominatorto stand up, give their name and where they come from, and name the person whom they are honoring. We would have had a larger number from Israel, but their national election is tomorrow, and they cannot vote by absentee ballot, so it was difficult for them to leave home and still vote. After the ceremony when you go to the reception, please ask these nominators what motivated them to come here today. These awards have taken on an added dimension because they have allowed these nominators to demonstrate their appreciation for the outstanding work of individual Germans who have volunteered their time over many years without thought of recognition or financial compensation. Rather, they feel that as members of German society, it is the right thing to do. Their work is highly valued by the current generation of Jews, and will be by generations yet to come. The winners here this evening are only the tip of the iceberg. In almost every German community, worthy individuals have contributed of their time and skills to preserve the past - to make sure that we will never forget the activities and contributions of Jews in their former communities. I will provide a few examples of the response and respect shown by Jewish groups elsewhere for this activity in Germany to preserve Jewish history, culture and religious sites.
Last year, Joseph Motschmann was one of our awardees. He wrote a number
of books and restored both a cemetery and synagogue in towns in Upper
Franconia. After he received our award, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, As another example, one of our awardees in the first year was Gisela Blume, who prepared a memory book of Jews from Fuerth who had perished at the hands of the Nazis, painstakingly rebuilt a destroyed cemetery, and assembled in a database the family histories of over 15,000 Jewish residents of Fuerth. Every other year, about 400 former Jewish residents of Fuerth with their children, grandchildren, and now even great grandchildren, assemble in New York State to renew friendships and connect again with current activities in Fuerth. And every year, one German they invite as their honored guest is Gisela Blume. My last example demonstrates the value of these individual activities to a worldwide Jewish organization. One of the sponsors of this event is the German Jewish Special Interest Group of JewishGen. This organization focuses on genealogy, operates a very extensive internet website, and also has a listserv discussion group with almost 900 daily participants from over 20 countries. Their primary source of interaction and information is provided through publications and other connections with individuals such as tonight's awardees. This German Jewish genealogy website, among other things, lists over 270 books about the history of specific Jewish communities, and has links to 150 German websites containing relevant information about former Jewish communities, archives and reference sources. Especially on this Holocaust Memorial Day, we are pleased to honor individuals whose work insures that the lives, culture and contributions of Jews in these German communities will never be forgotten. They have established the connection between these past Jewish communities and the family histories of Jews throughout the world. |
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