M-T The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 17,1981 - Page 5 tnion ceme in a By SHELDON KIRSHNER HEPPENHEIM, West Germany,— IFoarth of ai series] ' West Germany's Jewish legacy is widely dispersed and found in museums, sym-gbgues and cemeteries, institutions of higher learning and libraries. - These aforementioned places, so disparate in spirit and mood, provide a glimpse at German Jewry — past, present and, perhaps, future. Martin Bnber, the great phUcMopher, lived In this attractive town, almost midway between Frankfort and Heidelberg, firbm 1916 to 1938. Hounded ont of Germany by the.Nazis In 1938 — th& year of Crystal Night — Bnber hnmigrated to Palestine, and re-established his academic career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Author of the seminal work, '*l and Thou," Buber died in 1965. He was one of the foremost sons of German Jewry — a richly integrated community whose contributions to Germany were legion in the pre-Hitler era. Buber. who lectured at the University of Frankfurt before his departure, wrote I and Thou in a two-storey house which is now a museum and West German headquarters of the International Council of Christians and Jews. Heppenheim. situated in a hilly winegrowing region, used to be home to a modest Jewish community, says Margarita Exler, a Christian volunteer at Martin Buber House. "In 1942," she relates, "Heppenheim's remaining Jews— 14,1 think — were taken to the market square by the Gestapo and transported to concentration camps.'' During the war. the Nazis distributed rations from Buber's house — ah unlikely fate for such a sanctum — and for about 30 years after that the rooms were used as offices. Three years ago, when the house seemed on the verge of falling victim to the wrecker's ball, it was renovated by the local state government. In 1979, it was made available to the International Council of Christians and Jews. Martin Bnber House fulfils two functions. It is a musenmi albeit a modest one, of Buber's life. And tthonses the International Council of Christians and Jews which. In Ms. Exler's words, attempts "to promote understanding and reconciliation between Jews and Germans.'* ICCJ has sponsored conferences on the Holocaust, anti-semitism, neorNazism and Israel, and in the future, it hopes to conduct research on anti-Semitic stereotypes in religious and historical textbooks. Ms. Exler■ a gentle, soft-spoken soul who oozes sincerity, arrived at Martin Buber . Hoiise via a circuitous route. Born in South-West Africa, formerly a German colony, she moved to Germany in 1937, a keen enthusiast of Nazi ideology. "I had heard jews Vere bad people and I believed it,", she remarks. She broke with National Socialism in the wake of Crystal Night, which disgusted her, "You cannot do harm to people because they're a little bit different.". ■ Repelled by the burning of synagogues, and the barbarism of Nazi creed, she withdrew into herself and began to read voraciously. Buber became one of her favorite writers. In her quest to better-understand Buber, arid Jews, she has visited Israel and formed, something of a friendship with his survivors.. in reply to a question; Ms. Exler — i piietiriie teaciier-—concedes that ;fe>ylpcaU visit Martin Buber House. ''Most of them are more interested in football and sports." On occasion, she wonders .whether German-Jewish understanding can .be achieveid in her own lifetime. "There are many.Germans, particularly of the older generation, who'll never realize what happened. They feel the war was very haid for them ... When I sit on a train, I wonder what they think." The notions which gave rise to Nazism-haven'tyetbeenburied, shesuggests. "My cbiisin, one of the kindest people 1 know, sincerely believes in the ideas of the Third : Reich . . ." Rashi, the noted biblical andTalmodlc scholar, visited Worms In the 11th century at the hivitation of its small Jewish community, one that would suffer the slings of antl-«emltism repeatedly fan the centuries 'ahead,.--:' ■ Worms today has practically no Jews. On the eve of Hitler's accession to power in 1933, approximately 1,000 Jews reisided in this ancient metropolis, which gaiined fame from the activities of a rebellious churchman named Martin Luther. A visitor who travels to-Worms by train from Franl^urt asks a taxi driver to deposit him at the Jewish cemetery — the oldest In Europe.,' On Andreas Ring, near the Abbey of -^Worms, the cemetery is adjacent to:a busy railroad track. On one side, a huge yellow 'crane stands like a moristrbui insect;^:: The cemetery goes back tb 1076. Like Jewish cemeteries-in Poland^ ;|t is bver-grbvvn with weeds and shrtibs. it is, in one telling word, decrepit, especially on a rainy day. It was spared destruction during the Nazi rule, owing to the' efforts of a rightepus German. But Worms' synagogue, inaugurated in 1034, and later razed by the Crusaders, was burned on Crystal Night in 1938.^-: '''/■\:X:.--.:'/r::r--y:'. ■:: ■,..'':: Thanks tbmunicpal, state and federal . funds, the synagogue was rebuilt in 1961; Given the paiicity of Jews in Worms and environs^jregiijar services are not held. Occasibriaiily, Jewish soldiers attached to U.S. forces in the area conduct services, says Karen Barth, who has looked after the synagogue for the last 11 years. A Protestant, Mrs. Barth tells a traveler that about 1,600 visitors tour the synagogue every month. The curious come from the four corners of the world, including West Germany. , : ;" ; Next tb the synagogue, down a score ■■ of steps into murky silence, there is a mikvah dating back to 1185. h is no longer is use. But it is another jolting reminder of the past. ': • ■ * • Jutta Bohnke-KoUwItz is a blond, handsome woman on the other side of 50. Her grandmother was Kathe KoUwltz, the Ulustrious graphic artist and sculptor whose sochdist beliefs put an abrupt end to her career after the rise of the Nazis. Kathe Kollwitz, whose name was synonymous with Weimar culture, died in 1945. Her granddaughter, who st udied German literature at Tubingen University, was enrolled in the Hitler Jugend for a brief period to divert attention from the family's anti-Nazi sentiments. The Hitler Jugend interiudedid not affect Jutta Bbhnke-kollwitz. Her parents, who were Berliners, made sure their daughter would reject the tenets of Nazism. Today, Jutta Bohnke-KoUwitz works hi the Germah-Judaica section of Cologne's central library. Together with Frankfurt University's collection, Cologne's is the largest of its kind in West Germany. She has been here since 1960, the year after the German-Jndaica section was established. It was created by a group of German citizens who felt that German youth should be acquainted with Jewish history. There are 32,000 books here, the majority in German. English and Freiich. "We have some Yiddish and a few Hebrew books." she says. Subjects range from German and East Eiiropean Jewish history to Israel and Zionism. On microfilm and microfiche are stored 19th and 20th century Jewish periodicals from Germahy, Austria, Czechoslovakia and other European countries. Anti-semitic literature, running the gamut from revolting children's stories to pseudo-scientific treatises on the Jewish ancestry of Germany's nobility, are kept' here as well. - "Nazis have come up here looking for books to confirm their theories," she recalls.'' 1 remember one time two men, one. old, the second young, came to find out more about the Rothschilds." On the whole, however, the German-Judaica section does not attract anti-semites, but young, curious Germans — students, teachers and scholars. "Eighty percent of our clients are under 30," Mrs. Bohnke-Kollwitz discloses. "They're astonished there are so many books about Jews;." she adds. One-third of the books are new."We have nearly everything you can buy somewhere." she says. "But finding old books is a problem. The Nazis destroyed them, or emigrants fleeing Hitler took them." In addition to lending'books to borrowers. the German-Judaica section provides another service. It has published a bibliography on German-Jewish . history, and hopes to issiie aguide on books of Jewish interest available in German libraries. "We alsb want to produce a pamphlet on Jewish monuments and buildings in Germany," she says. ■ Above allj the German-Judaica section seeks to bring Jews and Germans closer . together after the trauma of the Holocaust. "We hope we can contribute to mutual understanding, "says Bohnke-Kollwitz. ■ - /♦ ■■■ ■■, »' ':-■'* ■■- There's nothing like It bi Europe. Deep within the bowels of Heidelberg, on a narrow, peaceful street Just minutes from, a quaint market square filled with tourists from every conceivable land, therCoU^e of Jewish Studies stands as a symbol of Jewish^ continuity hi Germany. The college, Leon Feldman says, is "totally unique" on the European continent. It is the only Jewish institution of higher learning which offers students an education in religious and secular subjects. Feldman, its principal, is a distinguised scholar of Judaism ~ an American who has been affiliated with Rutgers University of New Jersey since 1962. He has also taught at Yeshiva University, and' was guest professor at Cambridge, Oxford, Hebrew University and the University of Toronto, Born in Berlin of East European parents 60 years ago, Feldman .hasbeen associated with the College of Jewish Studies from the beginning, or 1979, "I was very hesitant to come to Germany at first," he admits. "But I came to tiie conclusion that Jews who wish to reconstruct their lives —and their community — should be helped. I believe in the continuity of Jewish existence.". Feldman, who devotes a portion of the year to building the College of Jewish Studies, says its purpose is twofold: to offer its students a broad Jewish education on an academic level, and to help provide the academic preparation IFor a cadre of Jewish professionals — religious functionaries and community workers and the like V who can service West Germany's Jewish community. Sponsored by the Central Federation of Jewish Communities in Germany, the college receives funds from various German states: - , It has a close relationship with the University of Heidelberg, whose excellence* is long renowned. Students enrolled in the college do not receive degrees from the university — it grants its own — but courses are transferable. "Heidelberg recognizes bur courses as credits toward a degree," he explains. "Students enrolled here are automatically enrolled at Heidelberg." Sixteen fulltime students study at the college. But when Heidelberg students taking courses at the College of Jewish Studies are included, the total student body. part-time and fulltime, hovers around the 90 mark. "If we have 100 regular students in the best of years, we'll have reached our goal," says Feldman. . Students study a wide variety of subjects, including history, philosophy and classics. An MA. which is really a combination of a BA and a postgraduate degree, is offered. Accbrding to Feldman, students take one major and two minors to obtain an MA. Majors include Bible, Talmud and Hebrew, Jewish history^ philosophy and literature; minors,, midrash, liturgy, contemporary Jewry, sociology and Jewish art. The college has nine teachers, primarily from Israel and the U.S., and a libraty of some 16,000 books (half of which have yet to be stacked on shelves). Two problems; both of which are related, plague the college at present. Students, as well as teachers, are hesitant to commit themselves to West Germany. "There isn't enough of a Jewish hinterland In West Germany," he explains, referring to the : potential pool of students. And teachers who are prepared: to live In West Germany don't always have a command of German, the.official language of Instruction. The College of Jewish studies faces an arduous . challenge, but Jews are no strangers to adversity, particularly in a country like West Germany. TO THE EDITOR PLOpIans Now that President Sadat has agreed to reopen talks with Israel on Palestinain independence it may be of some interest to , review the recent Israeli-PLO. confrontation. ■ ■. : ' The FLO has made it abundantly clear that it intends the violent overthrow of Israel. Recently, the leader of the Popular Front for the Libe^ion of Palestihe (PFLP,' a PLO faction) Ahmed Jibiril, informed the Lebanese newspaper As Safu- that PLO troops had received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of heavy weapons, resultingin an altered military balance. He indicated that Libyan assistance was of such magnitude that further Arab assistance was unnecessary; that the PFLP men were being trained in Libya on Soviet aircrafts and the time had come to reopen the Jordanian front against Israel. On July 8 Yasser Arafat, addressing Iraqi ' "volunteers" to the PLC, warned of forthcomhig battles, concluding with the threat: "The river of blood, which has never ceased since the t>i understand how to move forward from this landmark in the right direction. ; ^ [World ZIonbt Pi«^ Servlo^]