New Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism at FAU

The new Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism Prof. Dr. Lutz Edzard believes that assessing original sources and communicating directly with everyone involved in their original language is vitally important.

“I regularly read Hebrew newspapers” – an interview with Prof. Dr. Lutz Edzard, the new Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism at FAU.

Prof. Dr. Lutz Edzard, Chair of Arabic Studies and Semitic Studies at FAU, has been the Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism since July 1, 2024. He has taken over the office from Katharina Herkendell, who is transferring to TU Berlin at the end of the year. In our interview, Prof. Edzard explains what is particularly important for him in his new office and what connections he has to the Jewish way of life.

Prof. Edzard, you have taken on the role of Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism at FAU in challenging times. What motivated you to accept the President’s request?

I was motivated to write to President Hornegger and Dean Kirchmann in light of the obvious importance of the matter itself, i.e. taking an open and fair approach to this virulent topic, and by my respect for the work of my predecessor in this office Katharina Herkendell. I am extremely grateful for the trust that everyone involved at FAU has placed in me.

What would you like to focus on?

In addition to acting as the initial point of contact for any relevant incidents and regularly keeping in touch with Jewish communities, diplomats and other partners in the region, I would like to organize events focusing not only on Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel but also on discussions of all relevant problems and groups of problems. We have already had two important series of lectures on the topic, organized by Katharina Herkendell and Heiner Bielefeldt, and I was involved myself in the first lecture series with a presentation on how certain terms have changed over the course of history. Another idea for sparking further discussions are joint expeditions in the region, for example to the Jewish museum in Fürth, Jewish cemeteries or other locations in the region. In November, I will visit Kraków and Auschwitz on behalf of FAU.

You speak and teach both Arabic and Hebrew. What are the benefits of this for your position as Officer for the Prevention of Antisemitism at FAU?

For both languages, it is essential to be able to access original sources and quotes spoken in the original language. While I was still a student, I learned about the reception of the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf, Kifāḥī in the Arab region from my honorable teacher Stefan Wild. Over many years, Muslim groups paraded through Berlin on Al Quds Day, not only chanting slogans like “Ḥamās, Ḥamās, Jews to the gas”, but also Ḫaybar, Ḫaybar yā yahūd, ǧayš Muḥammad sa-yaʿūd “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, Muhammad’s army will return”. Khaybar is an oasis on the Arabic peninsula where the first major massacre of Jews by Muslims was perpetrated in the year 628 CE, and this call of hatred can be seen as a taster for the events that unfolded on October 7, 2023.

I regularly read Hebrew newspapers, but also Israeli authors such as the recently deceased Amos Oz, who has expressed differentiated opinions on German-Jewish and German-Israeli relations, the latter for example in his essay Ba-derex le-Germaniya. The essay has also been published in German under the title Deutschland und Israel.

It goes without saying that evaluating original sources and communicating directly with all those involved in their original language is extremely valuable: talking with people, not just about them.

Do you have any personal connections to Jewish life, and if so, could you tell us about them?

Even as a child, I was lucky enough to be included when my parents met Jewish acquaintances and colleagues. As an adolescent, I had the opportunity to spend one Erev Shabbat – in other words a Friday evening – with a professor of Jewish Studies in Munich. As a student, and later as an member of the academic teaching staff, I spent a lot of time at Israeli universities. Together with my colleague Ofra Tirosh-Becker from the Hebrew University, I edited a volume about Jewish language varieties in which I worked myself on sections on Jewish Arabic and Yiddish. I also learned to appreciate the outstanding role of Jewish artists, for example in classical music, as well as scientists and scholars from an early age.

Antisemitic incidents have been on the rise again over the last few years, also long before October 7, 2023. What do you think is the reason behind this rise? And what can we do to combat it?

Antisemitism is still rife in the right-wing scene, there is nothing trivial or relative about it. However, Jewish communities are of the opinion that Muslim migrants and left-wing autonomous groups are the “elephant in the room” in this context, and have been at the latest since 2015. Whilst a reputable newspaper the Neue Zürcher Zeitung has reported objectively on the issue, here in Germany, much of the media and many academics are reticent with criticism; a laudable exception is the Jewish historian Michael Wolffsohn. Another technical problem is the fact that over a number of years, unsolved antisemitic crimes were assigned “by default” to the right-wing extremist scene, which has distorted the image of the actual situation. However, we must take care to avoid making sweeping statements, there are certainly also more sensible voices such as the Israeli-German Arab Ahmad Mansour.

Several people have complained that free and respectful discourse has ground to a halt at universities as well since October 7 at the latest, for example concerning the conflict in the Middle East. What is your opinion?

As a rule, it is important to state that polite and objective criticism must be allowed, no matter to whom it is directed. In the case of Israel, perceived “double standards” cause a massive problem, in other words the fact that western critics often show a distinct lack of interest in other, often much more virulent, problems, for example conflicts from the West Sahara to Darfur to Kurdistan, let alone the fate of the Rohingya and other tragedies, which undermines the credibility of their criticism of Israel. That apart, completely legitimate criticism of the often abysmal conditions under Muslim regimes is regularly vilified and denounced here in Germany as evidence of taking a “right-wing” stance. It is important to keep dialog alive at all times. Recently, President Hornegger, the head of the Catholic university community Harald Kressman and I met a group of very polite and objective Palestinian students at FAU – deliberately not the anonymous “Students for Palestine”. I also recently had a very fruitful discussion with two representatives of the Association of Jewish Students in Bavaria. Meetings such as these must continue to be possible in future.