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The Mantra of “Special Relationships”

One should be skeptical if there is a consensus across party lines in the Bundestag. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, …

Encouraging Civil Society in the Transatlantic Space

Society, Culture & Politics Recommendations The recommendations presented here build on discussions held in 2017-2018 as part of the AGI project “A German-American Dialogue of the Next Generation: Global Responsibility, …

Yesterday’s Hiding Places are Tomorrow’s Stages: Reconciliation, community building, and transatlantic relations

Civil society in Germany and the United States largely enjoys freedom to act and to shape society. In so doing, people of both countries belong to the just 2 percent …

Combating Selective Memory and Complacency

On Thursday, April 9, 2018, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany announced shocking news: a survey conducted by Schoen Consulting found that in the United States, the collective …

Are German-Israeli Relations Still “Special?” A Response to Ambassador Shimon Stein

Shimon Stein’s essay on the complex relationship between Germany and Israel is both penetrating and provocative. As Israel approaches the 70th anniversary of the state’s founding on May 14, it …

Germany-Israel Relations: Unique or Normal?

Recent events and statements by German figures indicate a change in Germany’s attitude to Israel. What for decades was a unique bilateral relationship – grounded in the memory of the …

The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: German vs. American Responses

Anti-Semitism in Germany Germany has a rocky history with anti-Semitism—to say the least. After WWII, reconciliation with Jewish populations became a large part of Germany’s foreign and domestic policy, and …

A New Strategy for How the History of Nazism and the Holocaust Can Be Remembered by German, Israeli, and American Youth

Four factors make urgent the necessity of German, Israeli, and American youth actively remembering Germany’s history of Nazism and the Holocaust. First, in both Germany and the U.S., there have …

Does Pyeongchang Lead to Pyeonghwa?

For the first time in history, the world will witness a match in which North and South Korean athletes compete together against Japan. As symbolic as it may be, the …

A Survivor’s Luck: Reflections on Berlin and Shanghai

Harry Katz is lucky.[1] As a man who has had a life-long love of numbers, he knows the odds were stacked against him from the beginning: He was born a Jew …

The Age of Youth: Civil Society and International Understanding Since World War II

After World War II, various discourses emerged that assigned the “youth” and the “young generation” to an important role for the material and mental reconstruction of the postwar societies. These …

Shattered by Glass: Working through Memories of Kristallnacht and Shanghai

We should learn from this story of the Shanghai Jews. But we haven’t learned.