Moshe Zimmermann | Solidarity and reason of state (live from Tel Aviv)

Lecture and discussion with the Israeli historian and anti-Semitism researcher Professor Dr Moshe Zimmermann (Hebrew University, em.)

In his lecture, historian Moshe Zimmermann will discuss the fact that Israel is a sensitive topic for German politics and the German public. The year 2023 has become an unpresentable challenge for the Federal Republic, which assumes Israel’s existence and security as part of the German raison d’être. The radical right-wing Israeli government, which has been in place since the beginning of the year, and the Gaza war, which began on 7 October 2023 with Hamas‘ attack on the heartland of Israel, are the focus here.

„The latest developments in Israel,“ says Jerusalem historian M. Zimmermann, „are relevant for Europeans and Germans not only because of the burden of the past or because of the common interests of both states. Rather, it is also because the shift to the right is a European, indeed a global problem. How the fight against anti-Semitism should be categorised in this context is another pressing question.“

Professor Dr Moshe Zimmermann is an Israeli historian, anti-Semitism researcher and football fan. The researcher’s family comes from Hamburg and fled to Palestine, then still a British mandate territory, during the Nazi regime. M. Zimmermann’s academic research focuses on the history of the French Revolution, German nationalism and anti-Semitism as well as the history of Jewish emancipation. He has researched extensively on German social history from the 18th to the 20th century, taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and for many years as a visiting professor at universities in Germany.

An event organised by the Fritz Bauer Forum together with the Bochum Justice Centre and the Evangelische Stadtakademie Bochum.

Photo: Marvins21, Levi Meir Clancy (unsplash)