Visits - Bilateral Relations and Personal Encounters in Israel, Germany and Beyond. International Workshop marking 50 Years of Israeli-German Diplomatic Relations, 1965–2015

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Visits - Bilateral Relations and Personal Encounters in Israel, Germany and Beyond. International Workshop marking 50 Years of Israeli-German Diplomatic Relations, 1965–2015

Veranstalter
The Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Organizers: Kim Wünschmann, Lina Nikou, Stefanie Fischer
Veranstaltungsort
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus Campus, Maiersdorf Faculty Club, Room 501
Ort
Jerusalem
Land
Israel
Vom - Bis
01.02.2015 -
Website
http://www.buberfellows.huji.ac.il
Von
Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Visits are key events in the establishment and maintenance of human relations. Visiting is a social practice of engagement that testifies to the importance and diversity of these relations. During visits we move out of our familiar and secure environment to encounter the unknown and the strange. Sometimes we also return to places of the past and revisit where we have come from. What awaits us are encounters whose nature is hard to anticipate and which require a certain degree of trust and faith in the host. As space is crossed, a whole range of expectations, concerns and anxieties travel with the visitor. For those who receive the guests the encounter is equally unpredictable. While they strive to present themselves as good hosts they can only hope that their visitors will feel welcome, appreciated and honoured.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany, the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences holds an international workshop that brings together scholars of various disciplines who research the dynamics, rituals and representations of visits. Approaching the topic from various cross-cultural angles they will discuss the ceremonies, cultural codes and diplomatic rules of foreign relations. They will also analyse official visiting programs organized by German cities for their Jewish former inhabitants driven into exile by Nazi persecution. Furthermore, they will study visits of a more private nature and examine the impact of personal encounters on both individual and collective identity and memory.

Programm

Workshop Program

09:00–09:15 Gathering

09:15–09:30
Greetings: Ruth HaCohen, Director of the Martin Buber Society of Fellows (Jerusalem)
Introduction: Kim Wünschmann (Jerusalem)

09:30–11:00 Panel I
Approaching Visiting Ritual: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Sociological Concepts

Chair: Nitzan Rothem (Jerusalem)

Francesca Fiaschetti (Jerusalem)
Lost in Translation: Diplomacy, Power and Cultural Encounters under Mongol Rule

Tawfiq Da’adli (Jerusalem)
al-Rihla al-Qudsiyya: 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi’s Journey to Jerusalem

Orit Gazit (Jerusalem)
Georg Simmel’s “Excursus on the Stranger”: Reflections on the Stranger as a Social Form

11:00–11:15 Coffee Break

11:15–12:15 Panel II
Official Visits: Diplomacy in Israel and Germany

Chair: Ellinor Morack (Jerusalem)

Gad Yair (Jerusalem)
Israeli Diplomacy: An Oxymoron?

Jenny Hestermann (Berlin/Frankfurt a. M.)
Overcoming the Past? The 1973 Visit of Willy Brandt as a Turning Point in the German-Israeli “Special Relationship”

12:15–13:30 Lunch Break

13:30–14:45 Panel III
Visiting Places of Origin:
Local Politics and German-Jewish Encounters

Chair: Stefanie Mahrer (Jerusalem)

Lina Nikou (Hamburg/Jerusalem)
Between Personal Approach and Administrative Processes – Organized Visits for Jewish Former Citizens of Major German Cities

Kim Wünschmann (Jerusalem)
Returning Home? German-Jewish Encounters in Postwar Rural Hesse

Stefanie Fischer (Berlin/Potsdam)
Visiting the Past: On Shame, Guilt and New Relations of Holocaust Survivors to their Former Hometowns, 1945–1960

14:45–15:15 Coffee Break

15:15–16:16 Panel IV
German-Jewish Relations after the Holocaust: Locality, Memory and Identity

Chair: Stefanie Fischer (Berlin/Potsdam)

Alexandra Tyrolf (Berlin)
Cautious Encounters: Rereading the Memories of First Visits to Germany after the Second World War

Anne C. Schenderlein (Washington DC)
Tentative Travelers: American German Jewish Refugees Finding Identity Through Trips Back to Germany

16:15–17:00 Final Discussion
Moderator: Lina Nikou (Hamburg/Jerusalem)

Kontakt

Martin Buber Society of Fellows

Rabin Building, Room 2201
Mount Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem
+972(0)25883901
+972(0)25880265
Buber.Fellows@mail.huji.ac.il

http://www.buberfellows.huji.ac.il