"Germany's Love of Israel"

Dr. Irit Dekel, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Germanic Studies and the Director of the Olamot Center for Scholarly and Cultural Exchange with Israel at Indiana University

"Israel’s security is Germany's raison d’être," declared Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz after Hamas' attack on Israeli towns and Kibbutzim on October 7, 2023. I will examine defining moments in this relationship over the past ten years and suggest that the love for Israel as the Jewish state and for Jews is framed by a commitment to Holocaust memory. Through expressing love and support, German society additionally articulates its own problems with regard to social diversity and plural democracy.

Thursday, November 9 | 12:00pm | Lunch included

This event is free and open to the community; please RSVP below so we have lunch and seating for everyone.

*Please make sure that you include your name and email in your registration*

More about Dr. Irit Dekel:

Dr. Irit Dekel is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Germanic Studies and the Director of the Olamot Center for Scholarly and Cultural Exchange with Israel at Indiana University. Her research examines the relations between collective memory, media, and the public sphere. Dr. Dekel’s recent work focuses on contemporary discourse on Holocaust memorialization and antisemitism in Germany as sites in which to study the social positions of ethnic and religious minorities, their civic actions, and representations. Her first book, Mediation at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, analyzes how various groups mediate their experience in the Holocaust Memorial, performing a moral transformation around how they relate to Holocaust memory and recent German history.

In this talk, she will discuss the phenomenon of Philosemitism in contemporary German society. Dr. Dekel claims that Philosemitism is performed by citizens and non-citizens living in Germany, including Jews, in three interconnected social domains: institutional, group, and individual. She further argues that in performing Philosemitism, German society examines and articulates its relations to Holocaust memory, to minorities, and to the resilience of German democracy.

Dr. Dekel will also be speaking at Rice University on Wednesday, November 8 at 12p.  Her talk will be on "DIY Jews:  Philosemitism in Contemporary German Culture."  This event is also free and open to the community.  Find out more information and register HERE for that program.