DuBow Digest Article

American Jewish Diplomacy & Germany

Eugene DuBow

Editor & Publisher: DuBow Digest (dubowdigest@optonline.net)

Some months ago I was invited to give a talk on “Jewish Diplomacy”. While the event
never came to pass I did a lot of thinking about the subject. I queried myself, “Is that
what I was doing in Berlin in 1997 as the Founding Director of the American Jewish
Committee’s Berlin Office?” Was I a Jewish diplomat? I didn’t have a black limousine, a
diplomatic license plate or – come to think of it – I didn’t even have an automobile. No
diplomatic pouch or codes. Just plain old e-mail and an agency with a pretty good
reputation and history to back me up.

I knew very well that I was being sent to Berlin because Germany was the most important
country in Europe as far as Jewish interests were concerned and it was important to have
an American Jewish outpost there. But I didn’t represent a nation, an entire people or
anything larger than a major American Jewish organization. I had spent a whole career in
the U.S. as a “field director” and then the supervisor of filed directors for AJC but in none
of those instances did I see myself as some sort of a diplomat or representative of
American Jewry.

I thought that when I got to Berlin if I could educate some of the Germans about Jewish
life in the U.S. and transmit back to AJC national and David Harris, AJC’s Executive
Director, what I found in terms of politics and attitudes that would be good enough.

David had a more defined mission in mind I believe. A few years later he spelled it out in
an interview in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. He said, “For decades AJC has
been a pioneering force in intergroup relations in this country. …intergroup relations is
about dialogue. We need to know one another better. …it’s about cooperation. We seek
the issues that invite collaboration. But remember, to have a friend you need to be a
friend. Intergroup diplomacy is every bit as much about giving as asking.” In establishing
a Berlin Office for AJC he took the agency’s domestic intergroup philosophy and applied
it overseas. Without consciously recognizing it as such, I did too.

Upon my arrival and with some help from my colleague Rabbi Andrew Baker and my
Assistant, Wendy Kloke, more than one German newspaper noted that the “Embassy of
the American Jews” was to open shortly. Friends and working colleagues started referring
to me (at first jokingly) as the “Ambassador”. Perception in some cases develops into
reality. It certainly did in this case. I started to be invited to a million receptions. The
chief of staff to the President put me on to what I would call the “A List”. I found myself
rubbing shoulders with the diplomats and government leaders. I was invited to a small
dinner given by Chancellor Kohl and President Herzog for President Clinton. I was a
participant at a 6 person luncheon with Shimon Peres. Move over Talleyrand! DuBow has
arrived!

In my AJC career I’ve operated with a couple of simple basic precepts. I believed that
whatever I did should be aimed at making secure the lives and future of the Jewish people
so that they could live in freedom and worship their religion wherever they wished to
live. Second, projecting from that, I should devote myself to the security of the world’s
only Jewish state- Israel. Simple! Nothing fancy! Jewish security and Israel!

I managed. I met with people of high rank, went to meetings, spoke at conferences, made
contacts, attended receptions, learned who was important and who wasn’t, got to know
the media people, set up and attended meetings that I had arranged for AJC leadership.
More than anything else I just talked and talked and talked – and my German isn’t even
that good. I got to know the Jewish leaders in Germany, the Israeli Ambassador, his
American counterpart and a lot of other people who wanted know more about American
Jewry. Of course there were other American Jews in Berlin but no one else representing
American Jewry in the way that AJC does. AJC Berlin, indeed, became known in the
German media as “The Embassy of the American Jews”.

It was not a secret to me even early on that my elevated status had very little to do with
me personally. It all had to do with the organization I was representing. AJC had had
been having delegations visit Germany for years. It had sponsored conferences, it had
engaged in a highly successful exchange program with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
and it had established a reputation as the Jewish organization that had the deepest
connections and “programmed” more fully than any other with institutions in Germany.
In the diplomatic game it’s who you represent that makes you important. If you do not
represent an “entity”, especially an important one, you get treated nicely but you really
don’t count. Your calls don’t get returned and the people you want to meet with are “not
available”.

Obviously, if I had represented a different religion/ethnic group my reception would not

have been quite what it turned out to be. History has intermingled Jews and Germans and
so that the “special” relationship, like it or not, is very much a reality. I found that most
Germans, even the leaders, knew very little about American Jewry. To most of them this
strange group of people who many believe have “amassed enormous political power” is
just an unknown factor. But, because Jews are somehow important to the German psyche
there is a great desire on their part to know more. That need fits right in with AJC’s time
honored philosophy as to how anti-Semitism should be countered. If we can get others to
understand us and work with us face to face the possibilities that it can be lessened are
dramatically increased.

At the present time, after 12 years of being on the scene in Berlin, the AJC “beach head”
is well established. Woody Allen once said, “"80% of success is showing up". I don’t
think the 80% figure applies in this case but AJC’s “showing up” in Berlin with a full
time office certainly helped it do its job. After two and a half years I felt I had done what
I set out to do (get it started) and it was time for me to go home to my wife and family.
Before leaving we were very fortunate is securing the services of Deidre Berger to take
my place. A well known journalist (National Public Radio correspondent) in both
Germany and the U.S., she knew the issues, many of the people and the political lay of
the land. When I first hired her as my associate, I told David, “I think she’s my ticket
home”. She was!

American Jewish diplomacy is obviously not a one person task in Germany. It has
required the full weight of AJC. AJC delegations, office group visits, even individual
visits all play their part. It has required the deep participation of Larry Ramer of Los
Angeles, the chair of the Ramer Institute (the formal name of the Berlin Office). Larry
has spent time, energy and a great deal of personal resource in helping build AJC’s
reputation in Germany. He himself has become a Jewish diplomat of the highest order.

In order to support its efforts, AJC has added a young people’s facet to its diplomatic
outreach. Its young professionals group (ACCESS) headed by Rebecca Neuwirth has been
sending its members to Germany first with an organization called Bridge of
Understanding and now with its successor, Germany Close Up.

Of course AJC is not totally alone in establishing relations with Germany. Other
American Jewish organizations have sent groups and individual leaders to “lobby” and
make contacts. They make the trek to Berlin to meet with government leaders as well
they should. All of them are received “diplomatically” but it is presence and constancy
that is taken seriously and so AJC remains the most important player on the American
Jewish – German diplomatic scene.

No discussion of this is issue would be complete without mentioning the Israeli

diplomatic mission in Berlin and the German Jewish community itself. In 1997 (I arrived
the year before the office was opened) the German Jewish leadership had many questions
about the establishment of an AJC Berlin Office. It took a while but after getting to
understand the positive role that AJC could play the idea of an AJC Office was warmly
received. Scroll ahead 12 years and I think I am safe in saying that it has become a
permanent and important player in German Jewish life. Ignatz Bubis, the late and great
leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat) became a good friend and
supporter right from the beginning and AJC’s relationship with that organization remains
today as solid as a relationship can be. The Israeli Ambassador in Germany during my
stay, Avi Primor, a world class diplomat himself, understood the importance of having an
American Jewish organizational presence and, like Bubis, was a great help and supported
AJC fully. His successors, I believe, have all felt the same way. The American Jewish
community is not an unimportant factor even in Germany. Having a representation in
Berlin is generally seen as a great plus for Jews and Jewish life in the capital city.

Diplomacy is defined by Merriam-Webster as “skill in handling affairs without arousing

hostility”. I don’t like it! The skill part is, of course, accurate. However, “without
arousing hostility” is not correct at all. Speaking out forcefully and publicly on certain
issues is part of the diplomat’s job. The ruffling of feathers cannot always be avoided.
There is a kind of diplomatic language one picks up along the way. I had a small
newspaper feud with an important writer about the way he described AJC. I thought there
were right wing, nationalistic tones in what he wrote. I didn’t accuse him of that. I called
his thoughts “dark”. If I had used the word “brown” (i.e. brown shirts) that would have
been over the edge. He got the idea.

The art of diplomacy requires a “give and take”. What did AJC have to give in Germany?
No economy, no military might, not even any coded secrets. Perhaps what we had was
even more important – legitimacy. There is no question that the establishment of the
Berlin Office (Ramer Institute) was a vote of American Jewish confidence in German
democracy. Not an unimportant factor for a country with the sort of history Germany has
and the fact that the excellent quality of its democracy is not well known to most
Americans – especially American Jews.

There is, of course, no “take” or any kind of quid pro quo. AJC is there to share
information and hope that what it has to say is taken seriously (Maybe that’s the “take”).
“Presence” and a reasonable way of explaining things in a rational manner counts for a
lot. AJC has earned its access to the decision makers and they have shown a willingness
to listen on the issues that are important to AJC and the American Jewish community. In
addition, they do act on important issues if and when, indeed, it is possible for them to do
so. I don’t think an organization which technically speaks only for itself could ask for
more.

What appears above is only the beginning of the story and deals mostly with philosophy
and process. The real story, the detailed history, is yet to be told. It not only sits in the
AJC archives, it is being added to every day. Some day, some time, some good researcher
will dig into it and come out with an interesting book. I hope I’ll be around to read it.