“We don’t forget, we go dancing”

 

Authors Norbert Kron and Amichai Shalev have brought out an anthology on the new kind of German-Israeli relationship.

 

Mr. Kron, Mr. Shalev, you met in 2008 at a soccer match pitting German authors against Israeli writers. This match led to a close friendship. What is the story behind the idea for the book “Wir vergessen nicht, wir gehen tanzen” (We don’t forget, we go dancing)? Why was it important to you to bring out stories about German-Israeli relationships?

Norbert Kron: In Germany, there is not really such a thing as everyday Jewish life and most people do not know much about everyday Jewish culture. It is perhaps presumptuous to want to change the situation with a little book, but my visits to Israel and my contact with Israelis in Berlin have allowed me to associate with Jews in the kind of way that I had always hoped for. This type of relationship is so much easier and more relaxed than many people might think. The intention is for the stories by German and Israeli authors to reflect something of this. Since the book has been published in Hebrew and German it is aimed at opening up the possibility of establishing even more relaxed, “normal” encounters between the Israelis and Germans.

Amichai Shalev: Actually, I don’t see it as a book about the relationship between Israelis and Germans. Of course, that is one of its main themes, but I saw the project as an intellectual experiment, I wanted to check how the third generation feel and think in Germany geographically speaking, and also how they feel and think about the idea itself, the history, all that emotional baggage and so on, and I think personal relationships are one of the answers; this wasn’t an issue to begin with but the final results of the book can give us a large number of refreshing insights into the things that connect us, and it seems there are many things that connect us, more than we thought.

On first reading, the book’s title “Wir vergessen nicht, wir gehen tanzen” (We don’t forget, we go dancing) is puzzling. What is it referring to?

Norbert Kron: The stories in the book all have one thing in common – they present a special relationship between Israelis and Germans. Nowadays it is so good that we can go dancing together without any feelings of awkwardness, in Berlin or Tel Aviv. However, this does not mean that we can forget the past. On the contrary, dance is a common language, actually the most beautiful one imaginable.

Remembering and dancing together – this is also the motto of a symposium curated by you and organized by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Radial Stiftung foundation set to take place in Berlin on 12 and 13 April 2015. What do you hope for from the symposium?

Norbert Kron: It was always planned for the book to be more than a book – which is why it was so important to me for it to appear in German and Hebrew. The objective was not only to provide readers with hours of fascinating reading but also to trigger a dialogue leading to new encounters between Israelis and Germans – on the dancefloor of life. The symposium is intended to bring the book to life. After all the discussions that will be taking place in public and after a German-Israeli soccer match at a Berlin school there will of course subsequently be a real party, one where people can dance.

Many of the characters – both Germans and Israelis – make the kinds of faux-pas that are bound to happen when people from different cultural backgrounds engage in a dialogue. Which of the misunderstandings described in your book do you consider particularly realistic?

Norbert Kron: My favourite story on the subject is the one by Liat Elkayam because it takes such a warm-hearted and humorous approach to the misunderstandings between the German-Israeli lovers. Paul finally has a free weekend and wants to show his girlfriend the monuments – but she would much prefer just to go shopping. Until she finally comes up with the idea of visiting Hitler’s bunker and is really disappointed that there is nothing more to see there than a plaque. Such stereotypes are also to be found in other stories so they do still exist, even in the third generation. But they are playfully broken up, putting a grin on people’s faces and bringing the two sides together.

Amichai Shalev: Well, most of them are quite realistic, but the one scene I like most is in the Liat Elkayam story, when the protagonist gets a little drunk at dinner with her German boyfriend’s family and starts to tell holocaust jokes and the family don’t know how to react, they feel so embarrassed. For me this is a perfect scene that reflects cultural differences, because in Israel jokes of this kind are quite common, we have been hearing them since we were kids, but Germans, as I have noticed, can’t laugh about things like that. This is a scene that captures the fact in a way that is most provocative to Germans, but not to Israelis.

    

On the book

Over the past years the relationship between Germans and Israelis has changed. Whereas in the past one of the most important topics was coming to terms with the past, nowadays friendly encounters and cultural ties have become a reality. What is the third generation’s experience, considering past history? This is what the authors from Germany and Israel talk about in this book edited by Norbert Kron and Amichai Shalev, “Wir vergessen nicht, wir gehen tanzen”. The book was partly funded by the German Foreign Office in Berlin. The Federal Agency for Civic Education has also produced a special edition.

 

www.dontforgetdance.com