Speech of
Walter Stechel,
Consul General of the Federal Republic of
Germany
on the occasion of the bestowal of the Cross of the
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on
Benjamin Zeev Maissner, Cantor at Holy Blossom
Temple, Toronto
Toronto, November 23, 2014
Check against delivery
President Dr. Schipper,
Cantor Maissner,
Family members and friends of Benjamin Maissner,
Members of the congregation of Holy Blossom Temple,
Ladies and gentlemen,
As a German and a representative of the German government I am honored and
grateful to be your guest at Holy Blossom Temple together with my wife Jutta. We
are very much aware of the history and fate of Jews in Germany and I bow my head
in respect to those among you who suffered themselves or whose relatives suffered in
the Holocaust.
76 years ago, on 9 November 1938, during Kristallnacht, the persecution of Jewish
citizens in Germany started, visible to everyone in Germany and the world. In this
fateful night not only glass broke but the ever fragile Jewish life in Germany
shattered as well.
Until 1938 or rather until Hitler’s accession to power in 1933, Jewish life in
Germany was wonderfully rich. Let me name Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in
music, Heinrich Heine in literature, Max Liebermann in painting, Albert Einstein and
Erwin Panowsky in Science, Walther Rathenau the eminent industrialist and foreign
minister of the Weimar Republic, but also James Simon, the generous donor who
brought Nefertiti from Amarna in Egypt to Berlin.
As if made of glass, this wonderful picture of Jewish life in Germany lay broken in
1945, broken like the windows of the synagogues. Germany’s Jews were killed or
forced to emigrate. Germany had deprived itself of a ferment that had helped it grow
and develop – in every respect.
We cannot fully reconstruct this picture. We can only collect the shards that remain
and look at them as a faint reflection of what was and what is lost.
My being here is part of this effort – just like the Stolpersteine in the streets of
German cities, like the invitation of Holocaust survivors to Germany, like support for
the rebuilding of Jewish congregations and Jewish life in Germany.
I am here today for the bestowal of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal
Republic of Germany on Benjamin Maissner, the cantor of this congregation. By
honoring Beny Maissner we honor and draw attention to his bridge building between
North America and Germany and his contribution to reconciliation between Jews and
Germans.
But we also recognize the rich Jewish cantorial tradition in Germany that was
epitomized by Benny’s uncle Israel Alter, “the ultimate German cantor”, as Andor
Izsak put it. In an act of confidence in the resurgence of Jewish life in Germany Beny
Maissner returned the original records to Hanover, where Israel Alter had been
cantor and from where he emigrated in 1935 to South Africa and the United States.,
always carrying along the records. Listening to the great voice of Israel Alter on the
CDs that Beny Maissner has produced together with the European Centre for Jewish
Music in Hanover I felt moved back in time to the Jewish spiritual and cultural life
of the 1920s in Hanover, before the great catastrophy.
I am not going to repeat Benjamin Maissner’s distinguished career as cantor. After 35
years at Holy Blossom you know more about him than I ever will. But I would like to
point out some aspects of his reconciliatory work in Germany that you may not be
aware of.
In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Beny Maissner
visited Germany. He was invited by Andor Izsak, the Director of the European
Centre for Jewish Music in Hanover. Maissner sang in memoriam of the victims of
the Holocaust in the Market Church of Hannover, the biggest Lutheran church of the
city, and read the Kaddish and the Shema.
Maissner was invited to Germany in 2008 marking the 70th anniversary of
Kristallnacht with his own Lachan Chamber Choir. Under the very apt programmatic
title ‘Heritage and Healing’ Maissner returned to Germany in 2012 with a delegation
of the American Cantors Assembly. It was on this occasion that Beny donated Israel
Alter’s records to the European Centre for Jewish Music in Hanover. At the location
of the destroyed synagogue of Hanover, Beny Maissner and the accompanying North
American cantors sang a prayer for Israel Alter, whose voice had resonated in the
synagogue.
On the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht in the same year, Beny Maissner participated
in a memorial concert in the presence of the Premier of the Federal State of Lower
Saxony and subsequently conducted the Fall Festival of Jewish Music with a series
of concerts intended to foster understanding between religions.
Beny Maissner organized further ‘Heritage and Healing’ visits to Poland in 2009.
Although his maternal grandparents perished in Minsk, his paternal grandfather
perished in occupied Poland. He then returned to Germany in 2012, when 350
participants from the Cantors Assembly travelled to Hanover, Berlin and Munich.
Through this exemplary work Beny Maissner has contributed significantly to Jewish
life in Germany and the reconciliation between Christians and Jews as well as
Germans and Jews. In recognition of these exceptional merits Joachim Gauck, the
President of the Federal Republic of Germany has bestowed the Cross of the Order
of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on Benjamin Zeev Maissner. I am very
happy to now pass on the certificate and the insignia to Beny Maissner in the
presence of his family, his friends and his congregation.
My warmest congratulations and best wishes!
Thank you very much!