Images and distortions of others – The German-Israeli Textbook Commission discusses its findings in Berlin

At a conference organised by the Council of Jews in Germany on the 4 and 5 November in Berlin members of the German-Israeli Textbook Commission presented the findings from their research. The bilateral textbook recommendations had already been presented to the public at the foreign office in July and this conference offered a new opportunity to examine and discuss in depth the perceptions of one another as presented in German and Israeli textbooks.

The conference was held at the Berlin premises of the secretary to the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK). In his welcome address the director of the GEI, Professor Eckhardt Fuchs, pointed out that despite justified criticism of textbook contents it is important to take into consideration that textbooks are subject to a wide range of social expectations and are the result of complex negotiation processes.

The conference was opened by the Israeli ambassador, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, the general secretary of the KMK, Udo Michallik, and Dr Josef Schuster, the president of the Council of Jews in Germany. An annotated collection of source material on the diplomatic and civic relations between Germany and Israel was then presented that will be jointly published by the Standing Conference and the Israeli Embassy. Members of the German-Israeli Textbook Commission (DISBK) had contributed to the project in an advisory role. Specific aspects of the portrayal of both Israel and Germany in textbooks were examined during the workshops that followed. Participants included educators from Jewish communities but also journalists and publishers. The workshops were led by members of the DISBK, Prof. Alfons Kenkmann (working group history), head teacher Frank Langner (working group social studies) and Dr Martin Liepach (working group history) as well as by the DISBK coordinators Dr Arie Kizel and Dr Dirk Sadowski. In each of the workshops questions surrounding the didactic approach to images and source material and the consequent distortions in the depictions of either Israel or Germany played a key role.

The one-and-a-half day conference closed with a podium discussion addressing the interpretation of the DISBK’s findings and featuring the academic director of the Council of Jews’ education department, Prof. Doron Kiesel, the publicist Dr Georg Hafner and Dr Dirk Sadowski.