A Jewish-Christian-Muslim Programme

GALILLEE COLLEGE, MAR ELIAS COLLEGE

Joint Jewish-Christian-Muslim Programme:
A Religious Mosaic in the Holy Land

Students and faculty from all parts of the world are invited to a unique interfaith seminar that will utilise the Galillee in the north of Israel - the origin of religious traditions and the living place of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze (and other religious groups) - as a living example of interfaith dialogue and co-existence.

The participants will spend five weeks in the Holy Land studying the three great monotheistic traditions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam (as well as the other traditions/different sects which are present in Israel), the history of these, their connections to the Land of Israel / Palestine and its relevance to Modern Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Special attention will be given to the challenge of religious leaders and educators in our days to develop interfaith dialogues, both in Israel and in other parts of the world, in order to foster mutual understanding, tolerance and pluralism instead of hatred and violence.

If you are interested, please see this link for further details:

The "micro-histories" of fear: Erfurt & the KPD

Part I: January to May 1920
Part II: June to the Fall of 1920
Part III: Erfurt and the DNVP

The KPD started its newspaper, Der Kommunist, in May 1919 for Erfurt readers. It drew support from "Spartkists", who had sided with the uprisings in early 1919, and local independent socialists who were disenchanted with the old socialist party, the SPD. The Communist's editors also addressed the perceived lower middle class and other groups, whom they thought they could mobilize for its politics. For much of their first year of political activity under the banners of Independent Socialism (represented in the Vorwaerts daily newspaper too) and Communism, people in Erfurt kept their activity to public demonstrations and repeatedly hoisting a red flag on the Rathaus (which the local DNVP's supporters did not like). However, in the midwinter and early spring many were actively preparing for the chance to take up arms for the Revolution. After their failure to instigate that Communist Revolution by exploiting the General Strike of the "March Days" (see Part I), local Communists turned to the First national republican parliamentary elections scheduled for June 1920. The records of this newspaper in the Erfurt municipal archives, unfortunately, ends in June 1920.

The call for a new struggle
At the beginning of 1920 in an article entitled, “New Year – New Struggle” (The Communist, Nr. 1, 3 January 1920), the editors sketched the current situation. For the majority of those comrades still living the past year of 1919 was a year of greatest disappointment, a year of horror and the most bitter physical and spiritual torture. […] What will the near future bring? That is the anxious question which moves millions of hearts and minds at the turn of the new year.

In the rearguard
On page 2, the editors carried Maxim Gorki's article, “What is the lower middle class person (Kleinbuerger)?” Gorki wrote: Life is known as the struggle of the lords for power and of the servants for freedom from the yoke of this power. The tempo of this struggle is accelerating more and more with the increasing feeling of personal worth and the consciousness of the unified class interests among the Volk masses.

The lower middle class wanted to live quietly and agreeably without actively participating in this struggle; its favorite position was a peaceful existence in the rearguard of the strongest army. The internally powerless lower middle class bows to the visibly raw power of its government. When, however, as we have seen and still see, the government begins to become criminal, then the lower middle class becomes capable of begging or even taking its part in power over the land, whereby it draws from the strength of the Volk and relies on the hands of the same for achieving its desires.


The Reaction
As word of a possible right wing military coup spread, the editors of the Communist carried the headlines, “The Reaction Marches” (The Communist, Nr. 13, 11 March 1920), “Monarchist demonstrations in Potsdam; closure of the officers school there”.


Pogroms?
On age 2, in their “Political Overview”, the Communist editors described “Pogrom exercises” for its readers. On January 13^th 42 proletarians were shot to death by the security police in front of the Reichstag. What has followed is the Reich’s state of emergency, the suppression of the revolutionary press and protective detention for hundreds of revolutionaries. The military-monarchical counterrevolution promptly drew consequences from this fact… […] The first result was the revolver shots that Mr. von Hirschfeld fired on Erzberger (Matthias Erzberger, The current German Reichs Financial Minister). The independent German judiciary deemed the attack on the life of one of the democratic government’s leaders worth 1.5 years imprisonment. The so called public opinion praised the young hero of the “Black Hundred” (Schwarzhunderttum) with the laurel leaf and the Juenglingsstirn (? An honor for youth?).


The March Days of 1920 (see Part I)


The Housing Emergency
On page 4, the editors wrote about the local housing situation in “From the Local Districts”; from their view, the housing crisis was increasingly threatening; millions of people did not have a chance of finding even the most modest roof for their heads.

Weapons
In “The Call to the First of May” (The Communist, Nr. 23, 29 April 1920), the Communist's editors sought to mobilize local people for its coming demonstration. Workers! Comrades! In May 1919 the White Guards closed the iron ring around revolutionary Muenchen. The Noske Regiment completed its victory run. The middle class Democracy created a new weapon for itself in these struggles against the Proletariat: the Reichs Army with its aristocratic (Junker) officers, the citizens’ defense units and the Freikorps. The proletariat is being disarmed. The middle class Democracy has realized itself as a government by the saber, as the dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie.

The Red Army Advance
In “Advance of the Red Army” (The Communist, Nr. 41, 22 May 1920), the editors reported from new actions on the front of the war between pro-Soviet and anti-Soviet forces in the Ukraine and Poland. In the area around Borissow a Polish airplane was shot down. In the area around Kiev our units are advancing. […] Northeast of Kiev the battle is on.

The frightening social crisis
In “To the Comrades of the District of Thueringen!” (The Communist, Nr. 46, 29 May 1920), the editors of the Communist sought to mobilize voters for the upcoming national elections. Party Comrades! Men and Women! […] At every opportunity it must be clearly and sharply emphasized that the victory of the Proletarian Revolution cannot be achieved through elections and parliamentary decrees. The insidious illusion must be destroyed that a social democratic majority in parliament can bring about Socialism or at least an amelioration of the increasingly frightening social crisis! Tell the Proletariat that our representatives should not go to parliament in order to whittle away the advantages of the Proletariat for the representatives of the Bourgeoisie. Our representatives in parliament have no other task there but to ruthlessly strip capitalism and its agents of their masks for the whole world to see and call the masses to struggle from the tribune of the parliament for the dictatorship of the councils (Raetediktatur)! […] Our solutions are no division of power with the Bourgeoisie! No weapons in the hands of the Bourgeoisie! All weapons in the hands of the Proletariat! All power to the councils of the working Volk in the city and on the land!

Only work can save us
In“Only Work Can Save Us!” (The Communist, Nr. 49, 2 June 1920) on page 2, the editors of the Communist invoked the memories of the recent past. Remember the 15,000 proletarians, whom Noske had slaughtered in the name of democracy! Choose Spartakus! […] Send no social traitor or pseudo revolutionary to parliament! Vote for the Communists!

Cooperation with Soviet Russia
In the lead up to the June national parliamentary elections, the editors of the Communist carried banners in the headers and footers of each of its pages such as, “Spartakus fights for the closest cooperation with Soviet Russia. Send Communists to Parliament!” (The Communist, Nr. 50, 3 June 1920).

The Women Warriors for Communism
In “Women as the Warriors for Communism” (The Communist, Nr. 51, 4 June 1920), the editors of the Communist foresaw a special role for women. […] As soon as working women join the advanced socialist warriors for Communism the danger of rumors and the intrigues of pastors and village leaders, which incite the masses against the hated Bolsheviks, will disappear.

Hangman's work and sending Black Troops to Poland
In “Support Troops for Poland on the Way through Germany” (The Communist, Nr. 59, 13 June 1920), the editors of the Communist wrote about the possible role of German railway workers in supporting the use of French colonial black troops for the fight against Communism in Poland, a possibility which the local middle class press had called a racial insult in the French occupation of the Ruhr. The withdrawal of colored troops from the Saarland is foreseen for the middle of June. The troops are designated to go to Poland. The Saarland will maintain a French occupying force. The troops must make their way through Germany. German railway workers will be designated to transport them. However, the same German Bourgeoisie, who has just staged a national indignation against the “black insult”, suggests an insulting hangman’s work for the German proletariat against its Russian brothers.

Housing crisis
In “Increasing Housing Misery” (The Communist, Nr. 60, 15 June 1920, p. 4.), the editors of the Communist invoked a problem that must have been persistent among some of its intended audience. From their editorial view, the problem would grow worse because the recent national decree for the removal of housing shortages had been declared inadmissible by a court in Hannover.

Democracy in Crisis
In the wake of the parliamentary election results (see Part II), the editors of the Communist published, “The Continuing Crisis of the Democracy” (The Communist, Nr. 64, 19 June 1920), and proclaimed, “The Dying Democracy” in its subheading. […] The Democracy should have brought salvation from all need, should have brought the war to a favorable conclusion, the glorious peaceful understanding, etc. – and the Volk masses, who have just awoken with dumb heads from the frenzy of a patriotic shroud, believed in it with almost religious conviction. Not only the workers, but the broad masses of the lower middle class and the farmers began to believe in the Democracy; even large sections of the Bourgeoisie saw in it its way out of all difficulties. […] Only a small group of advanced proletarians, who rallied around the Communists, opposed the belief in Democracy and fought it from the very beginning as the cover for the counter revolution. […] Since then things have fundamentally changed. The military power has gained control of the situation and from the excitement for the Democracy there is barely a hint left to feel.

The "micro-histories" of fear: Erfurt & the DNVP

Part I: January to May 1920

Part II: June to the Fall of 1920

The DNVP was the German National Volks Party. In Erfurt, local elites gathered around this political party and helped start the Mitteldeutsche Newspaper (MZ) in 1919 in order to profile a more nationalist and conservative rightwing voice in the local media, especially to compete with the most widely read and highly respectable middle class paper, the Thueringer Allgemeine Newspaper (TAZ). In the wake of the First World War, they saw themselves as the proper voices to guide the people of Erfurt.

In “Weapons of the Spirit” (MZ, Nr. 136, So., 29. Mai 1920), the MZ reported on Communist deeds in Jena. At the German Nationalist meeting in the Volkshaussaale, Mr. Wilhelm von Trotha spoke to German Nationals about the new times they all found themselves in. According to the report, a mass of people were in attendance with Russian haircuts, openly hairy men’s chests and short English pipes. Those who did not have this uniform at least wore a tie. Every one who was aware of the local relations knew that the evening was developing like a storm. However, the results were much greater than expected.

From his very first word, Mr. Trotha’s objective and calm speech was interrupted by “Gebruell”, “Johlen” and “Schimpfereien” (onomatopoetic words for screaming and insulting). According to the MZ reporter, every one knew that is was an organized action. They tried to talk Mr. Trotha to death (totzuschreien), but only his cold bloodedness and “Gewandtheit” enabled him to bring the whole speech to its conclusion. Twice, they had to resort to their fists to help their throats and lungs. Three men, who had made it known they were members of the rightwing parties, were forced out of the room by pushing and punching. After the speech the real scandal broke loose. A small group pushed forward like a “Stosstrupp” (a strike force). Several people were encircled, forced into a corner and severely mishandled. The lights went out briefly. The election posters of the German Nationals were torn to pieces and stomped on. Instead of fists flying there were now stool legs. Several women were insulted and threatened. The “victors” celebrated their triumph by singing the Workers’ Marseillaise and other revolutionary tunes. Two of them gave their own speeches. The MZ reporter asked his readers, whether or not they thought the radicals were happy about their victory. From their speeches and other gestures one could surmise that the radicals themselves believed it was only a pyrrhic victory. It was only important to MZ readers, the reporter added, that every one except for those two communist speakers and their comrades, know what the phrases of equality, freedom and fraternity mean for the leftist radicals. One got a small taste of the gentlemanliness (“Herrlichkeiten”) that the Spartacists had to offer at the celebratory feast.