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TheJerusalemPostfirstexposedtheantisemitismscandal.

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/German-Museum-director-sparking-BDS-controversy-resigns-after-condemnations-fly-592564

The director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum, Peter Schäfer, announced his resignation on Friday “to avoid further damage” a week after The Jerusalem Post first reported that the institution endorsed the BDS campaign on the museum’s Twitter feed.

The pressure for Schäfer’s removal rose over the past week, and experts in the field of antisemitism told the Post that they implored German Culture Minister Monika Grütters, who oversees the board of the museum foundation, to take action against Schäfer and the antisemitism scandals at the museum.

“All those responsible must help ensure that the Jewish Museum Berlin can again concentrate on its important work in terms of content,” Grütters said on Friday. Schäfer’s deputy, Martin Michaelis, will assume responsibility for running the museum until a successor can be hired.

B’nai B’rith International president Charles O. Kaufman, who sent a letter last week to Schäfer about the museum’s anti-Israel direction, told the Post on Friday: “What’s crucial now is for the museum to identify leadership that commits to professionalism and the truth of sharing the long and rich Jewish life of Germany. This museum must earn the name Jewish Museum and, in doing so, earn the trust of the country, Europe and all visitors from around the world. It must not immerse itself in politicizing history, stooping to propaganda and, worse, revisionism.”

British journalist Tom Gross was invited to tour the museum by Schäfer’s office last year and expressed his dismay afterwards at some of the anti-Israel political aspects he saw.

“The important thing now, since the museum is currently replacing its permanent exhibit, due to reopen next year, is to make sure Schäfer’s replacement is someone who is more interested in remembering the enormous contributions of Berlin’s Jews to German and world history, and in accurately explaining the sheer sadistic horrors of the Holocaust, rather than engage in anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, extreme left-wing posturing,” Gross told the Post.

Katharina Schmidt-Narischkin, spokeswoman for the museum, was summarily dismissed, according to a Munich-based media outlet. The paper reported that she had written the anti-Israel tweet.

The Post asked Schmidt-Narischkin numerous times last week for a comment, but she declined to respond. The museum is widely considered a hot-bed of anti-Israel resentments.

“Enough is enough,” said Dr. Josef Schuster, president of the nearly 100,000-member Central Council of Jews in Germany. “The Jewish Museum Berlin seems to be completely out of control. Under these circumstances, one has to think about whether the term ‘Jewish’ is still appropriate.” His comments came after the museum tweeted an article from a left-wing Berlin-based paper, calling on the Bundestag to reverse its anti-BDS resolution, which classified BDS as antisemitism.

The council added that the museum’s management “has lost the trust of the Jewish community in Germany.”

Schuster said on Friday that Schäfer’s decision to toss in the towel was “an important step.”

Schäfer has been facing criticism over the years for promoting a one-sided exhibit on Jerusalem that plays down the role of Jews in the city, according to critics. In March, Schäfer invited the antisemitic Iranian regime diplomat Seyed Ali Moujani to the museum. Ali Moujani used the meeting to promote the view that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Schäfer regretted the interaction last week but in March he welcomed the anti-Israel tirade against the Jewish state.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, first coined the phrase the “anti-Jewish Museum” in 2012 in connection with the institution hosting the pro-BDS academic Judith Butler.

She promoted BDS at the museum in 2012, after having expressed support for the terrorist entities Hezbollah and Hamas in 2006.

“Understanding Hamas/Hezbollah as social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left, is extremely important,” said Butler at the time.

“THE JEWISH MUSEUM APPEARS TO BE COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL” SAID THE HEAD OF THE CENTRAL COUNCIL OF JEWS IN GERMANY

Director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum Quits After Spat Over B.D.S.
By Melissa Eddy
The New York Times
June 15, 2019

BERLIN — The director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum quit his post on Friday amid criticism that he had become too politically involved in the battle over the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, which was recently designated as anti-Semitic by the German Parliament.

Pressure had been mounting against the director, Peter Schäfer, over what critics said was an inappropriately political stance for the head of a cultural institution tasked with explaining Jewish traditions, history and art. An exhibition that opened last year about Jerusalem was accused of being anti-Israeli in a prominent, unsigned letter, criticism that Israeli officials said they agreed with at the time.

And Mr. Schäfer himself was criticized last year for inviting a Palestinian scholar to give a lecture at the museum and giving a personal tour to the cultural director of the Iranian Embassy.

But it was a post by the museum’s Twitter account last week that sparked the backlash that Mr. Schäfer could no longer withstand. The post promoted an article from a German daily that cited an open letter signed by 240 Jewish and Israeli scholars. In the letter, which was issued before Parliament acted, the scholars urged lawmakers not to sign the resolution declaring the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as B.D.S., anti-Semitic.

The resolution “does not assist this fight,” the scholars said. “On the contrary, it undermines it.”

The B.D.S. movement seeks to put economic and political pressure on Israel. It is especially sensitive in Germany, where responsibility for Israel’s right to exist is a cornerstone of foreign policy, and where calls to boycott the Jewish state carry historical associations with the Nazis.

The museum sought to defend the Twitter post, saying that it was only trying to point out the scholars’ argument that the resolution in Parliament would not help in the fight against anti-Semitism. But the post proved the last straw.

“Enough is enough. The Jewish Museum appears to be completely out of control,” the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, wrote in a response published on Tuesday. He went on to question whether it was still “appropriate” to call the museum “Jewish,” and said the council no longer trusted the institution.

In his resignation announcement, Mr. Schäfer said he had decided to quit immediately “to prevent further damage to the museum.” The museum opened in 2001 with the mission to reflect Jewish life and culture, as well as diversity and the diaspora in Germany. It is in the process of developing a new permanent exhibition, as well as a children’s museum, both of which were started under Mr. Schäfer’s direction.

Germany’s culture minister, Monika Grütters, who heads the board of the museum foundation, said she had accepted the resignation of Mr. Schäfer, who took over the position in 2014. Mr. Schäfer’s deputy, Martin Michaelis, will run the museum until a new director can be found, she said.

“All those responsible must ensure that the Jewish Museum of Berlin can return to concentrating on its important work,” she said.

Mr. Schuster, of the Central Council of Jews, said in a statement that he welcomed Mr. Schäfer’s decision to resign, calling it “an important step.”

Cultural institutions have recently become a battlefield for the fight over the B.D.S. movement in Germany. Last summer, the Ruhrtriennale, an international arts festival in western Germany, rescinded an invitation to a Scottish rap group after pressure mounted surrounding the artists’ association with the B.D.S. movement.

Anti-Semitic crimes and hate crimes against Jews have been on the rise in Germany, with crime statistics released last year showing they had increased by almost 20 percent last year compared with 2017.