Literature: Hearts on the table

Given the spiral of violence in the Middle East, how can we still talk to each other beyond hardening and retaliation? The “Parents Circle” association has taken up the cause of dialogue: Israeli and Palestinian family members who have lost a family member in the ongoing conflict have been meeting in various formats and in front of various auditoriums for three decades. The association carries out mediation and educational work, shows the horror of what happened and advocates for an end to the bloodshed.

The authors Alexander Estis and Slata Roschal would also like to support the “Parents Circle” and are inviting people to the benefit reading “An Unlikely Existence” at the Deutsches Theater Berlin this Wednesday. Young voices from German-Jewish literature have their say here: Alexander Estis, Iryna Fingerova, Dmitrij Kapitman, Slata Roschal and Dana von Suffrin (read by actress Daria von Loewenich) address the events in the Middle East and Ashkenazi family stories in their individual ways or aspects of the reality of Jewish life in Germany. The evening will be accompanied musically by accordionist Michael Saposchnikov.

This is the fifth event in a Germany-wide series of events initiated by Alexander Estis and Slata Roschal. The Munich author, who was most recently nominated for the German Book Prize with her lyrical novel “153 Forms of Non-Being,” explains: “For us, this reading is about an active attitude, an expression of solidarity.” Anti-Semitic statements and the ugliest calls against Israel has become socially acceptable again, even among intellectuals, authors and publishers. Author, nd columnist and Kurt Tucholsky Prize winner Alexander Estis, whose book “Escapes”, published in 2022, deals, among other things, with migration stories, also refers to the silence of the cultural industry after October 7th, to the subsequent relativizations, supposed contextualizations and dangerous ones Polarizations.

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In their texts, however, the authors are not only concerned with dealing with anti-Semitism, but also with the coexistence of Arab and Jewish people, of Germans and Jews, with Jewish-Ukrainian identity with the double impact of war, with the German society as a whole or even the very personal relationship with Israel.

The authors’ texts resist simple, polarizing partisanship; Through literature, empathy becomes possible beyond political slogans. The members of the “Parents Circle” also want the shades of gray in the Middle East conflict to be recognized; they are interested in the diverse perspectives of both sides and in listening to one another as a first step towards reconciliation.

A main task of this organization is to organize so-called dialogue meetings – guided discussions between Palestinians and Israelis. At schools and other institutions, relatives share their personal stories of loss and grief. The participants are confronted with the grief of the other side for the first time.

Over 300,000 people have taken part in the “Parents Circle” workshops since it was founded in 1998. “How can you remain indifferent when someone puts their heart on the table?” asks one participant after such a meeting.

Hearts will also be put on the table at the Deutsches Theater on Wednesday.

»An unlikely existence. Voices of German-Jewish Literature after October 7th”, March 27th, 8 p.m., DT, Berlin

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