German Studies Professor, Doctoral Student Help Lead 'An Interfaith Journey'

It is a journey of big and small steps, of old wounds and fresh blood, of faith and forgiveness.

In the end, organizers hope, “An Interfaith Journey” to Oberwesel, Germany, will be a time of “remembrance and reconciliation.” The Aug. 31-Sept. 12 trip centers on the return of Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, Chancellor of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, to his native town of Oberwesel on the Rhine.

Julia Baker, German Studies doctoral student, is part of a delegation headed to Germany with Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, Chancellor of Hebrew Union College.

There, the delegation of about 30 will see history in action on Sept. 3 as Gottschalk erects a tombstone on his grandfather’s unmarked grave. The service, in a 300-year-old cemetery, takes place 65 years after Gottschalk’s relative’s death.

The trip is co-organized by Richard Schade, professor of German Studies in McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and Racelle Weiman, (former) director of the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education.

The trip didn’t unfold without controversy, Schade said.

“I and others had to convince the town fathers of Oberwesel that the erection of the commemorative marker is the right thing to do,” he said.

“Many German communities are still struggling with the bygone realities and it is pertinent to mention that the stone would not have been erected had it not been for his wishes and for our action on his desires. The erection of the stone is a very political act, in a positive sense, and we in Cincinnati were able to effect a moral change in this small German community on the Rhine River.”

It’s important to Schade, he said, to make the trip – as a professor, as Honorary Consul of Germany (a lifetime diplomatic appointment by the president of Germany) and “as a person.”

“As a professor, it offers me an opportunity to be intellectually honest with the participants regarding the many implications of the sites for the German / Jewish symbiosis,” he said.

“As a believing Christian, it allows me to test my faith in an interfaith dialogue. As Honorary Consul of Germany for the Greater Cincinnati area, it allows me to advance the goals of public diplomacy in the service of that nation.”

German Studies doctoral student Julia Baker is a member of the delegation and an integral part of the trip’s conception. She said the idea for the mission is owed to Barbara Fuchs, a converted Jew who lives in Oberwesel.

“She was part of a team who discovered the rabbi’s grandfather’s grave in 2005,” said Baker.

“She then contacted Rabbi Gottschalk, met him and suggested the whole idea about him coming to Oberwesel. Barbara put a lot of effort into the organization of the events surrounding the visit. I have been on the phone with her numerous times.”

From February until May of this year, while a Taft dissertation fellow, Baker took Weiman’s course, “Holocaust Educators 2006: The Children and The Holocaust” at the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education. A few weeks into the course, Weiman invited Baker to join her in her preparation efforts for the trip to Oberwesel.

“I decided to take this course because it promised to be informative and inspiring for my dissertation, which deals with literary works by Jewish child exiles during the Holocaust,” said Baker, a native of Graz, Austria.

“The information I gained from this seminar has proven to be immensely beneficial for my dissertation project.”

Most of all, Baker said, she has been inspired by her direct involvement in the trip’s planning. Though she has never traveled in Germany, she volunteered to compose and translate letters to and from there.

“We sent letters to the Bishop of Trier and to some other Catholic priests in the area, as well as to the mayor of Oberwesel. My main role in this project has been the creation and coordination of a working proposal for the local school,” Baker said.

“At the beginning of March, I invited the schools in Oberwesel to participate in the town’s preparation for Rabbi Gottschalk’s visit. I pointed out that the organizers of the trip here in Cincinnati, would like to see a strong involvement of the children of Oberwesel. My working proposal contained a short summary of Rabbi Gottschalk’s story.”

She has met Gottschalk just once, but describes him as “very charismatic.”

“We talked about him going back to Germany and how his German is that of a little boy,” Baker said.

“He impressed me because he was so open about his doubts and fears. I have translated his response letter to the city of Oberwesel – he thanks the mayor for taking this step. He is aware how difficult it is for such a small town to welcome the only surviving Jew that used to live in their midst. I really hope that all goes well for the rabbi. Not all people in Oberwesel seem to be ready to reconcile.”

Schade expects an emotional reaction for tripgoers, regardless of their ties to Germany. He knows he’ll be moved.

“I have wept at Bergen Belsen, Sachsenhausen (both concentration camps), but I have also wept at the Fall of the Wall (1989) and at the rally in support of the US in Berlin on Sept. 14, 2001,” he said.

“Yes, it is emotional ... and my varied experiences in Germany over the years contribute to my gut response.”

Professor Richard Schade

Schade has led many trips during his career at UC and is “intimately familiar” with all the sites. He has been “involved with Germany since my youth,” he said, more recently as the director of UC Berlin Experience for undergraduates.

This journey, like others, will take the professor to places he loves, places he wants to remember and places he hopes others can come to appreciate. After the leg of the trip honoring Gottschalk, travelers will see much more of Germany before their return home.

“I share my passion for 'things German' to include the basic goodness of Goethe and Schiller's legacy; while not denying the past, I seek to inform and discuss the good that is afoot in Germany since the defeat of Nazism,” Schade said.

Baker hopes that by the time the trip begins, the war between Israel and Lebanon will be over.

The delegation to Oberwesel, she and Schade agree, sets an example.

“The only way to reconcile and renew difficult relationships is to confront them and encounter people face to face,” Baker said.

“I think most wars begin because people stop talking to each other. This is true for the smallest entity, such as marriages or friendships, but the same is true for difficulties between two or more countries.”