Peter,
Thank you. I hope Lessing’s idea will someday be observed not only here in the
U.S. but everywhere.
I know of no real, workable alternative.
Bill
On Jul 14, 2017, at 02:57, Peter Klein <boulanger.croissant@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If any one place can symbolize the struggle between tolerance and intolerance
in Europe, the Judenplatz in Vienna is a worthy candidate. At one end of the
square is a statue of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a key Enlightenment writer
and philosopher, and pioneering dramatist of the German-speaking world.
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35910082945/in/dateposted-public/>
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35910082945/in/dateposted-public/>
Lessing's play "Nathan the Wise," set during the Third Crusade, was a plea
for religious tolerance. The title character was based on Lessing's
lifelong friend Moses Mendelssohn, today considered the spiritual father of
liberal Judaism. Other characters are the Sultan Saladin and a Knight
Templar. They discuss which of their three religions is the true one.
Lessing's answer: "Of this you may be sure: Your father loved you all, and it
was his ardent wish that all of you should love one another." This was such a
radical idea that the Church banned the play during Lessing's lifetime. In
some quarters, it is still a radical idea.
Now let's turn around with our backs to the statue. We see this:
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35869709356/in/dateposted-public/>
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35869709356/in/dateposted-public/>
This is the Holocaust memorial, in the form of a library turned inside-out,
dedicated to the more than 65,000 Austrian Jews killed by "the Nazis" between
1938 and 1945.
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35910083045/in/dateposted-public/>
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/35910083045/in/dateposted-public/>
Behind and to the right of the memorial, you can see a building with several
traffic barrier posts in front. This is the Jewish museum and community
center. Such barriers, which surround most Jewish synagogues, schools and
institutions in Europe, are a reminder of the real threat of terrorism. We
could hear children singing Hebrew songs inside. The guard became *very*
nervous when anyone walked near the barriers.
The Judenplatz was the center of Viennese Jewish life during the Middle Ages.
Until 1420-21, when Archduke Albert V instituted a series of persecutions
against the community of 1400-1600 Jews. It culminated in the last 200
surviving Jews burned at the stake, all Jewish property confiscated, and Jews
banned from Austria. The Holocaust Memorial sits atop the foundation of the
destroyed medieval synagogue.
The statue of Lessing is the second one to stand in the square. The Nazis
tore down the first one and melted it down for munitions.
"Nathan the Wise" was playing at Vienna's Volkstheater during our visit. With
supratitles in English and Arabic.
<http://www.metropole.at/nathan-with-strings/>
<http://www.metropole.at/nathan-with-strings/>
Today, who embraces Lessing's still-radical idea, and who its malignant
opposite? It's a question we need to ask, and keep asking.
--Peter