Stiftung Neue Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum

In Cooperation with the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem

 

“Visual Worlds after October 7th”

With authors from Israel and Germany

Discussion with Adriana Altaras and Yirmi Pinkus, moderated by Thomas Sparr and Anja Siegemund

Introduction: Galili Shahar

 

October 9th, 6 p.m.(UTC+2), Neue Synagogue Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 28-30

 

The Topic:

Since October 7th, horrific images have been circulating around the world: images of the Hamas terrorist attack, images of horror and devastation, of the hostages being held captive, and images of suffering and destruction in Gaza. A new street art piece has emerged in Tel Aviv to capture these experiences. What images do we see in Israel? Which ones in Germany? Which images do we share? Which ones divide us? And: Which “we” can we speak of?

 

Participants of the panel on October 9:

Adriana Altaras is an actress, director, and author. She regularly works at major theatres and opera houses in German-speaking countries and has appeared in numerous film and television productions. She has made a name for herself as a writer with her books—including the bestseller *Tito’s Glasses* (2011). She now lives and works in Berlin.

 

Yirmi Pinkus is an illustrator, cartoonist, author, and associate professor at the Shenkar College of Design in Israel. He co-founded the groundbreaking comics group *Actus Tragicus* and has received numerous awards, including the Sapir Prize (2009) and the Prime Minister’s Award (2010 and again in 2021). He is known, among other things, for his award-winning comic novel *Professor Fabrikant’s Historical Cabaret*.

 

Anja Siegemund is the director of the Stiftung Neue Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum. From 2009 to 2015, she headed the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.

 

Galili Shahar is a professor of comparative literature at Tel Aviv University and currently a visiting professor in Berlin. His focus is on German and Hebrew literature. The son of Persian parents, his work includes writings on Kafka, Walter Benjamin, and Franz Rosenzweig. He is the chairman of the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.

 

Thomas Sparr is a literary scholar, author, and publisher. From 1990 to 1998, he headed the Jewish Publishing House and also held a leading position at Suhrkamp for many years. In addition to his publishing work, he has published numerous publications, including Grunewald im Orient: Das deutsch-jüdische Jerusalem (2018). He lives in Berlin and is active as an editor, author, and moderator.

 

This is the opening event of a series of three evenings on the topic:

What can literature do? Israeli and German Authors in Conversation

 

The year 2025 marks 60 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany – an anniversary that both recalls Germany’s specific historical responsibility and honours the vibrant and by no means self-evident partnership between the two countries. At the same time, this anniversary falls at a time of profound uncertainty: The Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent and ongoing war in Gaza have brought the relationship between Israel and Germany into the spotlight. There is hardly any other topic that is currently being debated with such emotionality and intensity in the German public. This situation demands a joint reflection and dialogue at the anniversary of this relationship between the two countries.

 

The Stiftung Neue Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum is taking this as the starting point for three evenings as part of its Jewish Literary Rondeel series. This year, German and Israeli authors will engage in dialogue about what shapes and inspires their work.

 

The three evenings focus on the following key questions: What connects authors in both countries, and what distinguishes their realities? How do they see each other? Which texts by other authors have influenced their own work? And: What role can literature play in times of social upheaval?

 

In the “Jewish Literary Roundtable” series, people gather in the centre of the Representative Hall of the New Synagogue in Berlin for discussions at the intersection of literature, society, and contemporary Jewish culture. The hosts of the Jewish Literary Roundtable are Thomas Sparr and Anja Siegemund, accompanied by rotating co-moderators.

 

On the other planned evenings of this series:

 

– November 4: Queer Lifeworlds in Germany and Israel (with Ronya Othmann and Sharron Hass)

Being Jewish and queer often means a double outsider status. Growing antisemitism goes hand in hand with homophobia, in Berlin and elsewhere. The Jewish religion has a tense relationship with homosexuality. On the other hand, new forms of solidarity and participation with others are emerging. We will explore experiences and perspectives.

 

– December 4: Germans and Jews (with Durs Grünbein and Ofer Waldman)

German, Israeli, German-Jewish, and everything in between: On what topics of our times do Germans, Israelis, and German Jews agree or disagree, especially after October 7th? What language barriers or deeper barriers exist? About which history do we speak and what is the relationship between universalism and particularism when we speak of “Germans” and “Jews”?

 

The participants in the other events:

 

Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, is one of the most important German-language poets of our time. Since his debut, Grauzone morgen (Gray Zone Mornings) (1988), he has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry and essays and has received numerous awards, including the Georg Büchner Prize (1995) and the Tranströmer Prize (2012). His works combine autobiographical experiences with historical and cultural-philosophical reflections and have been translated into numerous languages. Grünbein lives in Berlin and Rome.

 

Sharron Hass, born in Israel in 1966, is a poet, essayist, and literature lecturer. She studied Classical Philology and Religious Studies. She lectures on literature and poetry at the Alma Institute (Tel Aviv) and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Tel Aviv University. She has won several poetry prizes, including the Prime Minister’s Award (2003), the Bialik Prize (2012), the Dolitsky Prize (2017), and the Amichai Poetry Prize (2018).

 

Ronya Othmann, born in Munich in 1993 to a German mother and a Kurdish-Yazidi father, is a writer (prose, poetry, essays) and journalist. She has received numerous awards, including the Mara Cassens Prize for Die Sommer (2020), the Orphil Debut Prize for die verbrechen (2021), and the Düsseldorf Literature Prize for Vierundsiebzig (2024). Her column “Import Export” has been published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung since 2021.

 

Ofer Waldman, born in Jerusalem in 1979, played horn with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, among others. Since 2015, he has worked as a freelance author, journalist, and playwright, primarily focusing on German-Israeli topics. He received the ARD German Radio Play Prize in 2021 for the radio play Adolf Eichmann: Ein Hörprozess (Adolf Eichmann: An Audio Trial). His literary publications include the short story collection Singularkollektiv (2023) and the correspondence Gleichzeit: Letters between Israel & Europe (2024). Since August 2025, he is the head of the Israel office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

 

 

The event will be held in German