Option 1: “As musicians, we use our way of expressing ourselves: music,” says Arne-Christian Pelz, founder of music for humanity. “But I don’t know what it takes to finally put an end to this.” Since October 7, musicians across Europe have been coming together to call attention to the suffering in Gaza and Israel through concerts which double as public demonstrations. The dynamic is particularly fascinating in Germany, as Chancellor Merz has stated that the country unequivocally supports Israel. At the same time, Germany is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian migrants, as well as an increasing number of Israeli expats in the past decade. I’m interested in further exploring how the arts scene in Berlin, particularly music, factors into the ecosystem of Arab and Israeli migrants in the city as a form of connection and activism. 

While pro-Palestine demonstrations in Berlin have resulted in police brutality and even some deportations, these musical flashmobs have remained peaceful, largely, according to Pelz, due to the support of pro-Palestinian Israeli activists whose presence helps protect protesters. In particular, there is a Gazan singer named Wafaa Saied who it would be fantastic to get an interview with. Professor Uli Brückner of Stanford in Berlin also recommended Igor Levit, a pianist who has performed concerts against antisemitism and to call attention to the hostage situation, as a source (although I understand he is quite famous and will probably be nearly impossible to get in touch with). I want to get beyond the “how does music bring people together across cultures/across the aisle” thing and get more into what this form of protest can/can’t accomplish as opposed to other forms, and how in particular it might make it more possible for vulnerable communities, like Palestinian migrants, to participate in protests because it is nearly guaranteed that they will be more peaceful. 

Potential sources:

  • Wafaa Saied, Gazan singer who has been prominent at musical flashmobs and online 
  • Daniel Marwecki, originally from Berlin (now a professor in Hong Kong) who wrote a book on Israel relations with Germany (Germany and Israel: Whitewashing and Statebuilding)
  • Arne-Christian Pelz, founder of Music for Humanity (who could plug me in with more sources)
  • Udi Raz, Israeli pro-Palestinian activist based in Berlin who has been arrested at multiple protests 
  • Alma Itzhaki, one of the founders of Israelis for Peace in Berlin (which helped organize the massive rally on Sept. 27)
  • Marija Ristic, formerly an investigative journalist and war crimes reporter and OSINT expert, now works in crisis management at Amnesty International, which has been a major organizer in recent mass pro-Palestine protests in Berlin (could be helpful in plugging into a wider circle of activists)

Option 2: The second option I’m considering for Berlin is to look into the preschool and kindergarten which Chabad Berlin is building for over 60 Jewish Ukrainian refugee children. There’s not been much reporting on the large group of Ukrainians who left Odessa on the 8th day of the Russia-Ukraine War, in 2023, and came by bus via a “green corridor” Germany constructed, so that the Jewish Ukrainians could pass safely to Germany through Romania. Though there has been some reporting on how Jewish Ukrainians have adjusted to life in Berlin, I’m particularly curious about how integration into German culture is feeling three years later, as many were reluctant to return to Germany given its history with the Holocaust. Currently, it seems that the school is still in the works, but I’m curious about how Chabad is building community for Ukrainian refugees and helping children integrate, especially as Chabad schools in the U.S. are known for being particularly unintegrated places — places you send a child to get an exclusively Chabad education, without many secular subjects. 

There are Chabad schools across the country in the U.S. In the U.S., there’s been reporting on how this can alienate students from secular peers later in life, make it difficult to find jobs, and make it difficult to grow. How might this play out with the Chabad school in Berlin? Do the children feel like part of Ukraine or Germany, or that they are in a separate category? For this kind of piece, I would visit Chabad in Berlin and find most of my sources there. It could also be interesting to trace the history of the “green corridor” from Ukraine to Germany and what legal structures allowed that to be possible, because there’s very little about it online. I’m a bit low on sources for Option 2 as of now, but have reached out to the Berlin Chabad house running the program and plan on attending a program and/or shabbat meal during our visit if possible. It would be great to chat with regular chabad-goers, the parents of the children who would be attending the schools, and the children (if at all possible), and to identify people who can tell the story of how they got from Ukraine to Berlin. It would be great to interview experts about what allowed that exception to policy to be possible. 

Questions for the AfD:

The AfD party has emphasized regulating migration by attracting skilled migrant labor. Does the AfD have particular countries in mind from which those skilled laborers ought to be attracted?

The AfD has also advocated a new policy on returns for Germany, including sending people back to their country of origin or to the first EU country through which the asylum-seeker entered the bloc. How and for which immigrant groups would you ideally see this policy play out? 

As of this past September, Germany is no longer the country where the most people apply for asylum in the EU. How do you feel about that trend and what do you believe is the cause?