German theater brings Grossman novel to Israeli stage
Sarah Judith Hofmann cmb
July 2, 2019
How can a Frankfurt theater bring a deeply Israeli experience of war, trauma and violent loss to the stage in Tel Aviv? A German-language production of Grossman's "To the End of the Land" grappled with this challenge.
Image: Goethe-Institut Israel/Cedric Dorin
Advertisement
The Israeli author David Grossman had only been speaking to the audience in Tel Aviv-Jaffa for a few minutes when the all-powerful word containing a world of emotions fell from his lips: Holocaust.
He was talking following a stage performance of his 2008 novel To the End of the Land (translated from Hebrew into English by Jessica Cohen in 2010) that was presented at the Gesher Theater on Sunday as part of the Jaffa International Theater Festival. The production by the Schauspiel Frankfurt theater, with support from the Goethe Institute, was presented in German with Hebrew subtitles.
The head dramaturge of the Schauspiel Frankfurt, Marion Tiedtke, said the entire production team was very anxious about presenting the show on an Israeli stage. Germans have a strong connection to the state of Israel due to the horrific shared history of the Holocaust, she said, adding that the team wanted to avoid any missteps.
The 65-year-old Grossman, one of Israel's most important contemporary authors and outspoken peace activists who won the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, says the Frankfurt theater's decision to have four different actors portray the novel's protagonist, Ora, first astonished him, then fascinated him.
Grossman and translator Cohen received the Man Booker International Prize in 2017 for the English translation of "A Horse Walks into a Bar" — which he shared with translator Jessica Cohen Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
War flashbacks
Grossman's novel, however, does not focus on the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Rather, it tells the story of a love triangle between Ora and her two best friends, Ilan and Avram, during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Known also as the Yom Kippur War, the conflict sees Avram captured by the Egyptians and then tortured for many years. His best friend Ilan is plagued endlessly by self-reproach: Why was he spared the prisoner's fate that Avram was dealt? Why is he, and not Avram, allowed to live with Ora and raise two children with her?
The novel, which Grossman wrote over more than ten years, explores these questions through flashbacks. The surrounding framework is just as dramatic and political: Taking place some 20 years after the Yom Kippur War, it centers on the elderly Ora. When her younger son, Ofer, revealed as the child of Avram, is pulled into a new "operation" following the end of his military service, she decides to flee.
Schauspiel Frankfurt presented the performance of "To the End of the Land" in German with Hebrew subtitlesImage: Goethe-Institut Israel/Cedric Dorin
Ora wanders through the mountains of Galilee in northern Israel, making herself unreachable to avoid the message she fears: that Ofer has been killed in combat. With her is ex-lover Avram, who was allowed to return to Israel after years in Egyptian prison. He is seriously injured and traumatized, and it becomes clear to Ora that he is a broken man.
Grossman's own lost son
Ora has been interpreted to be Grossman's alter ego. Just like the novel's protagonist Ofer, his son Uri was a tank commander and took part in one of the last offensives of 2006 Lebanon War while Grossman was writing the novel. As the work neared completion, Uri was killed when his tank was hit by a missile launched by Hezbollah fighters.
Upon publication, the novel became a worldwide success, praised by critics and readers for its emotional nuance.
Through the perspective of a mother fearing for her solider son, Grossman sharply criticized the politics of his country, including Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. But such criticism, expressed by an Israeli who simultaneously and consistently voices love for his country, sounds different when expressed by a German.
Jerusalem is one of the oldest and most contested cities in the world. Jerusalem is revered as a sacred city by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. For this reason, there has been controversy over the city to this day.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/S. Qaq
Jerusalem, the city of David
According to the Old Testament, David, king of the two partial kingdoms of Judah and Israel, won Jerusalem from the Jebusites around 1000 BC. He moved his seat of government to Jerusalem, making it the capital and religious center of his kingdom. The Bible says David's son Solomon built the first temple for Yahweh, the God of Israel. Jerusalem became the center of Judaism.
Image: Imago/Leemage
Under Persian rule
The Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (3rd from the left) conquered Jerusalem in 597 and again in 586 BC, as the Bible says. He took King Jehoiakim (5th from the right) and the Jewish upper class into captivity, sent them to Babylon and destroyed the temple. After Persian king Cyrus the Great seized Babylon, he allowed the exiled Jews to return home to Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple.
The Roman Empire ruled Jerusalem from the year 63 AD. Resistance movements rapidly formed among the population, so that in 66 AD, the First Jewish–Roman War broke out. The war ended 4 years later, with a Roman victory and another destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The Romans and Byzantines ruled Palestine for approximately 600 years.
Image: Historical Picture Archive/COR
Conquest by the Arabs
Over the course of the Islamic conquest of Greater Syria, Muslim armies also reached Palestine. By order of the Caliph Umar (in the picture), Jerusalem was besieged and captured in the year 637 AD. In the following era of Muslim rule, various, mutually hostile and religiously divided rulers presided over the city. Jerusalem was often besieged and changed hands several times.
Image: Selva/Leemage
The Crusades
From 1070 AD onward, the Muslim Seljuk rulers increasingly threatened the Christian world. Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade, which took Jerusalem in 1099 AD. Over a period of 200 years a total of nine crusades set out to conquer the city as it changed hands between Muslim and Christian rule. In 1244 AD the crusaders finally lost control of the city and it once again became Muslim.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
The Ottomans and the British
After the conquest of Egypt and Arabia by the Ottomans, Jerusalem became the seat of an Ottoman administrative district in 1535 AD. In its first decades of Ottoman rule, the city saw a clear revival. With a British victory over Ottoman troops in 1917 AD, Palestine fell under British rule. Jerusalem went to the British without a fight.
Image: Gemeinfrei
The divided city
After World War II, the British gave up their Palestinian Mandate. The UN voted for a division of the country in order to create a home for the survivors of the Holocaust. Some Arab states then went to war against Israel and conquered part of Jerusalem. Until 1967, the city was divided into an Israeli west and a Jordanian east.
Image: Gemeinfrei
East Jerusalem goes back to Israel
In 1967, Israel waged the Six-Day War against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel took control of the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Israeli paratroopers gained access to the Old City and stood at the Wailing Wall for the first time since 1949. East Jerusalem is not officially annexed, but rather integrated into the administration.
Israel has not denied Muslims access to its holy places. The Temple Mount is under an autonomous Muslim administration; Muslims can enter, visit the Dome of the Rock and the adjacent Al-Aqsa mosque and pray there.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Gharabli
Unresolved status
Jerusalem remains to this day an obstacle to peace between Israel and Palestine. In 1980, Israel declared the whole city its "eternal and indivisible capital." After Jordan gave up its claim to the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1988, the state of Palestine was proclaimed. Palestine also declares, in theory, Jerusalem as its capital.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Jensen
10 images1 | 10
"We in Germany must deal with the sensitive situation that on the one hand, guilt towards Jews and also Israel will never go away," Tiedtke told DW. "On the other hand, there are universal human rights that include the right to a homeland [recognized by some legal scholars on basis of international treaties: Ed.] and this is difficult for us Germans."
That was the question of the evening: How does a German theater stage material that is deeply Israeli? A story full of the trauma of war, fear of annihilation and the loss of a nation from which a people were exiled for millennia? Yet simultaneously a story that criticizes this same state of Israel, which is itself has become a problematic actor at the center of the Middle East conflict?
There was no heated discussion in the Gesher Theater on Sunday. The Schauspiel Frankfurt's production of To the End of the Land was well-received by the public. Grossman, one of Israel's most outspoken peace activists who has received international accolades including the German book trade Peace Prize, also remained silent on the subject of current Israeli, and global, politics. He wanted to let the performance simply sink in, he said.
Marion Tiedtke was one of the panel participents in the discussion after the performance of "To the End of the Land"Image: Goethe-Institut Israel/Cedric Dorin
Tiedtke said the theater group felt ashamed to present Israelis with a story about their own country. "The living situation in Israel is one that we today in Germany don't known, because of more than 70 years of peace," Tiedtke said in reference to the potential for conflict to flare up in Israel.
German language connection
But Altine Emili, one of the actors portraying Ora, is no stranger to war. She was born in Kosovo and at age five fled Serbian troops with her family to Germany. "I have another point of access," Emili said after the performance. "I feel it emotionally and can't play it down with technique." She feared her onstage performance would injure someone, she said, for she knows what it means when trauma is reawakened.
In contrast, speaking German, the language of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, on an Israeli stage was not an issue for her. Her boyfriend is Israeli and has been living in Germany for three years. She speaks German with him.
The situation was different for Tiedtke, in Israel for the first time. She happily noticed how many German-speaking audience members were at the performance: "That really touched me, because it shows that despite this terrible shared history, the language is a point of connection."
A history of the Middle East peace process
For over half a century, disputes between Israelis and Palestinians over land, refugees and holy sites remain unresolved. DW gives you a short history of when the conflict flared and when attempts were made to end it.
UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Camp David Accords, 1978
A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Daugherty
The Madrid Conference, 1991
The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Hollander
Oslo I Accord, 1993
The negotiations in Norway between Israel and the PLO, the first direct meeting between the two parties, resulted in the Oslo I Accord. The agreement was signed in the US in September 1993. It demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank and Gaza Strip and a self-governing, interim Palestinian authority be set up for a five-year transitional period. A second accord was signed in 1995.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Sachs
Camp David Summit Meeting, 2000
US President Bill Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to the retreat in July 2000 to discuss borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Despite the negotiations being more detailed than ever before, no agreement was concluded. The failure to reach a consensus at Camp David was followed by renewed Palestinian uprising, the Second Intifada.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Edmonds
The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002
The Camp David negotiations were followed first by meetings in Washington and then in Cairo and Taba, Egypt — all without results. Later the Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in March 2002. The plan called on Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders so that a Palestinian state could be set up in the West Bank and Gaza. In return, Arab countries would agree to recognize Israel.
Image: Getty Images/C. Kealy
The Roadmap, 2003
The US, EU, Russia and the UN worked together as the Middle East Quartet to develop a road map to peace. While Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas accepted the text, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon had more reservations with the wording. The timetable called for a final agreement on a two-state solution to be reached in 2005. Unfortunately, it was never implemented.
Image: Getty Iamges/AFP/J. Aruri
Annapolis, 2007
In 2007, US President George W. Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in talks with officials from the Quartet and over a dozen Arab states. It was agreed that further negotiations would be held with the goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Thew
Washington, 2010
In 2010, US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to and implement a 10-month moratorium on settlements in disputed territories. Later, Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all issues. Negotiations began in Washington in September 2010, but within weeks there was a deadlock.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Milner
Cycle of escalation and ceasefire continues
A new round of violence broke out in and around Gaza in late 2012. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and those in power in the Gaza Strip, which held until June 2014. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 resulted in renewed violence and eventually led to the Israeli military operation Protective Edge. It ended with a ceasefire on August 26, 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Paris summit, 2017
Envoys from over 70 countries gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu slammed the discussions as "rigged" against his country. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the summit. "A two-state solution is the only possible one," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the opening of the event.
Image: Reuters/T. Samson
Deteriorating relations in 2017
Despite the year's optimistic opening, 2017 brought further stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A deadly summer attack on Israeli police at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, sparked deadly clashes. Then US President Donald Trump's plan to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem prompted Palestinian leader Abbas to say "the measures ... undermine all peace efforts."
Image: Reuters/A. Awad
Trump's peace plan backfires, 2020
US President Donald Trump presented a peace plan that freezes Israeli settlement construction but retains Israeli control over most of the illegal settlements it has already built. The plan would double Palestinian-controlled territory but asks Palestinians to cross a red line and accept the previously constructed West Bank settlements as Israeli territory. Palestinians reject the plan.
Image: Reuters/M. Salem
Conflict reignites in 2021
Plans to evict four families and give their homes in East Jerusalem to Jewish settlers led to escalating violence in May 2021. Hamas fired over 2,000 rockets at Israel, and Israeli military airstrikes razed buildings in the Gaza Strip. The international community, including Germany's Foreign Ministry, called for an end to the violence and both sides to return to the negotiating table.
