2023-11-15 18:23:53
The musician no longer feels comfortable in German society and is considering leaving the country. What is the reason for that?
Hamburg/Hannover.
Star pianist Igor Levit (36) feels very alone in the face of anti-Semitic incidents in Germany. “Alone like never before,” he told the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” (Thursday).
“The lack of empathy now has caused me to lose my basic trust in what society is like in Germany,” he said. “That’s the real break I feel.” He was thinking about leaving Germany, but he wasn’t ready yet.
The hatred of Jews is not only a threat to himself, but to the “basis of existence of this Federal Republic,” he said. “I would like to scream at everyone: Don’t you realize that it’s going against you? “Death to the Jews!” means “Death to democracy!” If you believe in democracy and your country is at a point where someone like “I have to run: then you have to run too,” emphasized Levit. “I find it shocking that this urgency doesn’t translate to the streets.”
Levit criticized the cultural sector: “I spoke to some of them in the background and asked: Where are you? You were there for all these other issues, for example when the war in Ukraine broke out! And the only answer I got was: Israel is complicated. But I’m not Israel!” When asked what that had done to him, he said: “No event has made me more of a Jew than this.”
Regarding climate activist Greta Thunberg’s statements about the Middle East conflict, Levit said: “I was stunned. I was also stunned by the stupidity – how hollow, how stupid.” However, he emphasized the clarity with which the German Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer had distanced herself from any form of anti-Semitism. (dpa)
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