Haifa Center for German & European Studies - HCGES

02/06/2026

Read the op-ed in Haaretz by the Center's Stefan Ihrig on current postwar diplomacy, Turkey and Israel, and the "German playbook"

Turkey Is Talking to Everyone and Has Much to Offer Its Regional Partners. Netanyahu Glorifies Our Ever-increasing Isolation as 'Super Sparta,' but Sparta Did Not Stand Alone, and We Have Lots to Learn From Ankara

02/06/2026

This beautiful lithograph by Jewish artist and sculptor Jakob Plessner captures the timeless magic of being completely immersed in a book.

Created for the Soncino Gesellschaft, Germany’s first and only Jewish bibliophile society, the artwork celebrates a shared love of books, reading, and the worlds that open through literature.

Today, the lithograph is preserved in the Archive for the History of German-Speaking Jewry (The "Yekkes Archive") and will soon be added to the archive’s catalog. 📖🕯️

02/06/2026

Ramot Menashe Choir and Liala Choir
In a festive concert at the Hecht Museum Auditorium 🏺
Pora's Requiem and other moving works

A powerful cultural experience of connection, comfort and musical inspiration at its best - reserve your place in the hall now!

📍This Saturday 6.6.2026 | at 20:00
🏺Hecht Museum Auditorium, University of Haifa

You can find the link for tickets in a 1st comment.

01/06/2026

New open lecture!

31/05/2026

We are happy to announce this year's graduation ceremony, which will take place on 13 July. This year, seven of our students will receive their diplomas. We are looking forward to celebrating this special occasion with them!

30/05/2026

28/05/2026

Read the interview with the head of the HCGES, Prof. Stefan Ihrig, in the Greek daily Kathimerini this week about Turkey's president Erdogan here

I share a personal story with German historian Stefan Ihrig, author of the biography on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “Erdogan: The Story,” which was released earlier this month in Greek.

28/05/2026

This is a humorous wedding greeting written in the form of a medical prescription. This was a typical style of bourgeois wedding humor in the early 20th-century German Empire.

Dr. Karl Jeremias (1874–1914) was a neurologist and one of the founders of the Zionist Association in the city of Posen (now Poznań, Poland). In 1903, Karl married Rosa, and as a wedding gift they received Karl’s prescription pad filled with greetings and wishes from family members.

Karl Jeremias’s estate is preserved in the Archive of German-Speaking Jewry (the Yekkes Archive) and will soon be added to the catalog

The following is one example from the prescriptions-style greetings written for the newlyweds:

Dr. Jeremias
General Practitioner and Neurologist

Posen, December 15, 1903.

Prescription:

What a wild little boy you were,
your mother told me so.
In your nursery there was always
chaos, scandal, and mischief.
You often came to Röschen in Schwerin
and courted your little cousin there.
Tell me, dear bridegroom,
does one really start so early?!