When a German-Jewish Artist and Zionist Activist Met the Jews of Eastern Europe

March 19 2020

Born in Berlin in 1876 to an Orthodox Jewish family, Hermann Struck was an enthusiastic and prominent Zionist who by 1910 had established himself as a leading figure on the German art scene. He was commissioned to create lithograph portraits of such prominent persons as Henryk Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, and Friedrich Nietzsche, and his art was displayed at the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901. When World War I began, Struck encountered new artistic opportunities, as Amit Naor writes:

Then thirty-eight years old, Struck wasn’t required to enlist. Nevertheless, like many other Jews, he eagerly volunteered to serve his country. . . . After undergoing basic training, he worked as a translator and censor assigned to the press department of the German Supreme Command on the Eastern Front.

Later on he was sent to the frontlines, where he took part in combat against the Russians. His actions during this period resulted in Struck being awarded the Iron Cross for “courage in the face of the enemy.” In July 1917, he returned to headquarters and served as the officer in charge of Jewish affairs in the [formerly Russian territories under German military occupation]. It was in this role that Struck came face to face for the first time with the Jews of Eastern Europe. . . . In his wartime sketches, Struck drew portraits of the Jews he met, their towns, and their way of life.

After the war, Struck also served as a consultant to the German delegation at the Paris Peace Conference on issues pertaining to East European Jews. He continued his activity in the religious-Zionist Mizraḥi movement and in 1923 . . . settled in Haifa, where his former home [now] serves as a museum for his work and that of other artists who work with printing and lithography.

Read more at The Librarians

More about: East European Jewry, German Jewry, Jewish art, World War I, Zionism

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023