The Central Council of Jews in Germany is to award its highest distinction, the Leo Baeck Prize, to former Bundestag Speaker Professor Doctor Norbert Lammert. The award ceremony will take place on February 1, 2018 in Berlin.
For more than a decade, Lammert worked with passion and vehemence for the values of the German Constitution, for the lasting memory of the Shoah, and for the resulting German responsibility to the Jewish community and to the State of Israel. He has spoken to the nation’s conscience through his addresses to the Bundestag on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 at the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country’s EJC affiliate said.
Lammert has clearly and consistently spoken against all kinds of antisemitism and has appealed to German society to regard the fight against antisemitism as a task for all. On the occasion of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel, Lammert was instrumental in expanding the cooperation of the Bundestag with the Knesset.
“Professor Lammert belongs to a class of politicians who credibly, and on the basis of deeply-held democratic values, call the crimes of the Nazi era by their name and derive responsibility for present political action from these, “declared President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster. “The former President of the Bundestag has never shied away from expressing uncomfortable truths, especially when it comes to hatred against Jews in our country. The Jewish community in Germany has always been certain of his solidarity. ”
The Leo Baeck Prize, in memory of Rabbi Leo Baeck, is awarded by the Central Council of Jews in Germany to personalities who have rendered outstanding contributions to the Jewish community. Previous recipients include former German Presidents Richard von Weizsäcker (1994), Roman Herzog (1998) and Christian Wulff (2011), as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel (2007), and other public figures. In 2015, German Green MP Volker Beck was awarded the prize. The Prize has been awarded by the Central Council since 1957 and comes with an endowment of 10.000 Euros.
