In the evening the board of the WerteInitiative presented an honorary membership certificate to Dr h.c. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern and former president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland, at the Munich community centre.With this the WerteInitiative thanked Dr Knobloch for her many years of special commitment to the issues that move the association and for the fact that she feels connected to the aims of the WerteInitiative: the commitment to the free democratic society and to a strong constitutional state, which are a basic precondition for Jewish life in Germany as well as for a fruitful coexistence of the most diverse people.
In his short address the chairman of the WerteInitiative, Elio Adler, said: „With the honorary membership we thank you not only for your work – we also see it as an honour and an obligation to live up to the standards you have set. Your rare combination of a clear stance, of an uncomfortable and wise way of addressing the issues that are relevant for the coexistence of us all, and your love for the Jewish people are a model and a leitmotif for us! Dr Knobloch, you have always, and especially in the difficult past months and years, taken a loud and clear position and intervened wisely in what is happening in our country. Because of your continuous and tireless commitment to the concerns of Jewish-German life as well as your special services for the good of society as a whole in this country, the WerteInitiative feels particularly close to you. On the preservation and safeguarding of the free democratic basic order in Germany we speak with „one voice“. We are glad to know you at our side.“
In her words of thanks Dr Knobloch emphasised: „The clear stance with which the WerteInitiative has been appearing, and not only since the 2017 Bundestag election, is something one could only wish for from many other actors in politics and society – and its contributions, always formulated from a decidedly Jewish-German perspective, are an urgently needed voice in political discourse.”
