Joseph Asher

Joseph Asher (1921–1990) was an American rabbi born in Germany, known for his advocacy of reconciliation between the Jews and the Germans in the post-Holocaust era, and for his support for the civil rights movement in the United States.

He endured three years of harassment including an antisemitic insult carved into the top of his desk, and other students singing popular songs calling for the murder of the Jews.

While heading to the railroad station in an attempt to escape, his father was arrested by the Gestapo, confined to Buchenwald for ten weeks, and then released when he agreed to use his visa and leave Germany forever.

[3] After the British defeat at Dunkirk on June 4, 1940, a wave of xenophobia against German refugees swept across Great Britain, and all of them were arrested, including the Jews and other anti-Nazis.

Upon his discharge from military service, he served at the Melbourne Liberal Synagogue as assistant to Rabbi Hermann Sanger, who helped resettle Jewish refugees in Australia.

In 1947, she recommended him to Leo Baeck, the organization's president, as an emissary to visit various German cities to investigate the status of the Jews in the immediate postwar period.

In 1961, motivated by the worldwide attention paid to the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel, he began openly speaking about the Holocaust and the future of the relationship between Germany and the Jews.

He visited his alma mater gymnasium, as well as the Max Planck Institute, and met with the Commissioners of Education of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"[10] Although many people criticized Asher for this article, Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt responded favorably, as did the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

He explained the thinking behind his work in Germany in an interview published in the Aufbau on March 11, 1966: "A new generation is growing up that was not born when the horrible crime was committed and for which they cannot be held responsible.

He served on an international committee of scholars to help design a memorial at the Wannsee Villa, where the Nazi leadership planned the Final Solution in January 1942.

[11] This sit-in movement spread throughout the southern states, leading in many communities to progress toward desegregation, and increasing political pressure on the federal government.

[14] His successor at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, Robert Kirschner, wrote that Rabbi Asher "embodied those attributes of German Jewry of which his generation was the last living witness: dignity, sobriety, erudition, and a singular elegance.

[4] Historian Fred Rosenbaum wrote that: "His deep learning, his continental manner, and above all his personal integrity afforded many congregants a sense of stability in a tumultuous world.