My concern for the Jewish people began long before this ministry existed.
As a child growing up in Vienna around 1949 or 1950, I witnessed an encounter that I have never forgotten.
An elderly Jewish man offered me assistance, only to be dismissed by my father with the contemptuous words, “filthy Jew.”
I was only about four years old, but those words remained with me.
Years later, in 1965, I visited Dachau and Mauthausen.
Standing in places where human beings had been systematically humiliated, imprisoned, and murdered confronted me with something that history books alone could never communicate.
I began asking questions that have followed me throughout my life:
How could this have happened?
How could hatred become so normalized?
And where were the people who should have spoken?
In 1967, during the Six-Day War, my attention again turned toward Israel. Over the years that followed, my interest in the Jewish people, Israel, and the history connecting Jews and Christians continued to deepen.
Eventually, in 1982, I travelled to Israel myself.
These experiences did not make me an expert on Israel or Jewish life. But they gave me a lasting concern for the Jewish people that has remained with me for decades.
Then came October 7, 2023.
Watching what happened that day—and watching antisemitism become increasingly visible afterward—brought many of those old questions back with renewed urgency.
This time, I felt that asking questions was not enough.
