Dear fans of the Louis Lewandowski Festival,

Perhaps you have had this year’s date marked in your diary for a long time, or perhaps you are attending for the first time this year. As every year, the festival is a worthy reminder of its namesake and at the same time offers the opportunity to get to know something new or rediscover something tried and tested. This year’s program focuses on the music of oriental Jewish communities – as usual, visitors can look forward to top-class musicians and fulfilling evenings.

Especially in times when Jewish life is under attack everywhere, unfortunately also in Berlin and Brandenburg, it makes us proud to be a home for the Louis Lewandowski Festival and its friends. The increase in anti-Semitic slogans and attacks concerns me deeply. But the fact that the new synagogue center in Potsdam was opened this year and that the Louis Lewandowski Festival attracts its fans year after year are strong symbols that Jewish life belongs firmly in Brandenburg and Germany. My heartfelt thanks go to all those who are committed to this in various ways – and who make this wonderful concert series possible.

I wish you and all your guests a successful festival week with exciting encounters, good conversations and, above all, moving concerts. And then – make a note of the date for next year!

Dr. Dietmar Woidke
Minister President of the State of Brandenburg