Michael Müller – GOVERNING MAYOR OF BERLIN

I cordially welcome all participating choirs, musicians and guests to the 8th Louis-Lewandowski-Festival.

The Berlin cultural calendar offers outstanding musical events for every taste throughout the year. And yet the Louis-Lewandowski-Festival stands out from this diversity. Every year it not only brings together some of the most renowned choirs of synagogue music in Berlin. At the same time, it offers a broad public the opportunity to get to know music that is part of our city’s outstanding cultural heritage in a compressed form over a long weekend.

The festival bears the name of the Berlin synagogue composer Louis Lewandowski, who in the second half of the 19th century worked at Germany’s largest synagogue at that time on Oranienburger Straße.

And whose artistic work has had a decisive influence on synagogal music from Berlin. The fact that for the eighth time this great musician has been the recipient of an important musical event, attracting choirs and visitors from Germany and abroad, is also a strong sign of the roots and growth of Jewish life in Berlin.

This year, under the programmatic motto “Star of Hope”, the festival will focus on two important commemorative events: the 80th anniversary of the November pogroms of 1938 and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. Choirs from Israel as well as from Chernivtsi, Moscow and Berlin will remind with their music in the tradition of Louis Lewandovski how important it is to stand up for tolerance, diversity and peaceful coexistence, so that people can live safely and practice their faith freely.

My thanks go to all those who stand for this extraordinary festival – especially to the Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Synagogal Ensemble Berlin as well as to all partners, supporters and sponsors.
With this in mind, I wish all festival guests stimulating concert experiences at the 8th Louis-Lewandowski-Festival in Berlin and Potsdam.

Michael Müller,
Governing Mayor of Berlin