Ron Prosor is the name of the new Israeli ambassador to Germany. In his inaugural speech, he announced that he would massively promote youth exchanges between the two countries. "They are the future of our relationships," says the 63-year-old, whose father was born in Berlin.
Israel's new ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, is officially in office. He sees the expansion of youth exchanges between the two countries as one of his most important goals. "Let's do everything we can to promote direct encounters between Israeli and German young people," said the 63-year-old in his inaugural speech on Bebelplatz in Berlin. He himself will use all his strength for this. "Children and young people are our future. They are the future of our relationships."
Prosor was accompanied by several young people who are active in Israeli-German youth exchanges. He symbolically appointed them "ambassadors" and said: "They are the real ambassadors of the future." Only encounters between young people could bring the countries together "and form a real bridge between Germany and Israel".
Prosor had handed his credentials to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the morning. Both used the ceremony to exchange ideas on German-Israeli relations. These are "characterized by great depth and vitality," it said afterwards from the Presidential Office. "The Federal President is convinced that with Ambassador Prosor, a diplomat who has long been associated with our country, the special friendship between Israel and Germany can be further expanded." Prosor replaces Jeremy Issacharoff, who has been the Ambassador of the State of Israel to Germany since August 2017.
Prosor carefully chose the location for his inaugural speech. On May 10, 1933, the Nazis had more than 20,000 books burned on Bebelplatz, which they considered to be "un-German in spirit". Among them were works by Heinrich Heine, Erich Kästner, Lion Feuchtwanger and Kurt Tucholsky. As a reminder, there is a memorial under the square made up of empty shelves that would fit exactly 20,000 books. A statement by Heine is quoted on a plaque: "That was just a prelude. Where books are burned, people are also burned in the end."
Prosor has German roots: his father Uri was born in Berlin in 1927. At the age of six he fled to Palestine with his parents to escape the Holocaust. Prosor is considered one of the most distinguished Israeli diplomats. Between 2011 and 2015 he was Ambassador to the United Nations. During his tenure, he accused the UN of having prejudice against Israel. Between 2007 and 2011, the trained artillery officer with the rank of major represented his country in Great Britain. From 1988 to 1992, Prosor was at the embassy in Bonn and maintained connections in the GDR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he established contacts in the new federal states.
