“Such a life is more complicated than 280 characters”

Berlin. Star pianist Igor Levit has said goodbye to Twitter again, and this time possibly for good. On Sunday, the 34-year-old, who received many threats online, deactivated his account on the platform.

Levit said during a discussion on the occasion of a celebratory event on 30 years of Jewish immigration in Germany in Berlin that this had happened “with joy in the eyes” without explaining the reasons. Elsewhere he said: “A life like this is more complicated than 280 characters on Twitter.” Levit announced his temporary withdrawal from the platform in mid-May, but returned a few weeks later. However, he did not deactivate his account at the time. The deactivation of a Twitter account is the first step towards permanent deletion.

Levite defends himself against “racism on the backs of Jews”

Levit, himself a Jew and often in the focus of right-wing agitators, also on Twitter, defended himself in the panel discussion with sharp words against blanket anti-Semitism allegations against migrants. “Here in this country, racism is practiced on the backs of Jews, so I sometimes have no words,” said Levit.

He referred to the debate about anti-Semitism among Arab immigrants in Germany that had recently flared up after the anti-Jewish riots at pro-Palestine demonstrations. You shouldn’t allow “that within a week we accuse Ms. Neubauer of dealing with Mr. Maaßen in a non-differentiated way and then tell the camera that young people with a migration background have to learn something about anti-Semitism,” said Levit. The climate protection activist Luisa Neubauer had accused the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and CDU Bundestag candidate Hans-Georg Maaßen with anti-Semitism and was sometimes harshly criticized for it.

Large audience at Twitter concerts

Levit emphasized: “Anyone who divides a society, who practices undifferentiated racism on the backs of the Jews, endangers Jews.” He referred specifically to parts of the media. “I know very, very many Jews who do not feel represented by the way in which, for example, a certain large German media company conducts its knighthood for the Jewish cause,” he said, referring to the Axel Springer Group .

The hostility against immigrants was the reason for him to speak out publicly in 2015, said Levit, who himself came to Germany with his family as a quota refugee. The famous pianist had many followers on Twitter, and his piano concerts there at the beginning of the pandemic found a large audience.

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