Barenboim Awarded Medal for Mideast Peace Project

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, 61, was named the 2004 recipient of the Buber Rosenzweig Medal on Sunday for his contributions to reconciliation between Jews and Arabs. The judges honored Barenboim for his "West-East Divan," project, which brought together young musicians from the Near and Middle East to promote peaceful, non-military solutions to the Middle East conflict. Through music, "he achieves more strength and ability to deal with conflicts than many politicians and diplomats," said Jobst Plog, the chairman of the German public television broadcaster ARD, who presented the award. The Buber Rosenzweig Medal was first created in 1968 in memory of the Jewish philosophers Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig. Earlier recipients included musician Yehudi Menuhin, author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, German President Johannes Rau and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.