The partition of Palestine is a protracted, dense and controversial process. In this difficult context, the art of peacemaking proves to be particularly complex. We propose to shift the focus on this question by looking at the German-Jewish perspective. Indeed, the Jews from Germany (and Central Europe in general) who fled National Socialism and found refuge in Mandate Palestine in the 1930s carried with them the painful experience of excessive nationalism, anti-Semitic discrimination, persecution and forced migration. While German-Jewish emigration to Mandatory Palestine has attracted renewed interest in the last twenty years, not all aspects of it have received the same attention, and few studies have been conducted that attempt to place this migration experience in its Middle Eastern context. The German-speaking Jews (or Yekkes) came to Eretz Israel with ideas, affiliations and political socialisations inherited from the liberal Jewish middle class in Germany. In Mandatory Palestine and in the young State of Israel, which was in an almost constant state of alarm and conflict, the Yekkes were thus the bearers of an alternative voice regarding relations with the Arab populations. Many Yekkes were indeed to be found in organisations working for understanding, peace and reconciliation. While Israeli-Arab relations in the 20th century embody a seemingly insurmountable conflict, the aim here is to show that some actors under adverse circumstances did repeatedly attempt to cultivate a (minoritarian) art of peacemaking in the Middle East. This paper attempts to trace both the intellectual origins of this discourse on peace and understanding and provide insight into the social configurations that led to the emergence of such a discourse from the late 1920s onwards.