Being Jewish in 21st-Century Germany

Abstract

Preface in Germany and Israel. Sticking to food habit, concludes Bernstein "in the migration process obviously contribute to 'living memories,' yet they do much more: They also 'make a place' for a virtual home that preserves social status and stabilizes the self-esteem of customers […] Food consumption in the migration process seems to promote contouring collective 'we'-identities." Elke-Vera Kotowski compares in her article Moving from the Present via the Past to Look toward the Future: Jewish Life in Germany Today between the Jewish populations in Germany in the 1930s and today, and asks whether with all the obvious differences between the two periods "there are any links connecting those Jews who lost their homes during the Nazi period in Germany, and those Jews who are searching for a new beginning in Germany today?" Kotowski shows that "exiled German Jews of the 1930s who were religious or strongly connected to Jewish tradition, often were eager to join or even to establish Liberal (i.e. Reform) Jewish communities." They influenced the receiving societies and helped to shape their destiny, but many felt alienated to the majority society. But Kotowski also concludes that "not only the German-Jewish émigrés from the 1930s but also Russian-Jewish newcomers from the 1990s have unpacked their suitcases." However, it "seems that the second generation of immigrants will be able to participate in Germany's society with great success." Fania Oz-Salzberger deals in her article Israelis and Germany: A Personal Perspective with a phenomenon that for many Israelis (and maybe even to many "bio-Germans")-not to speak of the Jewish communities in Germany-is difficult to digest. It means, the almost mystical attraction of Germany (and Berlin in particular) to Sabras (young native Israelis), that pushes so many to visit, to live for different periods of times among Germans and even to emigrate to Germany. Oz-Salzberger studied the various social networks of Israelis in Berlin (either in real life or virtual networks) in order to find the common characteristics that bond all Israelis in Germany in general and Berlin in particular. Although she found that "many of the current Hebrew-speaking residents of Berlin whom I have met in recent years, Jews as well as Arabs, are enchanted, fascinated, and sometimes even obsessed with the dark past." Yet, according to Oz-Salzberger, "Berlin remains problematic for them, and they live their problematic life in it as a matter of choice; because life is not meant to be simple, and because this urban, highly cultured, intense global-polis is not offering its newcomers either harmony or simplicity. It is not part of the deal." Hanni Mittelmann deals in her article Reconceptualization of Jewish Identity as Reflected in Contemporary German-Jewish Humorist Literature with the question Legacy, Trauma, New Beginning after '45 German Jewry Revisited Michael Wolffsohn Jews in Divided Germany (1945-1990) and Beyond Scrutinized in Retrospect Reconstruction of history is more than just adding more or ...