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Being Jewish in 21st-Century Germany

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An unexpected immigration wave of Jews from the former Soviet Union mostly in the 1990s has stabilized and enlarged Jewish life in Germany. Jewish kindergartens and schools were opened, and Jewish museums, theaters, and festivals are attracting a wide audience. No doubt: Jews will continue to live in Germany. At the same time, Jewish life has undergone an impressing transformation in the second half of the 20th century– from rejection to acceptance, but not without disillusionments and heated debates. And while the ‘new Jews of Germany,’ 90 percent of them of Eastern European background, are already considered an important factor of the contemporary Jewish diaspora, they still grapple with the shadow of the Holocaust, with internal cultural clashes and with difficulties in shaping a new collective identity. What does it mean to live a Jewish life in present-day Germany? How are Jewish thoughts, feelings, and practices reflected in contemporary arts, literature, and movies? What will remain of the former German Jewish cultural heritage? Who are the new Jewish elites, and how successful is the fight against anti-Semitism? This volume offers some answers.

Table of Contents:

Preface: A Word from the Editors of this Volume - 1

Legacy, Trauma, New Beginning after ‘45: German Jewry Revisited

Michael Wolffsohn: Jews in Divided Germany (1945–1990) and Beyond Scrutinized in Retrospect  13
Michael Elm: The Making of Holocaust Trauma in German Memory: Some Reflection about Robert Thalheim’s Film And Along Come Tourists  31
Julius H. Schoeps: Saving the German-Jewish Legacy?On Jewish and Non-Jewish Attempts of Reconstructing a Lost World  46

Migration as the Driving Factor of Jewish Revival in Re-Unified Germany

Eliezer Ben-Rafael: Germany’s Russian-speaking Jews: Between Original, Present and Affective Homelands  63
Julia Bernstein: Russian Food Stores and their Meaning for Jewish Migrants in Germany and Israel: Honor and ‘Nostalgia’  81
Elke-Vera Kotowski: Moving from the Present via the Past to Look toward the Future: Jewish Life in Germany Today  103
Fania Oz-Salzberger: Israelis and Germany: A Personal Perspective  117

Culture and Arts – Reflecting a New Jewish Presence

Hanni Mittelmann: Reconceptualization of Jewish Identity as Reflected in Contemporary German Jewish Humorist Literature  131
Karsten Troyke: Hava Nagila: A Personal Reflection on the Reception of Jewish Music in Germany  142
Zachary Johnston: Aliyah Le Berlin: A Documentary about the Next Chapter of Jewish Life in Berlin  152

Ghosts of the Past, Challenges of the Present: Germany Facing Old-New Anti-Semitism

Monika Schwarz-Friesel: Educated Anti-Semitism in the Middle of German Society: Empirical Findings  165
Günther Jikeli: Anti-Semitism within the Extreme Right and Islamists’ Circles  188
H. Julia Eksner: Thrice Tied Tales: Germany, Israel, and German Muslim Youth  208

Towards New Shores: Jewish Education and the Religious Revival

Olaf Glöckner: New Structures of Jewish Education in Germany  231
Walter Homolka: A Vision Come True: Abraham Geiger and the Training of Rabbis and Cantors for Europe  244

Authors and Editors  251
Index  254
Names Index  257

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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16

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978-3-11-034994-8

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Related

Jews in Divided Germany (1945–1990) and Beyond: Scrutinized in Retrospect (Chapter in collection)
The Making of Holocaust Trauma in German Memory: Some Reflection about Robert Thalheim’s Film And Along Come Tourists (Chapter in collection)
Saving the German-Jewish Legacy? On Jewish and Non-Jewish Attempts of Reconstructing a Lost World (Chapter in collection)
Germany’s Russian-speaking Jews: Between Original, Present and Affective Homelands (Chapter in collection)
Russian Food Stores and their Meaning for Jewish Migrants in Germany and Israel: Honor and ‘Nostalgia ’ (Chapter in collection)
Moving from the Present via the Past to Look toward the Future: Jewish Life in Germany Today (Chapter in collection)
Israelis and Germany: A Personal Perspective (Chapter in collection)
Reconceptualization of Jewish Identity as Reflected in Contemporary German-Jewish Humorist Literature (Chapter in collection)
Hava Nagila: A Personal Reflection on the Reception of Jewish Music in Germany (Chapter in collection)
Aliyah Le Berlin: A Documentary about the Next Chapter of Jewish Life in Berlin (Chapter in collection)
Educated Anti-Semitism in the Middle of German Society: Empirical Findings (Chapter in collection)
Anti-Semitism within the Extreme Right and Islamists’ Circles (Chapter in collection)
Thrice Tied Tales: Germany, Israel, and German Muslim Youth (Chapter in collection)
New Structures of Jewish Education in Germany (Chapter in collection)
A Vision Come True: Abraham Geiger and the Training of Rabbis and Cantors for Europe (Chapter in collection)

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Bibliographic Information

Being Jewish in 21st-Century Germany. De Gruyter. 2015:  https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1515/9783110350159