Abstract: This PhD thesis focuses on the creation and maintenance of the liberal Jewish community in present day Cologne, Germany. The community has the telling name Gescher LaMassoret, which translates into „Bridge to Tradition.‟ The name gives away that this specific community, its individual members and its struggles cannot be understood without the socio-historic context of Germany and the Holocaust. Although this Jewish community is not a community of Holocaust survivors, the dichotomy Jewish-German takes various shapes within the community and surfaces in the narratives of the individual members. These narratives reflect the uniqueness of each individual in the community. While this is a truism, this individual uniqueness is a key element in Gescher LaMassoret, whose membership consists of people from various countries who have various native languages. Furthermore, the community comprises members of Jewish descent as well as Jews of conversion who are of German, non- Jewish parentage. Due to the aftermaths of the Holocaust and the fact that Gescher LaMassoret houses a vast internal diversity, the creation of this community which lacks any tradition happens through mixing and meshing the life-stories and other narratives of the members, which flow into the collective narrative of the community. On the surface, the narratives of the individual members seem in conflict, they even contradict each other, which means that the narrative of the community is in constant tension. However, under the dissimilarities on the surface of the individual narratives hide similarities in terms of shared values and attitudes, which allow for enough overlaps to create a community by way of braiding a collective narrative, which offers the members to experience a 'felt ethnicity.'
Abstract: It goes against the intuition of some, triggers strong responses from others, and still raises the eyebrows of many: not only did Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs) and German Jews withstand attempts to entice them to make aliyah from Germany post-Shoah and become “local Jews,” but also Russian Jews immigrated in higher numbers to Germany than to Israel for a while, and now Israeli Jews are immigrating to Germany, too. Yet do Jews in Germany see themselves in exile from Israel, or has Germany become their home of choice? This paper explores the life-worlds of a select number of individuals who fall into the age cohort of the Third Generation, and who form part of the three numerically largest groups: German Jews and Displaced Persons (DPs) and their descendants (“local Jews”); Russian Jews and their children who came to Germany in the 1990s; and Israelis who started arriving in significant numbers in the 2000s. By depicting their life-worlds, the paper sheds light onto how Jews in the country structure, live, do, experience, and contend their Jewishness collectiveness, and express Jewishnessess individually, and how, effectively, they create diasporic life-worlds, and have a special relationship to Israel but hardly feel in exile from Israel.
Abstract: Einwanderung, Erinnerungspolitik, Israel und die deutsche Geschichte sind Themen, über die in Deutschland regelmäßig diskutiert wird. Berlin, die Hauptstadt des neuen Deutschlands, ist hippe Metropole und Anziehungspunkt für Menschen aus allen Ländern. Was passiert, wenn das alles zusammenkommt, wenn eine Gruppe von Personen diese Themen alle auf einmal repräsentiert? Die Rede ist von den israelischen Einwanderern in Berlin. Im Herbst 2013 diagnostizierten israelische Medien eine neue Auswanderungswelle, die ihren Ausgangspunkt in den sozialen Protesten 2011 und den dabei kritisierten hohen Lebenshaltungskosten in Israel hatte. Daraufhin wurde in beiden Ländern ausführlich über das Phänomen berichtet, dass es viele junge Israelis ausgerechnet nach Berlin, also Deutschland, ziehe. In Israel wurde dies mit einer Mischung aus Besorgnis und Neugier betrachtet, während in Deutschland klar die Neugier überwog. Künstler verarbeiteten die Entwicklung in ihren Werken, wie die israelische Band Shmemel mit ihrem Song „Berlin“.
Trotz oder vielleicht gerade wegen der emotionalen Aufladung des Themas hat die Migration von Israelis nach Berlin fast schon Züge eines Mythos. Empirisch-wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse liegen bisher jedenfalls kaum vor, und die existierenden Studien sind nur schwer zugänglich. Diesem Mangel will dieser Bericht abhelfen und klären, wie viele Israelis es in Berlin überhaupt gibt und wer sie sind. Weiter sollen die Motive für den Umzug dorthin und der Umgang mit der eigenen Identität untersucht werden.
