News you can use to avoid actually having to open a newspaper.

• The Obama Administration plans to overhaul the Department of Justice.
• The BBC profiled Jerusalem's new mayor, Nir Barkat.
• Doctors in Germany appear to have cured HIV in one patient via bone marrow transplant.
• A Kuwaiti court ordered the country's stock market to close. 
• The normally peaceful streets of Bogota, Columbia hosted violent riots in response to a perceived financial scam.
• Barack Obama's Secret Service code name: "Renegade." Not bad.
• Germany is in a full-on recession. Uh-oh.
• CNN.com was able to work 9/11 into a headline about the unemployment rate.
• Alaska's natural gas supply could be part of the solution for curbing America's dependence on foreign oil. Plus, it would get Sarah Palin back in the news.
• Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell died on Wednesday in Portland, OR.

We were a group of Jews that had come on an organized tour of Berlin with an organization funded by remnants of the Marshall Plan; the official goal was to brush up on our German and German-Jewish history, but most of us came with the loftier objective of attempting to reconcile the conflicting information that we'd received from our grandparents and the questions that the passage of time forces us to ask regarding the relationship between contemporary Jews and Modern Germany. On one of many beautiful, rainy days in Berlin, we stood on Rosenstrasse (Rose Street, if you must) with Dr. Dagmar Pruin, the program's director and German academic specializing in Hebrew Bible studies; she told us a rather fantastic story.

In early 1943, somewhere between 1700 and 2000 Jewish men were taken to a welfare office on Rosenstrasse. The men were to be brought to the Auschwitz death camp, but because their wives were non-Jewish Germans from prominent families, the SS brought the men here first in order to try and trick their families into believing that they were receiving special treatment and that they would likely be taken to labor camps rather than death camps. Eventually, the wives and other members of their families caught on. Although they were without leadership, unarmed, and completely unorganized, they staged a protest. Throughout the entire week that these men were being held on Rosenstrasse, somewhere around 6,000 Germans peacefully protested by standing in the streets and screaming "let our husbands go!" Although Goebbels, Gauletier of Berlin, was on a mission to racially cleanse the city, he was also responsible for the nation's public morale and thus the protesters were of great concern to him. For that reason, they didn't shoot into the crowd like they did when Jews had attempted to protest. Both Goebbels and Hitler agreed to free the men on Rosenstrasse-- and they even ordered the return of 25 men that were already on their way to Auschwitz-- making the assumption that this would only delay their inevitable fate, which was to be murdered. They were wrong, however-- the large majority of these men survived the war, rendering the Rosenstrasse Protest the most successful civilian protest during the Holocaust.

How could it be that a group of Jews who have been learning about the Holocaust from a very young age were first hearing about Rosenstrasse now? How could it be that if not for this trip, this professor, and this unremarkable memorial, that we may have never learned of such triumph? Apparently, a documentary about Rosenstrasse entitled Resistance of the Heart (Pierre Sauvage, 2003) was marketed to English speaking Jewish schools and organizations abroad and according to Dr. Pruin, the director of the film had no luck. Jewish communities didn't take a liking to it due to the fact that it could potentially promote intermarriage. The Germans aren't too keen on discussing the protest either, mainly because it begs the obvious question that Jews and non-Jews alike have been asking for years-- could the Germans have stopped the Nazis in their tracks? Surely if one non-violent protest saved over 1,000 lives, more lives could have been saved if more prominent Germans had committed to staging protests.

The German reluctance to tell this story, while cowardly and generally inexcusable, makes sense. The Jewish communal reaction to the film and their refusal to talk about Rosenstrasse is not only disgraceful, but based on faulty logic.

Yes, the Jews of the world are a people bound by history and for some, statehood, values, and/or religious beliefs-- but despite this fact, it may be worth restating the obvious fact that we share the world with gentiles. Jewish history is a complicated sequence of events that cannot be explained or understood thoroughly without true examination of our interactions with others, in addition to the fact that oversimplifying our narrative underestimates our ability to understand its complexities and frankly, it's insulting.

Attempting to shelter young people from the idea and reality of intermarriage simply does not help secure the future of the Jewish people and Jewish educators, professionals, and parents need to rethink their priorities and their approach. The only way to instill the value of people hood is to create Jewish communities that educate a generation of young Jews who intimately understand both their history and the potential merits and challenges of being a Jew. People who assimilate or essentially leave their Jewish communities do so because they've run out of good reasons to associate themselves with that community. It's plainly ridiculous to assume that learning about something such as the Rosenstrasse Protest would cause anyone to question an already established commitment to marry Jewish. If the older generation of American Jews is worried about assimilation and intermarriage among younger generations of Jews, they need to give young people real reasons for feeling an attachment to their Jewish identities while still maintaining the ability to understand, accept, and celebrate the relationship between Jews and the rest of the world. Judaism and Jewish life have enough to offer such that this could be accomplished without force-feeding ideas and manipulating the understanding of our history. It's dishonest, short-sighted, and shows little to no faith in the ability for our story, in its complete form, to inspire.

Jonathan Garfinkel, author of Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine, spent the past week guest-blogging on Jewcy from his temporary, not-so-humble abode at the Schloss Solitude, a castle in near Stuttgart, Germany.  Despite a brief interlude in which he contemplated meeting with extraterrestrial lifeforms, Garfinkel spent most of the week talking about his experience living among artists in Germany.  He began with an explanation of his play, House of Many Tongues, which just opened and is derived from the book.  Then he gave us the low-down on present-day Germany, followed by a tantalizingly detailed narrative that would make any tourist skip the schnitzel and head straight for the schvitz.  Finally, Garfinkel reminded us about the dark side of German history, and how it has left its mark on all those who somehow became entangled with it.  Want more from Jonathan Garfinkel?  What are you waiting for?!  Go get his book!

I received a note in my mailbox today from a friend. I want to post part of it because it is about a street not far from where I’m living right now. Included with the letter (in the mailbox) was a roughly photocopied Yiddish newspaper:

Here’s a part of the Yiddish newspaper I told you about at the Weindorf. Sorry for the bad quality of the copy and my scribbling; I hope you can still read it. The paper has never been transcribed or published after 1945 and has probably never been read outside of the camp in the Reinsburgstrasse where it was published in Dec. 1945. In this camp around 1500 mainly Polish Jews lived from `45, after being freed from concentration camps, until around 1950. The atmosphere between the German population of Stuttgart and the Jewish DPs must have been quite tense, culminating in a raid by the German police and the US military police in March 1946. In the raid, Szmul Danzyger, who survived Auschwitz and only returned from Paris the day before to see his family again for the first time, was killed by a shot in the head.

Included with the Yiddish newspaper is a speech made by W.G. Sebald to the Literature House in Stuttgart in 2001, not long before he died (the speech was published in the December 20th, 2004 issue of the New Yorker). In this speech, Sebald, a German-born writer who lived in England the last thirty years of his life, deftly leaps from his own past into the larger German past of the poet Hoderlin (who wrote about Stuttgart on several occasions in the 18th century) to the post-war event described above to a postcard he found at the Salvation Army store in Manchester. The postcard is a remarkable Sebald moment: typically in his writing it’s these little details of history that reveal so much. The postcard is from a British girl visiting Stuttgart only weeks before the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. She writes that she’s met amiable people in Stuttgart and that she has “been out tramping, sunbathing and sightseeing, to a German birthday party, to the pictures and to a festival of the Hitler Youth.”

What I love about Sebald is his obsession with history: how the past is never far from us, is somehow still happening, repeating itself like a dream (or nightmare). Sebald not only wrote about these things, but his writing somehow captures the feeling of memory invading us at unexpected moments. I’ve noticed it here, felt it when walking down a street in Stuttgart, now glossed over, now clean and even and orderly. Walk down Reinsburgstrasse to buy some bread, to visit the doctor, and an image might come to me of rubble, homelessness, devastation. I look into the faces of old people and wonder what they were doing sixty years ago; the kinds of choices they made in a reality I can barely fathom. Were they here when Szmul Danzyger was killed? Then the thought occurs to me that even though Germany has rebuilt its cities so well, somewhere the shooting of Szmul Danzyger is still happening, be it in Sudan or Afghanistan or Gaza or Georgia. I think this walking down Reinsburgstrasse or Marienstrasse or Konigstrasse, among the shopping malls and Turkish kebab stalls and art museums: the fires of history are constantly ablaze, and they're fueled by human suffering. And the mind remembers this suffering, keys into it in unexpected moments: sometimes as dream, sometimes as literature, sometimes as a letter left in a box.

 

Jonathan Garfinkel, author of Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine, spent the last week guest-blogging on Jewcy. This is his parting post. Want more? Buy his book!

Well, it’s a foggy day here at the Castle. Perfect opportunity to head to the Mineralbad in Stuttgart.

While Bochum is one of the ugliest cities in Europe, Stuttgart is only moderately ugly. Mostly destroyed during the war, it has rebuilt itself as one of the wealthiest cities in Germany thanks to the Mercedes plant located nearby. And you see it on your way in: everyone has a car, usually a pretty swank and sleek one specially designed for the infamous German autobahn.

At first it seems like there isn’t a lot to do in Stuttgart. But dig a little deeper, and I find the city growing on me. They have a few nice cafes, some surprisingly good Eritrean restaurants, and the delightful local Schwabian food – famous for its egg noodles with cheese, i.e., kase spaetzle. Stuttgart has some of the best opera and ballet in Europe, an excellent theatre house, and some great designer clothing stores. But my favourite thing to do in Stuttgart is to go to the Leuze Mineral baths.

The Leuze is done in a hideous 70s design – two giant baby blue lightning bolts come out of the roof to announce that you’re here. It’s on the Neckar River, across from an ancient amusement park and the zoo. This ain’t no sauna in the Redwoods in California. But no matter. Because what’s inside is absolutely fantastic.

The German Sauna experience is not at all like a North American visit to the local JCC or YMCA. First of all, clothing is not an option. I learned this my first day when I was taken by a female friend of mine. I entered the sauna in my bathing suit to find 40 other fat and not-so fat men and women crammed onto the benches. A rather large elderly gentleman leaned over to me and snickered in German, “Bathing suits are for the pool.”

Germans like being naked and the sauna is a good example of their comfort with the body. It certainly isn’t a sexual experience; it’s simply too bloody hot to check other people out (though when I went with my African-American friend, Sanford, there were a few curious eyes turned his way).

What is great about Leuze is there are 7 different dry saunas, each of varying size, temperature and lighting. And the reason why I am now officially addicted, and go week after week for my two hours of sauna, is the German Aufguss.

The Aufguss is a somewhat masochistic event that involves an Aufgusser, an employee of the Leuze, who basically sizzles the participants into a frenzied sweat. Every twenty minutes, in rotating saunas, people cram in. Nobody wants to miss the event and you have to get there a few minutes early if you want a good seat – or a seat at all, if it’s a popular day for sauna-ing (Saturday night is pretty happening). Then the Aufgusser closes the door. And it begins.

He or she will make a speech in German: “Hello, my name is Hans, and today I am going to put on a little rosemary-citron essential oil onto the rocks. The event will last five to eight minutes, and should be good for your lungs and throat. I hope you enjoy your Aufguss.”

Then Hans (or Henrietta, or Hassan) opens the door and starts to wheel his towel around to circulate the air. After this he takes a large metal bowl filled with water and his essential oil of choice. He then ladles several cups of the liquid onto the rocks. The steam starts to rise, the vapors get in deep, and you’re slowly turning into roast-man.

People are not allowed to talk during the Aufguss – this is a serious event bordering on spiritual. It gets hotter and hotter, and it doesn’t stop. Hans then takes a wet towel and twirls it in the air, increasing the intensity of the heat and getting the vapors even deeper into us. He does another round of ladling. And just when you think you can’t take it anymore, he takes his towel and unfolds it, and basically whips air at the Aufguss-goers. There is a traditional response to this towel-whipping: us sauna-goers raise our hands above our heads. I kind of feel like I’m being crucified or beaten in these moments – sometimes the heat gets so intense that the skin actually hurts.

A good Aufgusser, however, doesn’t let it get quite that hot – and at the end of the Aufguss, Hans or Henrietta announces that the Aufguss is over, and he hopes everyone is happy. He wishes us a nice afternoon. Then we all break into applause and do our best not to stumble when we leave.

Lounging outside, looking at the polluted Neckar or the dead ferris wheel or the endless traffic, the aesthetics of Stuttgart don’t seem to really matter. A bit of man-made snow on the back, and a bit of awe for the Aufgusser, who does one Aufguss after another for hours on end, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Maybe you speak to a friend or you read a book or simply look at the sky. Maybe you go for a swim in the natural mineral baths, or soak your feet in their healing waters. Thoughts evaporate, as do the toxicities. Lying naked in the rain, snow or sun, I prefer not to think at all as I wait for the next Aufguss.

Jonathan Garfinkel, author of Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine, is guest-blogging on Jewcy, and he'll be here all week. Stay tuned.

Jonathan Garfinkel, author of Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine, will be blogging all week as one of Jewcy's Lit Klatsch bloggers. Garfinkel is currently living and directing a play in Germany. 

I'm in Bochum, Germany, which I'm convinced is the armpit of Europe. Bochum is a former coal-mining town, completely destroyed in the war, and rebuilt in the 50s and 60s in lovely shades of grey and greyer (the occasional shit-brown stucco thrown in too, of course). This is the 'ruhrpott' of Germany - the industrial area of Dusseldorf, Essen, Dortmund - in the north and west. Last night coming home from the theatre after a few too many glasses of wine, my friend Benjamin and I saw a poster of Bochum that showed things from above - the city was suspiciously green. I think I've seen three trees since I arrived here.

There are two great things about Bochum aside from the dreary architecture (I have a thing for dreary architecture - I mean it's so ugly it's beautiful - and Bochum does make Cleveland or Sault Ste. Marie look elegant). One is the Hotel Tucholsky, where I'm staying. It's a lovely little hotel on top of a tapas bar. And they serve breakfast until 6 p.m. daily. Such a civilized place.

The second thing I like about Bochum is the bar at the Schauspielhaus (theatre), where last night I found myself dancing until four. It was 1930s "jazz-swingers' night", so there was lots of Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington and old German crooners from Weimar days and people decked out in their vintage best. Dim red lighting and no shortage of good, German beer. Incidentally, the theatre (Bochum Schauspielhaus) has been around since 1908, back in the days when coal-miners apparently used to watch plays on their lunch breaks.

Bochum Schauspielhaus

I'm in Bochum because tonight is the world premiere of my play, House of Many Tongues. Or at least supposed to be. See, the lead actress has become deathly ill this past week due to some sort of huge infection in her throat that has prevented her from talking and eating (today it's been reported that she finally ate some soup). So now I'm sitting anxiously drinking coffee contemplating wine waiting for the director to call and tell me whether or not the play is actually on.

Ah, theatre. It's full of surprises.

Of course there is something surprising about a play about the Israel/Palestine conflict premiering in Germany, in German.

What can I say. The journey has been anything but straightforward.

House of Many Tongues is a play I've been working on for the past four years (in between other projects, of course). It began in 2004 when I went to Jerusalem in search of a house I'd heard that was shared between a Palestinian and an Israeli. The journey to find this house and the attempt to write the play became the core of my memoir Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine . Part of the story behind the memoir is about the impossibility of writing a play about Israel. I mean, it was the height of the second Intifada and the real world drama was much more dramatic than any kind of drama I put on the page.

In the end, I did find a way into writing the play. How did I do that? I wanted everyone to have a voice - that is, I let the Israelis and Palestinians speak (shout, gesticulate, scream), but I also wanted the surroundings to speak too. I gave voice to the inanimate and made the house the central character. I suppose the idea was that I wanted to hear the heart of things. Surely a house has an opinion on this century old conflict. Surely her stake in the matter should be considered too.

Anyhow, let's just hope it actually hits the damn stage.

In the meantime I'll spend my day waiting and considering what the hell else I should do with my life other than write. A friend of mine once said I'd make a good midwife. Hmm. This afternoon I think I'll opt for the Rioja instead.

Jonathan Garfinkel, author of Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine, is guest-blogging on Jewcy, and he'll be here all week. Stay tuned.

JFK Went to Germany: obama should go to pakistanOne of the most interesting things about the Obama-McCain showdown is that for the most part, most of the world, including the Americans, have already begun treating Obama as President. The sort of coverage he gets, and more importantly, the kind of international reverberation and impact his actions create, are Presidential in every way. One need only follow the way that Obama was received in Kuwait or the kind of noise his appearance in Germany has been creating.

Obama's plan in Germany, to hold a JFK-style rally in front of the historic Brandenburg Gate has come under attack from Germany's leader, Angela Merkel, as well as a host of critics who suggest that perhaps the Senator should wait before he's elected to make such a bold statement.

Yet, the interesting question to me is whether holding such a rally is anything but a great PR move. It certainly doesn't evoke any substantive benefit, to the world, or to America.

Tony Campbell at the excellent The Moderate Voice blog makes this point rather clearly when he suggests that rather than Berlin, Obama should go to Mecca.

"My suggestion to Obama: forget Berlin, go to Mecca. If you really want to be seen in a Kennedy / Reagan light in the diplomatic arena, you should use your popularity and your unique heritage to address the Christian and Muslim worlds. A thoughtful speech that focuses on our similarities, rather than our differences, is clearly needed between both communities of faith. Kennedy and Reagan in their speeches addressed the major foreign policy concerns of our country. Obama has the opportunity to do something similar if he takes up this challenge. However, the issue is much trickier and more dangerous than either Kennedy or Reagan had to face. Instead of disarming conventional and nuclear weapons, Obama has to disarm fear and prejudice on both sides, Christian and Muslim." 

 

Putting aside the various security and bigotry related reasons (Saudis don't allow non-Muslims in Mecca) that this can't happen, Campbell is, on the whole, right. When JFK went to Germany, it was the country at the heart of the conflict between Communism and the West. Today, Germany plays no role in the greater conflict enveloping the world -- that of West versus Islam. In other words, if Obama wants to make something as historic as JFK's speech, he needs to tackle the perception that there is a war between Islam and Christendom, and he needs to make such a speech in a Muslim country.

Where I disagree with Campbell is that Obama needs to go to Mecca (or to Tehran). JFK didn't go to Moscow or Beijing. Obama needs to find a place near to Mecca, with a sufficiently Islamic flavor, where the principles he wants to espouse -- those of open government and freedom of conscience and trust-building -- are present in sufficient qualities among the people. The recent (secular) democratic mini-revolution in Pakistan suggests that it is one such place. Pakistan has the benefit, unlike Egypt and Jordan and other Muslim countries where the democratic spirit is also high, of actually having a democratic government by virtue of having removed their tyrant. Security would be the only issue but there is no reason that it can't be surmounted. I also recommend Pakistan because Obama went there in college, has friends from Pakistan and his mother worked for Pakistani development in the World Bank, so that he has serious connections to the country. He can say that he witnessed Pakistan under Islamist Tyranny under General Zia ul Haq, and begin from there.

Pakistan, incidentally, also happens to be the place where the so-called confrontation between Mecca and Washington is the most blatant.

Obama should consider it. But wait till he's elected.

A Neo Nazi group in Germany recently launched a website that expresses its solidarity with Israel. According to Ynet:

"A strong nation is worthy of life; an ailing nation deserves death," it said, before detailing an ideology sporting the traditional Nazi concept of purity of the race on the one hand, and calling on National Socialists to let go of their hatred for Jews and support the Jewish people's right to their own homeland on the other.

"Deportations, pogroms and inquisitions were all understandable acts which were carried out by nations merely trying to defend themselves," said the website of past persecution of Jews.

"That is also the context in which the event called the 'Holocaust' must be viewed… This does not justify it. Instead of destroying the Jews we should have taken every measure possible to support the Zionist movement."

The group goes on to harshly criticize the Nazi regime as the cause of the "unnecessary rivalry" between Germany and its "brethren neighbors," and slams the current leaders of Germany's extreme right as "cowardly reactionaries."

The group is called National Socialists for Israel, and among other things, they’ve started Reinhard Heydrich, "The Blond Beast": big Zionistdistributing stickers in Berlin with Israeli soldiers on them and the words, “A 2000-year struggle for survival. Respect those who have earned it." Another sticker has a picture of senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, and under the words, "As a Nazi, I'm a Zionist."

Though some bloggers doubt the veracity of the group, it is getting the attention of anti hate-group activists who are scratching their heads and expressing milder than usual outrage.

It’s possible to see this as some kind of silver-lining, I guess, but a group that openly sympathizes with the Nazis is not the kind of friend Israel, or any Jew, needs. As far as I can tell this group is embracing Zionism precisely because they see it as racism, which isn’t exactly a compliment. Plus, forced emigration to Israel is not an idea most Zionists would support. Also, “Respect for those who have earned it”? How did we earn it, exactly? By fighting for our lives while Nazis persecuted us? The logic is mind-boggling.

Thanks, National Socialists for Israel, but, um, the Jewish people and the State of Israel are really busy tonight/forever. We have to wash our hair.

Tibet and Germany: so close, yet so very far awayDashing hopes that were raised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's controversial visit with the Dalai Lama last year, Germany seems to have decided that trade relations trump human rights.

Germany has now agreed "not to support or encourage any attempt to seek Tibet's independence," despite Merkel's assurance to the Dalai Lama that she supported "his efforts to maintain the cultural identity of Tibet" and "his policy of non-violent striving toward religious and cultural autonomy." Oh, and also despite all that talk that's been going on about China's occupation and oppression of Tibet since, oh, about 1951.

This news is a bit of a letdown for those who were hopeful about Merkel's influence.

Previous: Bad News For Christians

 

Jewish-German community leaders are pissed.

A smoking ban just went into effect in Germany and opponents of said ban have been selling t-shirts online that feature the ol' Judenstern we had to wear back in the day. Only, instead of "Jude", the star on the t-shirts said "Raucher" (smoker), to suggest that discrimination against smokers is not unlike anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany.

Judenstern: Way to bring up old shit.The shirts went on sale online in the days before the smoking ban in ten out of Germany's sixteen states, which went into effect on New Year's Day. Dennis Kramer of DPM, the marketers behind the shirt said citizens needed to be aware of "disgraceful discrimination against smokers" in bars and restaurants and called the shirts "the most aggressive smokers' resistance shirt available" but added he only "wanted to show that smokers are being discriminated against in bars". The website has since been shut down, but a couple of websites seem to still be selling the shirts.

Germany's Central Council of Jews called the t-shirts "crude, brainless and tasteless" and added that anyone who "compares the plight of the Jews during the Third Reich to smokers who are thought to be discriminated against" to be people who have learned "absolutely nothing". Dieter Graumann, the deputy president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said, "This is an absolute abuse of the Jewish genocide... It is a scandal to exploit the murder of the Jews in order to symbolize the people's desire to smoke." But, it might be more than just a matter of taste-- In Itzehoe, where DPM is based, prosecutors confirmed a formal investigation has been launched to establish whether they could prosecute, being that the display of Nazi symbols is prohibited under German law. Obviously.

 

What do you do if you're in Germany and Halloween's just around the corner? Should you go as Elvis? A Gorilla? The Beatles? Should you put on your "Pimpkostüm"?

Hell, why not just go as a Jew?

They Ran Out of Clowns: Fangs sold separately

My Mother's Art: My mother was an artitst. Johanna Liebman remarked that it showed none of the horror of most survivor art.In my search for my mother, I have both sought knowledge and intentionally avoided it. For example, the Leo Baeck Institute is one of the leading German Jew research centers in the world, and it's only 50 blocks from my home, but I've not been able to bring myself to go there.

Honestly, I'm afraid. I know how difficult I became to deal with while writing, and therefore reliving my failure in business memoir. And that was just about losing $4 million and people being put out of work. How will I face the world trying to put myself in a time of millions killed?

That said, one night I Googled relentlessly on a town my mother may have lived in, Karlsruhe. This is how I found Johanna Liebman at the Queens College Holocaust Center.

And so, I share some of her story, which is likely very similar to my mother's. (The very formal style of the interview is because my girlfriend is both a wonderful person to document it and a lawyer. So it does read a bit like a very very scary Law and Order.)

On Saturday, July 9, 2005, David Silverman (“DS”), Carol Silverman (“CS”) met with Johanna Liebman (“JL”) at 10:30 a.m. at the Holocaust Resource Center (“HRC”) at Queensborough Colllege in Bayside, New York. JL recounted her experience at Le Camp de Gurs (“Gurs”) in 1940.

Life In Germany Before the Deportation

JL said that life in Germany for the Jewish population started going “down the hill in every way” in 1933 when the Nazis came to power. First, the Jewish population began to lose its privileges as citizens. For example, the cities took away Jewish citizens ability to have phones in their houses and to have radios.
Additionally, JL said that the Germans were using propaganda to teach the children to be prejudiced against the Jews. JL showed us a book called “Do No Trust The Fox In The Meadow And The Oath Of A Jew,” published in 1936. This book was a picture book depicting horrific caricatures of Jewish men as compared to the angelic blonde Germans.
CS asked JL why she thought that the Germans blamed the Jews. JL said that “Jews are used to that because we are always the scapegoats. We are thought of as poison that should be destroyed.” Then CS asked what the Jewish people thought about how far the treatment of Jews would go. JL said “I don’t think anyone had enough imagination to see how far things would go.” In fact, JL said that Jewish people were deported in Steltin (now part of Poland) outside of Berlin in February of 1939, but the Jewish population in Karlsruhe did not think it would happen to them. Still, JL recalled that she was horrified when she saw synagogues being destroyed every day.

It's a long story, but I felt it was worth being posted in its entirety, so more below.

Continue reading...

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is getting lots of attention for his statement on French radio that the world should be prepared for the worst, that is, for war with Iran, if the latter was to acquire nuclear weapons. Two preliminary remarks must be made, amidst usual French internal accusations of “Atlantism” at best and allegiance to Judaism rather than to France at its unfortunately usual worst (look respectively at the post and comments here):

1) Kouchner’s position is not new: ten days ago, he was saying exactly the same thing to the media: “There are a lot of solutions (other than war) to envisage, other paths to explore, peace negotiations to conduct. There must be dogged diplomatic efforts. Let’s listen, negotiate, negotiate again and prepare ourselves for the worst.” [By the way, in this same article he restates his relation to Judaism, which makes him a very Jewcy Jew]

2) Kouchner’s position is not simply his own: it’s France’s in general (supported by both the President and the Prime Minister).

But what exactly is proposed? The clearest statement is perhaps here (in French). The immediate problem is that of sanctions on Iran. France proposes unilateral European sanctions, without waiting for the UN to move –the Netherlands disagree, but Germany is in favour (actually they originated the idea). A secondary problem is what to do if those sanctions fail. But this isn’t really the question. Rather, it seems that this situation is an almost direct parallel to the 2003 debate about Iraq. Kouchner’s position then (‘Neither War Nor Saddam’, an interesting elucidation of which can be found here) was that France was making an enormous mistake by opposing its veto to the ‘disarmament ultimatum’ resolution put forward by the US and the UK. The sight of a disaggregated coalition was a comforting sight for Saddam and would imply that there would be no military coalition of 1991 magnitude against him. Diminishing thus the threat of intervention meant, simply, that diplomacy would have no bargaining tool (maybe a primitive argument, but Saddam was hardly a rational leader). A united diplomatic front now absent, there was no other option for the committed U.S. but to go it alone. In other words, the mistake according to Kouchner has always been to show a disunited diplomatic front, in particular insofar as sanctions, from economic to military, are concerned. Diplomacy against rogue regimes has no way to proceed forward unless they understand that we mean business.

Kouchner’s call not to absolutely remove the military option from the table then and now is thus first and foremost a way to guarantee that negotiations actually do move forward. He is no lover of war, and his actions are solely aimed at avoiding this extremity if at all possible; however to do so, the threat of war may have to be used. As chess player Aron Nimzovich once stated: ‘The threat is stronger than the execution.’

THEIR KIDS NEED SHRINKS

THE NEWS:
Children of Holocaust survivors are suing Germany to pay for their psychotherapy. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

THE CHATTER:
The suit brought by the conservative Fisher Fund. [YNet]

Baruch Mazor, the fund’s director, acting on behalf of “the Israelis, calling themselves second-generation Holocaust survivors, say the scars of the Nazi genocide on their parents have crossed generations. Many still live with an irrational fear of starvation and incapacitating bouts of depression, the lawsuit claims.” [Time]

But what exactly is the psychological damage? I mean, specifically? “Others of the second generation say they cannot ride buses because it reminds them of the transports their parents took to the concentration camps, or they fear dogs because they were used by the Nazis to control crowds.” Can’t ride buses! Fear of dogs! To overcome these fears, the psychotherapists are planning immersion activities such as taking the bus and visiting the pound. Better idea: the German-Jewish kiddos head to Kalamazoo, Michigan and heckle outside of Hal Turner’s Jew-hating radio show. It would be like when your mother told you to punch a pillow instead of your little sister. Same thing. [Media Mouse]

 

JEWS ON ICE

THE NEWS:
The first World Jewish Ice Hockey Tournament is being held in Metulla, Israel. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

THE CHATTER:
Taking after the earth-warming brains behind the indoor ski mountain in Dubai, let’s play ice hockey in the desert. Brilliant! [SkiDubai]

Even in the icy air-conditioned rink, few fans came out and the play was uninspired. But the U.S. beat France! Oh wait, it’s hockey, nobody cares. [YNet]

CLUBBING 101: NOW, YOU PUT THE TABLET ON HER TONGUE…

THE NEWS:
Project Rabinovich holds Jewish dance parties at Moscow's hottest clubs to bring together Jewish youth outside of shul. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

THE CHATTER:
But can they land MC Rebbe, the Rapping Rabbi, for their Moscow ragers? [MCRebbe]

After brunch the next day, there will be a screening of the newest Jewish lesbian comedy. They’re pricking interests in Hollywood. [AlDatingNews]

Speaking of educating our adolescents, Jewish youth camp serenaded by “Puff the Magic Dragon.” [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

In fact, what all of these cool Jewish youths really want is to be first in line for the release of the new Harry Potter. Too bad their country is up-in-arms over its Sabbathical release date. [Newsvine]

 

A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO HIJAB AND TZNIUS

THE NEWS:
Unlikely alliance of Orthodox Jewish lawyer and African-American Pentacostal Christian woman and the right to religious dress in the workplace. [The New York Times]

THE CHATTER:
Ms. Tahita Jenkins was fired by the MTA on May 31 because, according to NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton, Jenkins could put the passengers in danger by taking her hands off the wheel to adjust her skirt. [The New York Post]

A blogger agrees that skirts could be hazardous in the public-safety workplace. [Jewess]

The MTA had offered the culottes option to Ms. Jenkins which she dubbed “just wide pants.” [New York Press]

 

ISRAELIS TURN AMISH?…NAH, JUST A LITTLE DRAFT-DODGING

THE NEWS:
Rising draft-dodging rates in Israel point to a growing weariness with Israel’s constant state of war. Is this the end of Zionism? [Haaretz]

THE CHATTER:
Maybe, but at least it’s not the end of acapella Jewish hip-hop! [Arutz Sheva]

Speaking of war, Iran supposedly has 600 planned targets in Israel for missile strike. Like that’s thorough or something. 600. I can count twice that high. [Haaretz]

• Army wives watching Lifetime's most popular show ever: "Army Wives." [The New York Times]
• Protestant parishioners "squatting in sleeping bags" in German church. Why? To keep Jews from turning it into a synagogue. [The Week Magazine]
• Elizabeth Edwards pleads with conservative broadcaster Ann Coulter to chill with attacks on her husband and other Democrats. [SFGate.com]
• At NYC fundraiser for Hillary, Buffett blasts American tax system. [TimesOnline]
• Senate subpoenas the White House and Cheney's office over eavesdropping. [myway]
• A conservative argues for Cheney's impeachment. [Slate]
• PC Magazine compares the iPhone hype to Hitler. [cubiclesurfing.com]
• Clarence Thomas and Supreme Court got it all wrong in student free-speech ruling. [The LA Times]

Wprost coverWprost is a weekly Polish newsmagazine known for its conservative and anti-German sentiments. Check out this cover, photoshopped in response to clashes with Germany over the new EU treaty at the European Union Summit last week. The BBC reports:

The mocked up image shows Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, nuzzling at [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel's chest.

Germany's Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, called the image "tasteless".

Social Democrat Markus Meckel, head of the German-Polish parliamentary group, said: "It is quite unbelievable. Poland has lost so many friends over the past weeks and months. It should really think hard in the future about how it hopes to win them back."

Who comes up with these cover schemes? I know Europeans are pretty cool with boobs but I agree Frank-Walter Steinmeier. It can't help but wonder how this country would react if, say, Newsweek or Time put boobs on their covers. They'd probably sell more issues than ever and then be relegated to "satellite". Now there's one for all you techies to figure out...

• Classroom mindfulness
• Fatah coup?
• YouTube on your $500 phone
• Shimon Peres and a convicted spy
• Communist chic in Berlin hotel

Mail Nazis: No faith, no hope, no mailAt Haaretz today... a story on how a huge number of Holocaust archives are set to be opened at last... 

The world's largest archive of Nazi-era documents announced yesterday it would open its files to the public as soon as it received political approval.

"We are awaiting the green light from the politicians," said Maria Raabe, a spokeswoman for the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross in the German town of Bad Arolsen.

The story goes on to discuss how this will help to defeat the claims of crazy anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers.  Which makes sense to me...

But, here is where I show my absolute ignorance...

WHY has this happened?  Why is this even an issue?

Why has it taken so long to open these files?  I assume we've had families waiting to see these long-undelivered letters for decades and decades... 

I don't begin to understand the advantages to waiting forever on this.

Can anyone help me understand?  I guess I'm an idjit, but I didn't know there were unopened files...

   

Neo-Nazi crimes rates in Germany are at an all-time high according to a Reuters report. The last time they were this bad was in 1990, the year of Germany's reunification. There were 18,000 reported acts this year, 1100 of which stemmed from violence. The pinnacle of anti-Semitic activity being the July burning of Anne Frank's diary. Additionally, this past Fall, the National Democratic Party (NDP), a far Right extremist political faction, gained a foothold in Eastern Germany, with the election of a few new members to Parliament.

• Courtesy FunkMonk At Devianart.ComCapitalists [& Men Universally] Prefer Blondes. Evicted overweight Asian sorority sisters don't. [The New Republic]
• That's right. Why Should Mel Gibson have all the fun? [PR Newswire]
• I really do miss John Ritter. And subsequently director Blake Edwards' need to overcompensate artistically for his marrying Julie Andrews. [IMDB]
• It's just as hard to be a Jew as to become one, apparently. [Ynet]
• Why is religion always the scapegoat for people's mishagas? [Ziontrain]
• Shalom and Willkommen Ernest Young. Bienvenue. [Zabaj: The Junk In Israel's Trunk]
• The Germans can be such damn Nazis. [Expatica]
• But then again, stupid headlines like these make me think it's universal. [Islamic Republic News Agency]

Anti-Semitic Rhetoric On School WallsLooks like my apt. wasn't the only place that came under attack over the weekend. A Jewish kindergarten in Berlin was defaced this weekend and the Nazi sympathizers also threw a smoke bomb into the school.

A tragedy was avoided on Sunday after a smoke bomb, thrown through a window of a Jewish kindergarten in Berlin, failed to ignite.

However, the school, located in a northwest neighbourhood of the German capital, was not spared by the spray painting of swastikas, other Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic phrases, such as “Auschwitz,” “Juden Raus” (Jews, get out) and “Sieg Heil”, on its outer walls, as well as on toys that had been lying around in the school’s playground.

According to the EJP,the attack is exactly three months to the day after a similar incident occured in Croatia where a man who called himself "Adolf Hitler" confessed to taking a crowbar to a Chabad School and smashing all the windows.

This is Ashkenazi? According to Google it is!After discussing the dilemma of the words we don't really know the meaning of and the resulting need to go back and re-learn some things, I woke up this morning with the realization that there's a Jewishy word I use without any real background: Ashkenazi.

In my lame-ass understanding of the term, an Ashkenazi Jew is someone whose family:

1. at some point spoke Yiddish

2. lived in Poland or thereabouts

3. looked Hassidic

That's about it for my sense of what that word means. Though if I wrote my own Jewish dictionary, it might say simply Ashkenazic- NOT Sephardic. (another only vaguely understood term... but we'll get to it later)

But then I got to thinking that I have no idea why a bunch of Polish motherfuckers speak German, and I have no idea when they got to where they got, or how long they stayed. Turns out...

... they arrived in northern France (we assume from the middle east) and the Rhineland sometime around 800-1000 CE, the Ashkenazi Jews brought with them both Rabbinic Judaism and the Babylonian Talmudic culture that underlies it. European Jews became called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany. "Ashkenaz" is a Medieval Hebrew name for Germany.

But they didn't stay forever. It follows that...

With the onset of the Crusades, and the expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), and parts of Germany (1400s), Jewish migration pushed eastward into Poland, Lithuania, and Russia.

So some of these families were in Germany for as long as 700 years, and some as few as 200 years. In most cases, much longer than they were in Poland or wherever, and a helluva lot longer than we've been in the United States so far.

The other question I have about this relates to a rough sense that Sephardic Jews were classier and smarter and better off than Ashkenzic Jews for a long time... but at some point lost their clout. I've heard such rumors, and would like to look into the matter, but this post is already too long.... so maybe after I've had my coffee.

Courtesy AJN:

A BEER commercial that claims the product is brewed according to “the German Purity Law” is “insensitive”, according to the head of the Jewish community’s antisemitism watchdog.

B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) chairman Michael Lipshutz told the AJN that the Beck’s beer commercial should specify a “German beer purity law” to distinguish it from Nazi Germany’s racial “purity” laws.

“The German Purity Law is a brewing law that ensures only natural ingredients are used. It has been around since 1516 and the ad is clear that it [the purity law] relates to the product.”

Foxtel corporate affairs manager Rebecca Melkman said the pay-TV provider, after reviewing the commercial, “believes it complies with the code. In our view, the commercial clearly refers to the German Purity Law as a method of brewing beer – it is a well-known beer brewing method that is described in detail in the commercial.”

Ms. Melkman left out the part where she mentions that the ad originally included aryan in between the words "German" and "purity."

Germany is asking the European Union to ban the display of swastikas, claiming that it's a "crime to deny genocide." Having a close Indian friend and understanding the sanctity of the symbol in the Hindu religion where it translates in Sanskrit to may goodness prevail and is used as a sign of peace, I'm torn with Germany's proposition.

Germany, alarmed by a rise in far-right crime, wants to harmonize the rules for punishing offenders in member states.

"In Germany the fight against racism and xenophobia is both an historic duty and a current political concern," Germany's Justice Ministry said, laying out its plans earlier this month.

Kallidai said Germany's initiative was probably well-meaning but there had been no consultations.

"Every time we see a swastika symbol in a Jewish cemetery, that of course must be condemned. But when the symbol is used in a Hindu wedding, people should learn to respect that," he told Reuters.

In my heart, I disagree with this call because it serves to diminish all that is holy in one culture for the sake of succumbing to the xenophobia of another. On the other hand, I think Germany is responding a greater threat of evil and that the action serves to show that they won't stand for hate crimes and that Europe needs to be on board with them. And unfortunately, what the image evokes in today's Western culture is that of hatred and intolerance.

Hitler's not funnyGermans aren't getting a big kick out of a new comedy that portrays Hitler as a bed-wetting drug addict. Sheesh, these guys have no sense of humor.

Germany's first comedy about Adolf Hitler is being panned by reviewers ahead of its opening this week and has provoked a debate about whether the country should be laughing about the man who ordered the Holocaust.

"Mein Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler" portrays Hitler as bed-wetting drug addict who takes baths with a toy battleship and dresses his Alsatian dog Blondi in an SS uniform. Swiss Jewish director Dani Levy says he wants to follow in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin's 1940 classic "The Great Dictator."

He also wants to explore the theory that Hitler was taking revenge on the world for being beaten by his father.

What, you're not laughing yet, either?  Is it that you can't laugh at Hitler comedy, or the film is simply not amusing? After all, look at what the Germans think is hilarious about Hitler:

Levy had plenty of material given that the real Hitler offered so much scope for humor with his manner of speaking, his Hitler salute and the huge discrepancy between his own physique and the Nazi ideal of a blonde, blue-eyed master race, writes Welt am Sonntag.

Huh. With comic material like that, how can you miss?

Levy, who won critical claim for his 2004 comedy "Go For Zucker" about two Jewish brothers in post-unification Germany, told SPIEGEL ONLINE he was trying to "demystify" Hitler with scenes such as the one in which pet dog "Blondi" mounts the dictator as he walks on all fours around his giant Chancellery office.

Hey, dogs humping legs is a time-honored comic tradition in film and TV! Obviously, Levi went a step farther. We should honor this advance in cinematic comedy.

So it's not The Producers. And Daniel Levy isn't Mel Brooks. One has to wonder if the film is truly unfunny, or if the Germans aren't at the point where they can laugh about their Nazi past. Whoops, that can't be it. Hogan's Heroes was a long-time cult hit in Germany. Perhaps this movie simply sucks.

Or maybe it's just my problem with Nazi comedies. I didn't get the humor behind "The Bonker," either.

Instead of discarding leftover Christmas trees in a giant pit outside a dumpster, as is tradition in the U.S., in a more eco-friendly Germany, the