University of zion
"Are there still Jews in Germany?"
''Are the Jews a chosen people?"
Nearly
70 years after the Holocaust, there is no more sensitive an issue in
German life as the role of Jews. With fewer than 200,000 Jews among
Germany's 82 million people, few Germans born after World War II know
any Jews or much about them.
To help educate postwar
generations, the Jewish Museum in Berlin offers a Jewish man or woman
to sit inside a glass box for two hours a day through August to answer
visitors' questions about Jews and Jewish life. The base of the box
asks: "Are there still Jews in Germany?"
"A lot of
our visitors don't know any Jews and have questions they want to ask,"
museum official Tina Luedecke said. "With this exhibition we offer an
opportunity for those people to know more about Jews and Jewish life."
But not everybody thinks putting a Jew on display is the best way to build understanding and mutual respect.
Since
the exhibit — "The Whole Truth, everything you wanted to know about
Jews" — opened this month, the "Jew in the Box," as it is popularly
known, has drawn sharp criticism within the Jewish community —
especially in the city where the Nazis orchestrated the slaughter of 6
million Jews until Adolf Hitler's defeat in 1945.
"Why
don't they give him a banana and a glass of water, turn up the heat and
make the Jew feel really cozy in his glass box," prominent Berlin
Jewish community figure Stephan Kramer told The Associated Press. "They
actually asked me if I wanted to participate. But I told them I'm not
available."
The exhibit is reminiscent of Holocaust
architect Adolf Eichmann sitting in a glass booth at the 1961 trial in
Israel which led to his execution. And it's certainly more provocative
than British actress Tilda Swinton sleeping in a glass box at a recent
performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Eran
Levy, an Israeli who has lived in Berlin for years, was horrified by
the idea of presenting a Jew as a museum piece, even if to answer
Germans' questions about Jewish life.
"It's a
horrible thing to do — completely degrading and not helpful," he said.
"The Jewish Museum absolutely missed the point if they wanted to do
anything to improve the relations between Germans and Jews."
But
several of the volunteers, including both German Jews and Israelis
living in Berlin, said the experience in the box is little different
from what they go through as Jews living in the country that produced
the Nazis.
"With so few of us, you almost inevitably
feel like an exhibition piece," volunteer Leeor Englander said. "Once
you've been 'outed' as a Jew, you always have to be the expert and
answer all questions regarding anything related to religion, Israel, the
Holocaust and so on."
Museum curator Miriam
Goldmann, who is Jewish, believes the exhibit's provocative "in your
face" approach is the best way to overcome the emotional barriers and
deal with a subject that remains painful for both Jews and non-Jews.
"We
wanted to provoke, that's true, and some people may find the show
outrageous or objectionable,"
Goldmann said. "But that's fine by us."
The
provocative style is evident in other parts of the special exhibition,
including some that openly raise many stereotypes of Jews widespread not
only in Germany but elsewhere in Europe.
One
includes a placard that asks "how you recognize a Jew?" It's next to
assortment of yarmulkes, black hats and women's hair covers hanging from
the ceiling on thin threads. Another asks if Jews consider themselves
the chosen people. It includes a poem by Jewish author Leonard Fein:
"How odd of God to choose the Jews. But how on earth could we refuse?"
Yet
another invites visitors to express their opinion to such questions as
"are Jews particularly good looking, influential, intelligent, animal
loving or business savvy?"
Despite the criticisms, the "Jew in the Box" has proven a big hit among visitors.
"I
asked him about the feelings he has for his country and what he thinks
about the conflict with Palestine, if he ever visited Palestine,"
visitor Panka Chirer-Geyer said. "I have Jewish roots and I've been to
Palestine and realized how difficult it was there. I could not even
mention that I have Jewish roots."
On a recent day
this week, several visitors kept returning to ask questions of Ido
Porat, a 33-year-old Israeli seated on a white bench with a pink
cushion.
One woman wanted to know what to bring her
hosts for a Shabbat dinner in Israel. Another asked why only Jewish men
and not women wear yarmulkes. A third inquired about Judaism and
homosexuality.
"I guess I should ask you about the
relationship between Germans and Jews," visitor Diemut Poppen said to
Porat. "We Germans have so many insecurities when it comes to Jews."
Viola Mohaupt-Zitfin, 53, asked if Porat felt welcome as a Jew living among Germans "considering our past and all that."
Yes,
Porat said, Germany is a good place to live, even as a Jew. But the
country could do even more to come to terms with its Nazi past, he
added. He advised the would-be traveler than anything is permissible to
bring to a Shabbat dinner as long as it's not pork.
"I
feel a bit like an animal in the zoo, but in reality that's what it's
like being a Jew in Germany," Porat said. "You are a very interesting
object to most people here."
Dekel Peretz, one of
volunteers in the glass box, said many Germans have an image of Jews
that is far removed from the reality of contemporary Jewish life.
"They
associate Jews with the Holocaust and the Nazi era," he said. "Jews
don't have a history before or after. In Germany, Jews have been
stereotyped as victims. It is important that people here get to know
Jews to see that Jews are alive and that we have individual histories. I
hope that this exhibit can help."
Still, not everyone believes this is the best way to promote understanding.
Rabbi
Yehuda Teichtal from the Jewish Chabad community in Berlin said Germans
who are really interested in Jews and Judaism should visit the
community's educational center.
"Here Jews will be happy to answer questions without sitting in a glass box," he said.
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