Jews, Germans, Memory

How was it possible that a new, and sizeable, Jewish community developed after the Holocaust in Germany of all places? Jews, Germans, Memory undertakes to assess the past, present, and future of German-Jewish relations in light of recent political changes and the opening of historical sources. This welcome new volume investigates how the groundwork was laid for a new Jewish community in the postwar period, with different objectives by Jewish leaders and German politicians. Its contributors touch upon history, literature, the media, ethnicity, politics, and social movements and attempt to tackle the question of how Jews are socially constructed, and how the glorious German Jewish past and the Holocaust have been remembered in the course of recent decades. In recent years, German Jewry has seen fundamental transformations with the influx from Eastern Europe and a new leadership in the community: a new self-definition, even self-assurance and reappraisal in Israel and elsewhere has evolved. Historians, scholars of cultured studies, and those interested in debates on memory and ethnicity will all find something of interest in this diverse volume.