SHADES OF JEWISHNESS: THE CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF A LIBERAL JEWISH COMMUNITY IN POST-SHOAH GERMANY Daniela Kranz A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2009 Full metadata for this item is available in the St Andrews Digital Research Repository at: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/872 This item is protected by original copyright Shades of Jewishness: The creation and maintenance of a liberal Jewish community in post- Shoah Germany Daniela Kranz PhD thesis Submission date: 1 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 narrrative, which offers the members to experience a „felt ethnicity.‟ 3 Declaration I, Daniela Kranz, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 100,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in previous applications for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in January 2004 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in January 2004; the higher study for which this is a record carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2004 and 2009. Date: Signature of candidate: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolutions and Regulations appropriate of the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application of that degree. Date: Signature of Supervisor: 5 In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews we understand that we are giving permission for it to be made available for the use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. We also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. We have obtained any third-party copyright permission that may be required in order to allow such access or migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo bellow. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: Access to the printed copy and electronic publication of thesis through the University of St Andrews. Date: Signature of candidate: Signature of supervisor: 6 Shades of Jewishness Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 12 1. Jews in West Germany and Cologne post-Shoah 35 and the liberal community in its historical, local and present setting 2. Working in a fraught territory 77 3. Members, guests, non-members, and the „other‟ 113 in the community 4. Being liberal Jewish in the community 149 5. The importance of a personal narratives: 179 Connecting being with doing Jewish Ron 193 Iris 208 Nora 231 Conclusions: Being, doing and feeling Jewish; 279 creating and breaking boundaries Notes 303 Bibliography 322 7 Acknowledgments Finally having completed this work, I feel that I owe a great lot of people without whom this work would have never been possible. My way into this area of German-Jewish studies was somewhat unplanned. At the beginning of my PhD, I had the idea to work with transnational people in Germany. By chance I came across a posting on H-Net German, which led to my venturing into this area. Susan Boettcher, the author of the posting encouraged me to look into Jewish life in Germany, she mentioned that if I was really interested in transnational people, people with conflicting belongings and/or people who did not fit prefab categories I should look into what is happening amongst Jews in Germany. In the initial email conversation that ensued and that lasts to date, Susan triggered an interest in me that led to this work. I cannot possible thank her enough for pointing me into this direction. Along the way of this research work, I met a great number of wonderful people who supported me in different ways, with their expertise, knowledge, friendship and/or love. My parents, Jürgen and Regina Kranz, have been supporting my work with great interest, engaged with my curiosity of our own family history, my passion for Jewish life in Germany post-Shoah, and on a regular basis supported me with payments into my constantly cash-strapped account. I cannot thank my parents enough for their love and support. My friends too, supported me in various ways over the year. I want to thank them for their support, patience and trust in me. Without Anne Katrin Schlag, Inkeri von Hase and Tsur Genosar a great number of sources would have remained inaccessible to me: thank you for all you have done for me. Roy Allouch gave me a home during times of fieldwork, and alongside Dan Ben-Sheffer introduced me to an Israeli point of view of Jewish life in Cologne. I would also like to thank Dan, Roy, Tsur and Daniel von Recklinghausen for their help with Hebrew language, and Adi Tal, Gal Shapira and Tsur for chasing up Israeli data for me. Daniel supported me as well with his expertise on Jewish life in Germany, Jewish history and religion and has been an invaluable source of knowledge. With Rabbi Hillel Athias-Robles I had the pleasure to have a 9 halachic expert by my side who I could ask any questions about Jewish religion without feeling weird about it, who furthermore supported me with sources I had not thought of before, and who always offered me a sanctuary. I have benefited from amazing intellectual exchanges with my friends Maja Ferber, Michael Vollrath, Sonja Grabowsky and Ruth Zeifert who have opened my eyes for specifics of the research and who have always been happy to share their thoughts with me, offered me their flats and social life on the side. In Cologne, Andrea Longerich, Stefan Schorr and Justyna Stammel have always been there for me. Justyna and Andrea supported me throughout with information on Jewish Cologne they came across, from TV programs to flyers on Yiddish theatre. Sophie Brüss has been an invaluable support due her vast knowledge of Jewish Cologne and her openness towards me as a researcher. In London, Oliver Gyr has been my support throughout. I cannot express my gratitude for him teaching me to think in options and to always look on the bright side of life. With Max Koss, he always offered me a place to stay upon my returns to London. Naomi Soetendorp has been an amazing friend, and like Sophie been absolutely invaluable in terms of contacts and showing me things about Jewish life. The girls in London, Clara Großeholz, Caroline Thalie Krey-Jacobsen and Naomi Hahn, have been an amazing support and trailed dutifully along to various bits of fieldwork and challenged my theoretical thinking with their own theories and their embodied experiences; Meyer Fedida opened my eyes to yet a different sense of Jewishness. My partner at the time, Jeremy Levy, opened my eyes on several occasion by challenging my theories of Jewishness. Jeremy came along to fieldwork sites and gatherings, listened and discussed my ideas patiently and has been giving me feedback, support and love. On this matter, I am also grateful to Kristopher Chapman and Daniel Roberts, I am blessed to have been able to have hours of discussion with them on anthropological theories on the phone and in person. Many thanks also to Chaim Noy for discussion, inspiration, support and encouragement, and for being my big brother. 10 I am also indebted to Jeffrey M. Peck, Y. Michal Bodemann, Lena Inowlocki, Julia Bernstein, Liliane Weissberg, Jay Howard Geller, Ruth Mandel, Stephan Feuchtwang, Robert Leventhal, Molly Andrews and last but not least my supervisor Nigel Rapport for their input, support and inspiration.