Dalia Grinfeld
Student at the Jewish High School (Juedische Oberschule) in Berlin
Age 15
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“German, but a very Jewish German”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
"I think it is not hard [to be Jewish in Berlin] anymore... I live my way, I go my way and I don't have problems because I’m Jewish. … Actually in Berlin, you have [some Muslim] areas you can’t go… But I’m not there so I don't have these problems.
"[Non-Jews] don't know us, they don't know Jew in Berlin... and so you are something special, you are something very, very special. They all say 'Wow, you are Jewish! You're the first Jew I know! Wow! Can I ask you questions?’... They are German and just German and most of them are Christian and they have their own community in Berlin."
German Navoyenko
Student at the Jewish High School (Juedische Oberschule) in Berlin
Age 16
Jewish
Born in Ukraine
Moved to Berlin 1998
How would you define your cultural identity?
“German”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
"It is a big honor because I have the possibility to do something new, to show the world how Jewish people live in Germany... Many, many people are thinking 'ok Jewish people living in Germany - how could they do this because of what happened 60 years ago?' and we have to show to the world how to act with some people like [the Nazis]... and to show the [rest of the Jewish world] that we are Jewish just like they are."
Esther Smith
High School Student in Berlin
Age 17
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“Jewish German”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
“I think it's good that I’m living here because somebody needs to... build the Judaism up here more…We're getting really strong now. [But] a lot of people are [still] not coming back because of the Holocaust, but I think it’s right to live here because it should be developed."
Nataniel Satanowski
High School Student in Berlin
Age 17
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“Jewish”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
"I think the Jewish life should go on in Berlin where Nazi Germany had the power 65 years ago. I think it is important that there are Jews in Germany.”
David Wainstejn
Student at the Jewish High School (Juedische Oberschule) in Berlin
Age 17
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“half Israeli, half German, and all Jewish
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
“Nothing. It's just I am [a] Jew living in Berlin... it's just normal...You always have anti-Semitism in every country, in every city, so it's easier if you have your own background, you have your own friends… Because in my opinion... when you have a connection [with someone] not just because you're friends… it's closer."
Lily Smith
High School Student in Berlin
Age 17
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“Believer”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
Sharon Bajda
Student at the Jewish High School (Juedische Oberschule) in Berlin
Age 14
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“Jewish German”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
"I mostly have Jewish friends, my community is Jewish, my best friend is Jewish, my mom [and] my dad are Jewish, so I am [also] Jewish."
David Ohayon
Student at the Jewish High School in Berlin
Age 17
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“Jewish German bound to Israel”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
"I think it doesn’t matter if I am Jewish living in Germany because of course there is some big history here in Germany, but I think we have to move on and not be stuck in remembering stuff about things that happened to us. [Instead we need to] just to go on and be open here to Germany and to find how to make [our] life here and stay happy."
Alina Putilin
Student at the Jewish High School in Berlin
Age 15
Jewish
Born in Germany
How would you define your cultural identity?
“Jewish kid that lives in Germany”
What does it mean to be Jewish in Berlin today?
"I live my whole life [in Germany]... I have different friends: Jewish friends and not Jewish friends but there isn’t a difference."
3 comments:
So interesting to see how many of the students identify themselves as Jewish, and how many were born in Germany. Pictures came out great! We are at Grandma and Grandpa's house in New Jersey, and all four of us read your blog.
Love,
Mom and Dad
All people love their "cultural" country here.
This is not bad or good, just a fact.
I would like to see more secular people (atheists) and more philosophically stateless (not to belong to any nation
philosophically).
It is rare to be philosophically stateless when you have roots from countries with more color than the most westernized.
Israel is a modern country, but it still has very much cultural color.
People cannot break the emotional links for no reason, philisophy is a reason but a very abstract one.
Why are we who we are?
Why to belong and copy all values of your parents and culture?
I know, emotional centers of the brain do that, chemicals and memories.
If you take a baby jew and you give it to a different national group without to mention after the child grows ever he/she
is jewish, the the child would not feel Jewish.
Jewish people are just people.
There are no data to show that if you do not teach a child Hebrew or speak about his root to be able to figure it out!
Many people say why to be free in the mind, people without color, non national believers. I am not an anarchist. I just
hate being a robot. I am not a piece of meet,
so as a low iq predictable robot slave, if you put my body in a family I will become Hebrew, German, Italian even nazi
Hebrew killer, if my step dad is a nazi
and we both never knew I was Hebrew during adoption.
Some now will claim criminals are evil people, but if you watch all Robert Sapolsky - Stanford University lectures, it is
very hard to claim one is born evil, either one is born to fit a culture.
People have genes and epigenetics.
DNA has not only genes, but protein sleeves that change throughout life, also mitochondrial DNA plays a major role, random
mutations, cell organelles, affection, weather, nutrition, teaching technics, etc etc.
A Jewish home is a very warm home.
An average Hebrew heritage family has statistically a positive affect on a persons evolutions.
All I say here is not to delete what you are, but study more science or secular meditation if you hate science to
understand we all are people. I am not what my parents are. What my parents are is very sweet, lovable and tender.
I do not disrespect what my parents are. I simply am not my parents, even I share their DNA.
I respect their culture, also the culture I live, I also have positive emotions, but I prefer to study things as a free
mind.
I am not an anarchist.
We need rules in a society.
I know the meanings I say are hard to accept, but the future man has to deal with a balance of all that. Not so slateless,
not so predictable industrial product.
I am not the industrial product of my parents. I am a thinker.
I support an overall human ID,
even you super great loved and sweet culture is the best because of your brain positive brain connections were formed
through the environment.
I might be misunderstood. I never claimed I support being a weirdo standing alone in parties, never say a positive thing
about a culture, no I do not support that.
I just support the view I am a being. We need more modern and intelligent ideas if we really want to shape a more
humanistic society of understanding.
A nazi German, loves his nation
as a law abiding Jew. A nazi German has a criminal attitude that is expressed on national crimes. Without is he could be a
common criminal. Of course we cannot make general predictions about crime, but statistically we know that ideology is
taught through the environment.
Also a criminal, might have bad epigenetics, not exactly bad genes. Epigenetics may change genes, because DNA sleeves and
chemical labels change the process of gene transfer inside the DNA,
but that process is reversible through many generations. Also
a person with certain genes, DNA sleeves, and cell ingredients, also certain nurturing environment, will have a certain
range of predictable characters.
Also randomness plays a major role in individuals, but smaller role in large numbers.
Some thinge are very sweet and familiar. To understand that you are a servant of statistics is scary. Not being able to
understand the fact we all are wavefunctional collapse of a range of potential characters is even scaries.
You can never exclude statistics and human needs, whatever you do.
You cannot have full control ever of what you are, if you study deeply neuroscience, human behavior and quantum mechanics.
We just have to try be more human.
Less robotic, less predictable but not in a childish way just to be so.
What I say is not tender and sweet. Rethinking and reconnection to the world under less emotional filtering or a more clear
filtering is not an easy task.
Most people who are able to understand what we are is programmed, even if we are stateless and whatever we do, the did not
break the links with their random cultural loves and customs because of high iq, but because of pain, and afterwards they
realized the "whys".
The fact that we are programmed is not a reason to stop thinking and living a normal life. Even science speaks about a
posible range in large statistical numbers of population. You are not a population, you are an individual, so you have more
potential.
More potential does not mean that you can cheat statistics. People who tried to cheat statistics usually lose. Even a
single person is consisted of normal matter, therefore you must be aware not to overreact when you redefine your ID.
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