Becoming Jewish in Berlin

A deep analysis of Israeli migration to Berlin and different trajectories of becoming Jewish in the German capital expressions of Jewishness »Berlin style« in an urban religious scene.

Why do young Israelis choose to come to Berlin and how does this impact Jewish life? With this ethnography, Vanessa Rau provides a captivating portrait and analysis of a new Jewish-Hebrew urban scene. Depicting different initiatives and biographical trajectories, she shows diverse and complex ways of being and becoming Jewish in Berlin, and presents an analysis of a vibrant scene, its actors, stages and performances and how it is shaped by its historical and socio-political context and representations. She shows how actors struggle with fundamental questions of »being Jewish« and »being German« and illuminates contemporary Jewishness offering new understandings of migration and its impact on social and religious life.

Auteur

Vanessa Rau is a sociologist at the Max-Planck-Institute for the study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen. She received her doctorate in sociology at the University of Cambridge and was awarded with the Körber Dissertation Prize. Her research focuses on religion, secularism, migration, disability, emotions, and the politics of diversity and difference more broadly.