Michale B. Oren, Germany

Wow I have so much to say and to tell since the last I wrote!

On October 11th, we had a speaker, Michael B. Oren, come in to discuss his new book, Faith, Fantasy, and Power. He has pretty amaing credientials including serving the IDF as a paratrooper, as a consultant for the White House, taught at Yale and Harvard, etc. Right now he's a fellow at the Shalom Center in Jerusalem. He researched America's foreign policy towards Middle East since 1776. It was incredible to hear how the 1000 Arabian Nights was the most popular book after the Bible during colonial times and how America was the first to bring education to the area with the American University at Beruit and Cairo. Afterwards, I had dinner with him with my student group, American Jewish Committee Student Society, and the department of Jewish Studies. He wound up sitting next to Anat so naturally, they spoke in Hebrew. Oh, I was in heaven for 20 minutes, just listening. I missed that soooo much- just listening to Hebrew. When it was time to finally discuss as a group, he talked about Israel- everything, mostly the complexities of the society including the haredim and FSU.

When I spoke with Zev two weeks later, well, let's put it this way. Next time, I have to ask him about an incoming speaker. He actually housed Michael Oren during his IDF years in Jerusalem! Gotta love that Jewish Geography game. I couldn't believe it so I had to send Michael Oren an e-mail to confirm this. He said he knew Zev personally.

Second piece of news: I applied to go on a leadership mission trip to Germany with AJC and I was accepted! I am so excited. Here's the essay that I wrote...practically at the last minute because a friend reminded me that the deadline was "today" after I brainstormed with Rabbi Dave trying to figure out what to write. Got right on the computer afer dinner to write this;

Modern Jewish history could not have existed without Germany’s greatest Jewish thinkers. And as a Jewish historian with a deep interest in modern Jewish history, particularly the Holocaust, I must go on this AJC trip. I also embrace the debates surrounding Haskalah because it was a watershed in Jewish history that further divided Jews in determining the question of “what is a Jew?” Going to Germany to see and learn about the origins of these events is a necessity for me to actually relate to my studies. For someone who has studied and memorized concentration camps’ names, facts, and dates, and followed the reconstruction of German Jewry in the last few years, this is an opportunity to view them up close. I am planning on pursuing my PhD in Jewish history though I plan to focus on American Jewish history in relation to identity. I am hoping that by being involved with the trip and meeting with the German Jews and leaders, I can better understand how the German Jewry defines their Jewish identity as a comparative group for my research. You have one group of highly assimilated Jews (Americans) and another group of Jews who view their identity as a nationality (Israelis). Now I want to see another group of Jews in the Diaspora, particularly in a country where they were highly assimilated in the German society, saw its rich legacy shatter overnight, and then found themselves having to start over again. How do they, particularly the older generations, reconcile with their Jewish identity? What about the young generations?
I have only been to Eastern Europe once- Prague. While Terezin actually did not impress me as much as I expected, I was suddenly emotional when I visited the old Jewish cemetery in Prague’s Jewish Quarter. Jews had really lived here for centuries. I felt a kinship in there just as I felt a connection when I walked through the exhibits of the US Holocaust Museum when I was 16 year old atheist and when I lived in Israel for seven months last spring. With Germany, I hope to find another spot, somewhere, even if the Nazis destroyed much of the evidence that the Jews had lived there. It could be a piece of rumble from a synagogue or seeing a barbed wire fence at one of the death camps or even a conversation with a German Jew. I don’t know. I must go to Germany to discover where I can connect with my Jewish identity in a land that destroyed its own incredible Jewish population, see living history of the buildings dedicated to the Jews, and meet with the people that I will meet and ask questions on how they came to be where they are today after all these years.

So this winter break is shaping up to be very exciting as my first year with that trip to Kyoto, Japan. Before I'll know it, I'll be hearing back from graduate schools!