Andreas Nachama

Jews in Berlin Andreas Nachama Updated edition

This richly illustrated book depicts 750 years of Jewish history as well as Jewish life in Berlin today. The Prussian capital was, for many centuries, the center of Jewish life in Germany. Its Jewish citizens strongly influenced the city s cultural and literary life and led the way in the sciences, from the 18th century salon of Rachel Varnhagen to the cabarets of the Weimar Republic. However, economic crisis, hyper-inflation, and the depression of 1929 provided rich soil for the growth of anti-Semitism and ultimately led to the Holocaust. But today, Jewish life and Jewish culture are flourishing once again, after tens of thousands of immigrants from Russia and Israel have arrived in the capital.

The authors of Jews in Berlin are among the most distinguished experts; Julius H. Schoeps is the director of the Moses Mendelssohn Center, the author of numerous books, and a descendant of Moses Mendelssohn. Andreas Nachama is the director of the Topography of Terror Museum. Hermann Simon is the director of the Foundation New Synagogue Berlin and the Centrum Judaicum. An update was provided by Judith Kessler, editor of jewish berlin, the magazine of the Berlin Jewish Community, and André Anchuelo, a reporter for Juedische Allgemeine, the paper of the Council on Jews in Germany. Carol Kahn Strauss, the international director of the Leo Baeck Institute, provided the foreword.

Jews in Berlin is the updated, 2013 softcover edition of the 2003 hardcover, published by Henschel in Germany. Berliner Zeitung, Berlin s largest daily, writes about Jews in Berlin: Finally, a comprehensive book on the history of Jews in Berlin has arrived! Never has there been such a complete overview supported by wonderful illustrations.