jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

and the question exactly how voluntary my grandmother’s decision to convert really had been could no
longer be answered, particularly because she retained these traditions. So I was declared to be a Halachic
Jew. My identity was finally clear and that was good.
● Starting with the time that you began living consciously as a Jew, was it relatively clear for you which
movement you felt the closest to?
Yes, when I was 18, I saw the movie “Yentl”. That made such an impression on me; having the possibility to
explore Judaism, I wanted that, too. In Germany you can only have that in Liberal Judaism. That’s just the
way it is. Or in Conservative Judaism; equality between men and women is also part of Conservative
Judaism, it’s up to the Conservative Community to decide if they want that or not. I was lucky to end up in
Oldenburg, when we had the first female Rabbi in Germany.
● Rabbi Bea Wyler?
Yes. I studied with Bea for five years. I learned just about everything, how to perform the religious service,
leining the Torah, and that is what I still do here in Cologne and what I did in Oldenburg.
● Is your Jewishness an important aspect in your literary work?
Yes. One thing that shocks me is that there is for all practical purposes no youth literature about Jewish life in
Germany. There is one book, thank God, “Prince William, Max Minsky and Me” Holly-Jane Rahlens 13 , but
that’s the one book for young people describing Jewish life in Germany today. Every other book ends with
1945, which I think is horrible. And I want to change this. In all of my following book the main figures will
be Jewish.
● And that’s the direction you’d like your work to take?
Yes, absolutely. With “Hannah and the Others” [one of Adriana Stern’s recently published novels], the
caretaker is Jewish, and that’s the character I identify the most with. I also like Hannah a lot, that’s for sure,
but my work and my thoughts are directed to her caretaker, to Noa. There are different reasons for this. In
1994 people started talking about people with personality disorders. This was when it started being a big open
topic and there were conferences held about it. I attended two and there were discussions about diagnosis
based on what the therapists believed or not and it made me furious. When you work with girls who have
enormous problems anyway to talk about themselves because everyone thinks they’re crazy, then when they
have to deal with the therapist, the person who should be helping them, the therapist might not believe them. I
thought that’s enough. That was the great thing for me, I wrote the first book for young people about multiple
personality disorder. This was the first one in the world.
● A novel?
It’s a novel and it was the first and only book on the topic. I’m still hoping that it will somehow someday be
translated into English, so that it can become known in English speaking areas. That’s what I have to work
on, but that’s why I’m writing more and more.
13 “This has also been made into a movie, “Max Minsky and Me”, and it’s really fantastic. It’s by Holly-Jane Rahlens.
She’s a Jew from New York who lives in Berlin. Her daughter was born here and that’s why it’s relatively
autobiographical. The book is about the daughter, and her bat mitzvah and how she doesn’t have any time for it, because
other things are more important for her. It’s a great book, and then she’s in love with Prince William.”
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