Scenes from the top of the Reichstag...

Luke, Keren, Laura, Brandon, Adena, and Joel at the top of the dome itself and

Adam, Arjan, Nadine and Joel at the top of the Reichstag

and
Luke, Jay, Adena and Brandon (with the very hint of the top of the Neue Synagogue in the distance).

It's not a trip to Berlin without....

that fantastic group photo in front of the Brandenburg Gate. This picture was taken just before our morning meeting with Hans-Ulrich Klose, a representative from the SPD, Germany's Social Democrat Party, and a former exchange student to Clinton, Iowa.






(And, since Adam insisted, we all shifted to the side to take this one in front of the American Embassy.)

Dinner With Friends

Those group bonding exercises are really working! Here's the group at dinner just down the street from our hotel.

And their memories shall be for a blessing...

Everyone feels a shock of familiarity when they encounter the front gate of the Memorial of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Our tour guide, Toby, was a fantastic resource as he navigated us through the grounds of Sachsenhausen and its history. In the Camp's interior, in the same structure that holds the remains of the gas chamber and crematoria is another very affective memorial:

(We were there a few days after a delegation from Israel and the wreaths they brought were still there.)

We ended our visit with a beautiful (K')El Male Rakhamin sung by our group cantor Luke Hawley, kaddish and oseh shalom.

Scenes from the EastSide Gallery

LA (Joel)-Cinncinati (Monica) and New York (Adena) at the longest remaining segment of the Berlin Wall.

Which one is which? (Laura, Keren & Jay in front of Schiller, Goethe & Einstein) at the EastSide Gallery.

"What's Up With the Jews?"

Hard not to post this new piece from Stanley Fish in The NYTimes:

"So which is it? Jews are a success story, or Jews are a plague? Don’t mess with Jews, or blame Jews for everything in sight the moment you get drunk? Jews are victims (expulsions, pogroms, the Holocaust), or Jews are victimizers (rapacious bankers, shyster lawyers, land-grabbers and ethnic cleansers)? Jews are devils and sub-human vermin (a Nazi trope), or Jews are God’s chosen people?"

Who Owns History? And Who's Responsible For It?

In today's discussion, the first of many over the next two weeks, we got stuck on the notion of who bears what kind of obligation both to tell and to retell the story of the German Jewish experience of the last 1500 years. Who is the audience for such a narrative and which venue--highly symbolic like the Jewish Museum or intentionally abstract like Eisenmann's Memorial--is the most affective?

(Will it surprise anyone to know that opinions varied greatly?)

Has It Really Only Been Two Days?

Blessed with fantastic weather, the group divided our first full day into three major activities: a bus tour through East and West Berlin (thanks Angelika!), a deeply impressive visit to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (and the highly affective exhibit underground the memorial), and a (nearly) overwhelming afternoon at Libeskind's Jewish Museum. Here's the second of many (many) meals together along with our two fabulous guides Nadine and Arjan (in front on left and right).

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” (M. Buber)

Should you be too busy to scroll down the page and click on any of the links to the right, here's the message for you:
Our hotel in Berlin.
The Jewish community in Berlin. And everything Jewish in Berlin.
Abraham Geiger College where we'll be on Friday night.
The egal minyan where we'll be the next Friday night. And other synagogues in Berlin.
Scheunenviertel.
Sachsenhausen.
The Jewish Museum Berlin.
Reichstag and Bundestag (German Parliament).
Speyer.
Heidelberg (including the Hochschule fuer Juedische Studien).
Worms.
Leipzig.
.
A guide to Berlin!

You may also want to read up on these places through the various Wikipedia pages...it's always nice to know what you're seeing.

"The wastebasket is a writer's best friend." (I.B. Singer)

Check the Google Docs folder; journal questions are up and available!

Overcrowding in the German Classroom

"The department for history and philosophy, for one, is at 170 percent of capacity." Holy cow.

A Place to Rest Our Heads

At long last: hotel information!

Here's how to get there (print this out and bring it with you):
When you land at Tegel, you want to take Bus #128; you can find the stop next to Gate #15 in Terminal A. You can buy a ticket from the bus driver ("Einzelfahrt"/One way--A/B ticket) or from the machine at the bus stop (if you buy it from the machine, you will need to validate the ticket--the validating machine is on-the-bus itself; look for a red box with a slot in it). Take the bus to the U-Bahn (subway) station called "Kurt Schuhmacher Platz." You'll get off the bus and go downstairs to get on the U-6 toward "Alt-Mariendorf." (The directions are -very- clearly marked, plus the trains themselves are labeled with the direction in which they travel.)

You'll go NINE stations to "Oranienburger Tor." Get off the train and go out of the station. You'll walk north on Friedrichstrasse to Oranienburgerstrasse (look at the map). Turn right on Oranienburgerstrasse, walking on the south side of the street. Our hotel is on the right side of the street, number 52.

It's a great place in a great place: we are very lucky to be there!

The Other Side of the Coin

What's it like for a third generation Germany who discovers his/her grandfather was a Nazi? Sounds heartwrenching.

"A Berlin Jew" and (some of) his beefs

An honest, if irreverent, take on being a Jew in Berlin by Fabian Wolff a la his articles on the Heeb blog. Here's one that sets the scene; here's a serious critique of the new "humor" of some German hipsters (I'm partial to this line: "For me, one of the few Jews living in Berlin, I have to say screw this getting comfortable with history BS.").

What's your take on the new comic turn--funny? harmless? offensive? Something else entirely?

New Exhibit on Eichmann's Trial Opens Old Wounds

The New York Times' Europe correspondant, Michael Kimmelman, on the new exhibit at the Topography of Terror (near the site of Hitler's bunker in Berlin) on Eichmann and his trial (50 years ago this year).