This is not the first time that I have said goodbye to a column with a heavy heart. After writing my column “Loud’n Jewcy” at “Missy Magazine” for seven years, the Tagesspiegel became my new home.
While I was still working at “Missy,” I jokingly said to my partner that I would one day write a Jewish column for the Tagesspiegel. Because the checkpoint kept picking up on my tweets back then.
And then Sasha Salzmann wrote to me at the beginning of 2023 that a culture editor had asked for my contact. For a Jewish column – for the Tagesspiegel! The first phone call was super nice, but also worrying. A fortnightly column on Jewish topics. The challenge: always with a connection to Berlin.
Childhood imagination and taste
Berlin has the largest Jewish population in Germany, which sounds impressive, but is quickly put into perspective when you consider how small Germany’s overall Jewish population is. “Most Jews” out of few Jews is still very few. So is it realistic to write about something Jewish with an explicit connection to Berlin every 14 days? Is Berlin even Jewish enough? Two and a half years and over 60 texts later I can say: Jain.
Berlin was a very Jewish city before 1933. Today we only exist in it. Sometimes bad, sometimes right. But my Berlin is Jewish. Because I experience it through my Jewish eyes. Because I have Jewish experiences in it, both good and bad.
Because I grew up as a Jew in this city. Because place names like “Lichterfelde” or institutions like the FU are part of my Jewish memory and Jewish childhood imagination. Because I see, experience and even taste my Berlin in my Jewishness. That’s what this column taught me: Berlin is in the eye of the (Jewish) beholder.
Thank you to all readers, to the cultural editorial team, thank you for two and a half wonderful years in which I was able to share my Jewish Berlin.