Who is a Jew?

Who Is A Jew?

A fact that has surprised many of us during the trip is the general German Jewish Community’s choice to only recognize as Jews those people with Jewish mothers.  We were told that this is because the Jewish Community is predominantly Orthodox and so the decision is driven by Halacha (Rabbinical Jewish law).  What is ironic here is the fact that the Nazis defined “Jewish” – through the Nuremberg Laws – as having at least one Jewish grandparent.  Therefore, a significant proportion of the six million people classified and murdered by the Nazis as Jewish would not be considered Jewish by the Orthodox Jewish Community.  The State of Israel’s “law of return” is based on the Nuremberg Laws in that any person who would have been targeted as a Jew by the Nazi regime has the right to make Aliyah to Israel and become an Israeli citizen.  It is ironic and problematic, therefore, that the German Jewish Community – and certain other Jewish communities around the world for that matter – does not recognize as Jewish those who do not have a Jewish mother but who identify as Jewish.  We have more about this subject to discuss and some of us have talked about bringing up this topic when we meet young Jewish Germans on tomorrow evening.

A Taste of Germany

After an “interesting” lunch at Old Western, (an American-style restaurant that served ribs, salads, and burgers pinned together with American flags, and displayed an “Aunt Jemima” statue in the entrance), we were let loose to explore Rostock’s city center.  Rostock had an old European town flavor, with narrow cobble-stoned streets lined with boutiques and, most importantly, food vendors.  The foods we tried included: fried cauliflower with cheese sauce, licorice, fried dough, Nutella and banana crepes, ice-cream, Bratwursts, cotton candy, steamy fresh bread, and the token “Gummy” store with a German flare.  It would be unfair to exclude mentioning our favorite fashion store, T-K Maxx.  The overall consensus of the group is that we didn’t want to leave, but time was not on our hands and we made our way to Hamburg (while eating the steamy fresh bread)…