‘I am not a German Jew. I am a Jew with a German passport’: German-Jewish identification among Jewish Germans and Jewish German Israelis

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to explore the way German-Jews negotiate their German and Jewish cultural self-identifications. Given that Jewish and German identities represent both ethnic and national identities, we conceptualize their construction and reconstruction referring to theories of national identity. To describe the outcomes of the negotiation processes observed, we recruit Berry’s acculturation theory. This theory provides a valuable framework to conceptualize the integration of two cultural self- identifications.

The German-Jewish-Israeli setting is particularly interesting due to the complex relations between the three social groups emerging in the aftermath of the Holocaust. To explore the participants’ German, Jewish and Israeli self-identifications and the role of the Holocaust in their construction and reconstruction, we conducted 18 in-depth interviews. Findings imply that the Holocaust plays a role in the construction of an integrated German-Jewish identification. Yet, the Holocaust and its consequences notwithstanding, an integrated German-Jewish self-identification is possible.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic and national identity
• identification
• acculturation
• Israel
• Germany

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Following Smith (1991) and Joppke (2004), we view both German and Jewish national identifications as leaning more towards the ethnic national identity type, but not as strictly ethnic.

2. As members of the Ashkenazi group, the majority of Ashkenazi Jews hold a relatively high socio-economic position (Bar-Haim and Semyonov 2015)

3. ‘Jeckes’ is a term used to refer to German (Jewish) immigrants who arrived in Israel in the 1930s–1950s. Some maintain that it is related to the word Jacke (jacket, in German), while others maintain it is an acronym of Yehudi Kshe Havana (slow-witted Jew, in Hebrew).

4. The camps are summer camps organized by the German Zionist youth movement (ZJD).