What was life like for Jewish communities behind the Berlin Wall? We explore this and Jewish life in Germany's eastern regions before World War II, during the Holocaust and today in our autumn Passport section. Delve into the hopes of Germany's postwar Jews, the reality of life within the Soviet Bloc, and the challenges faced by a community under threat from the far right today, with guests who have lived in both the GDR and present-day Berlin. Speakers include Cathy Gelbin, a film historian and cultural studies scholar who grew up in the GDR, but now lives in Manchester; award-winning journalist Toby Axelrod, who is the Jewish Telegraph Agency's correspondent for Germany, Switzerland and Austria; Monica Petzal, London-born painter and printmaker, who’s parents are German Jewish refugees; and Dr Julia Friedrich, director of collections and exhibitions at the Jewish Museum Berlin, where Another Country: Jewish in the GDR has just opened. Hosted in association with the Lyons Learning Project.
Please register below to receive the Zoom link, which will be sent out a few days before the event.*
*If you booked your ticket and have not received the link by 5pm on the day of the event, please check your spam folder and, if it's not there, email programming@jewishrenaissance.org.uk.
Header photo: Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 1989 © Alamy
Free
JR has an ethical ticketing policy and is offering free tickets to this event, but if you can afford it, please donate to support our work. We are proposing denominations of 18 – the numerical value of the Hebrew word 'chai', meaning 'life'.