Archive for November, 2008

A group of idealistic, mostly non-Jewish young Germans is tackling anti-Semitism in a Muslim-dominated neighborhood.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Berlin — On a December afternoon in 2006, in a predominantly Turkish section of this rapidly changing Berlin, a 14-year-old girl was walking home from the Lisa Morgenstern High School with her Muslim classmates, as they did most days. But the friendships ended when, one day, the girl casually mentioned that she was Jewish. In the next few weeks, those classmates and others hurled anti-Semitic insults at her and even attacked her physically, delivering blows to her back and head.

The incident, told by a neighborhood anti-discrimination activist, wasn’t an isolated one. Last year alone, there were 1,541 crimes against Jews reported in Germany, according to a Reuters faith blog. Yet while neo-Nazi-based anti-Semitism is well documented and remains a significant problem in Germany, the
phenomenon of Muslim anti-Semitism is growing and only now coming into sharper view.

Turkish immigrants began to pour into West Berlin as “guest workers” with the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. As the country’s Muslim population has soared — there are now more than two million Turkish Muslims in Germany, many of them working-class — so has the problem of hatred against Jews. The attacks of 9/11 and flare-ups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have exacerbated the problem here, as they have throughout much of Europe, especially in France.

But a group of idealistic and ethnically mixed young Germans — some Jewish, most not — is working to combat the problem. And the group is taking its fight into the heart of Kreuzberg, the central Berlin neighborhood located just south of the fashionable Mitte district and east of the sprawling greenery of Tiergarten Park. The neighborhood is home to a huge Muslim population, consisting mostly of Turks, but also including Palestinian refugees and South Asian Muslims.

Armed only with play-acting techniques, memory games and the powerful stories of Kreuzberg Holocaust survivors, members of the group — officially dubbed the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism — go into Kreuzberg’s high school classrooms with a noble but excruciatingly difficult goal: trying to break down long-held stereotypes and bridge a gaping ethnic gulf.

“There are many programs that deal with radical right people like the Nazis,” said Karoline Georg, 28, one of the Kreuzberg Initiative fellows. “There are many programs against racism and anti-Semitism. It took a really long time before [the government funded] projects like ours.”

[[To read the rest of my story from this week's Jewish Week, click here...]]

Nearly every morning, I consume some form of caffeinated diet soda as my replacement for coffee, which, unfortunately, can cause some unpleasant reactions in my digestive system. Depending on the day, I’ll usually stop for this atypical AM fuel at one of two places. If it’s a fountain soda that I crave (and that’s the usual), I’ll stop at the Subway “restaurant” on 50th Street and Broadway. If I don’t mind forgoing my fountain soda addiction that day, I’ll just purchase a bottle at the convenience store in the bottom of our office building.

For some reason, these seemingly mundane pit stops so often lead to strange situations or interesting revelations, to the say the least. At Subway, the Indian woman who I think must be the franchise manager has some very quirky mannerisms – not at all what you’d expect smack in the middle of Manhattan. One morning, I was eating a Ziploc bag-full of my Kellogg’s Smart Start cereal as I entered her Subway. As I paid the steep price of $1.83 for the 32 oz. cup, she stared penetratingly at my bag of cereal. Apparently in awe of my half-empty bag of mangled oats and flakes, she asked if she could try some. A bit thrown off by this request, I confusedly handed over my plastic bag, and she munched on a few pieces of the cereal. “I’m going to buy this for my daughter,” she said. I took the bag and my empty cup, filled it with a the perfect Sharon blend of diet and regular cola…and walked out.

Rarely in my life has a complete stranger ever asked to try my food, certainly never when it looked like unappetizing mounds of birdfeed. Maybe it’s just an American problem, a difference in cultures – since we were children, we’ve always learned “don’t take candy from strangers,” and we grow up this way, minding our own germs and staying away from those of others. While odd, there was something endearing about this person’s innocent request, and I was happy to satisfy her curiosity about Kellogg’s Smart Start.

On the days I don’t stop at Subway, I purchase my diet soda (usually Diet Pepsi or Diet Mountain Dew) and the little convenience store in the office lobby, where a friendly salesman from somewhere in south Asia greets you warmly everyday. Throughout the day, people who work in the building trickle in and out of his store, making casual conversation and buying lottery tickets. Today something struck me in particular – a 60-some-odd blonde woman went up to the register and requested “the winning ticket” because she hasn’t “had any luck so far.” This comment, as nonchalant as it was, made me think of the current economic situation and how see the convenience stores and kiosks are filling up with more and more people who desperately are trying their luck with the lottery. And in the process, they’re losing a dollar or two every time they play. But still they return, and the shop manager in our office building wishes each customer a personal “good luck.”

My ongoing odyssey for all types of diet soda has definitely led me to new understandings and most certainly to interesting people. You know, come to think of it, because I see these people so often, I should probably know their names. 

Fellow journalist Zachary Goelman: “So, let’s start a restaurant called Ma’aris Ayin, where all the food looks totally trayf but is 100 percent kosher.”

But, then, who would the customers be? According to Zach, those would be “frummies who want to live on the wild side.” In these times, with the world economic systems going haywire, this type of entrepreneurial venture could be just what the Jewish community needs. Or not. But at least it was funny to think about.

Zach came up with the idea when I informed him that my friend from work and I had joking decided to open up a snius strip club to earn some extra revenue. You know, a club that’s just modest enough for the Orthodox Jew – make a few bucks by showing a hint of elbow every now and then. Kosher enough inside, but who would want to be spotted going through those trayf-looking doors?

All kidding aside, this ma’aris ayin notion makes me think of a few situations in the past, where I’ve tried to meet up with ultra-Orthodox friends and colleagues – the situation was always complicated. Starbucks: totally fine, even for haredi customers. But what about Cosi? Sure, they make totally trayf sandwiches and salads, but why is it so uncomfortable for an ultra-Orthodox colleague to join a reporter at a table there over coffee? Why, I asked? Because another Chabadnik might see him or her entering the restaurant and assume that this totally kashrut-minded person was now eating a meal at Cosi – which, in essence, would lead to huge amounts of social alienation within the Crown Heights community. Then again, even if the restaurant was glatt kosher, a black-hatted 20-something man could certainly not be seen eating a sandwich at a table with a pant-clad female reporter, could he? Rumors abound…

Now I certainly don’t mean any disrespect toward those who follow these ma’aris ayin forbiddances; in fact, I have many friends and colleagues who are highly observant or even ultra-Orthodox. What makes me sad, however, is the fact that community members can’t simply trust one and other and respect each other’s actions without unknowledgeably shunning a person to the rest of his or her social network. Afterall, empty tables are difficult to come by in New York, so if you need a seat, who cares about the venue? No one’s forcing you to eat.

I’m thinking that I might finally give in and get a Blackberry, especially since this Storm does everything any user could possibly ever want AND it remains on the Verizon network. The phone itself won’t be too expensive, especially because it’s been three years since my last new device. I wonder how it’s going to do in comparison to the iPhone – both seem to have international usage capabilities, GPS, cameras, touchscreens.

The question is – is it worth the monthly data plan fee? And discounting the fee, what about the Blackberry addiction syndromes? I know that even my own mother – who, though I love her, is not typically the most technologically apt person – can’t go more than a few minutes without pulling out her 8830, where she can constantly check her e-mails and send text messages to her children. What about my college-age brother and cousins? Blackberries seem to be one of the more popular accessories among America’s elite college students, but I’ve seen these family members of mine so captivated by their devices that they couldn’t keep up with a normal conversation. Or how about on Passover, when these very same family members were BBM-ing each other from across the dining room table? At least it wasn’t Yom Kippur…

After much debate, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up getting that phone. But I’m going to need to put myself on a diet of sorts – no Blackberry overindulgence, and maintain face-to-face and voice-to-voice contact with all the people I care about. And that is my vow.

Two Wednesdays ago, I got my first piece of career-related hate mail – three sides of loose-leaf paper lined with Sharpie cursive, varying in font size depending on the degree of rage at the moment. It was kind of an honor, in my opinion, to have infuriated someone so deeply. First of all, my two articles (see here and here) certainly were non-partisan, and I fairly explained the situation at hand. Sure, I didn’t quote Sarah Silverman word for word, but I was obliged by the standards of the paper to leave out the profanities that so markedly pervade the young comedienne’s language.

Anyway, here is a typed version of the letter, although without the Sharpie penmanship, the piece loses a bit of its luster. Out of respect for my writer, I am going to leave out his name and address, but I would appreciate any ideas you might have for a response to him. I wonder how he feels about Obama’s win.

“Dear Ms. Udasin,

            In your article last week about the “Schleppers” going to Florida to convince their aging parents and grandparents to vote for OBAMA you did something that was journalistically reprehensible. You wrote that ‘Sarah Silverman asked young Jews all over America to stop being lazy and go visit their grandparents to vote for Sen. Obama.’

            What you did was sanitize her real words where she said ‘they should get off their fat Jewish asses to go to Florida.’ If that wasn’t repugnant enough she also claimed ‘If Obama loses the election I’m going to blame the Jews…I really will.’

            That’s a far cry from what you described as ‘Silverman asked young Jews to stop being lazy.’ Ms. UDASIN, are you so enamored of Sarah Silverman and her filthy, vile disgusting jokes and epithets that you felt compelled to clean up what she really said? It’s bad enough that Sarah Silverman tells all her viewers on YouTube and Comedy Clubs that she is the epitome and representative role model of a Jewish American Princess. That this filthy mouthed comedian gives a false and distorted stereotypical view to hundreds of thousands of impressionable Gentiles doesn’t seem to bother you one bit as you describe her as ‘notorious.’ In your previous article on the topic you asked, ‘is Sarah Silverman too off-color?’

            To whom exactly were you asking this question and from whom were you expecting a response? So you took the COWARD’S way out and left your question hanging there in limbo because you don’t have a shred of journalistic integrity to criticize and blast her for these vile remarks. You are an obvious Obama supporter and you therefore sold out your otherwise fair and objective journalistic responsibility.

            Mazel Tov and Congratulations on the probable forthcoming OBAMA victory.

            As for me, I will not be renewing my subscription to the Jewish Week because of their stealth support of Obama through the reporting of writers like you and Ron Kampeas in his whitewash of Jesse Jackson’s ‘ZIONISTIC remarks.’

                                                                                                Again, Mazel Tov

                                                                                               [Name and address]”

For real. You know, one that I might actually update and pay attention to. I’m still not quite sure what this blog will be about, save a few wanderlustful (yes, I too can make up my own words) ramblings and commentary on whatever is going on in the world/my world at the moment. And, of course, I’ll include updates about my own articles, from my Staff Writer position at The Jewish Week in New York and from any freelance opportunities I might have. 

Hope you enjoy what you read, and if not, well, don’t come back!

-Sharon Udasin

You can also visit my Web site at www.sharonudasin.com.