Overview

The fascinating history of German Jews who built a community just outside Jerusalem. In the 1920s, before the establishment of Israel, a group of German Jews settled in a garden city on the outskirts of Jerusalem. During World War II, their quiet community, nicknamed Grunewald on the Orient, emerged as both an immigrant safe haven and a lively expatriate hotspot, welcoming many famous residents including poet-playwright Else Lasker-Schüler, historian Gershom Scholem, and philosopher Martin Buber. It was an idyllic setting, if fraught with unique tensions on the fringes of the long-divided holy city. After the war, despite the weight of the Shoah, the neighborhood miraculously repaired shattered bonds between German and Israeli residents. In German Jerusalem, Thomas Sparr opens up the history of this remarkable community and the forgotten borderland they called home.

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9781914979040

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Reviews

'Sparr ... is an engaging guide, with a fine eye for detail. Ably translated by Stephen Brown, he walks us through apartments, schools and cafes and takes us into the lives of Rehavia's former luminaries and visitors. German Jerusalem is a sparkling introduction with a dazzling cast.'Times Literary Supplement 'An elegiac, anecdotal study' Literary Review 'This engag ing ly writ ten his to ry brings a sig nif i cant neigh borhood to life as it nar rates the sto ry of its res i dents, entic ing those who may not be famil iar with this part of Jerusalem to fur ther explore its his tor i cal roots as well as its mod ern joys.'Jewish Book Council 'A compelling chronicle of an oft-overlooked piece of 20th-century European history' Kirkus Review 'Sparr's intellectual enterprise of reconstitution and research of half-erased traces is eminently seductive.' History: Reviews of New Books Journal '[Sparr is] like one of those highly-qualified ''blue'' guides who know so much about London - and can make every detail interesting.'Association of Jewish Refugees Journal

‘Sparr … is an engaging guide, with a fine eye for detail. Ably translated by Stephen Brown, he walks us through apartments, schools and cafes and takes us into the lives of Rehavia’s former luminaries and visitors. German Jerusalem is a sparkling introduction with a dazzling cast.’Times Literary Supplement ‘An elegiac, anecdotal study’ Literary Review ‘This engag­ing­ly writ­ten his­to­ry brings a sig­nif­i­cant neigh­borhood to life as it nar­rates the sto­ry of its res­i­dents, entic­ing those who may not be famil­iar with this part of Jerusalem to fur­ther explore its his­tor­i­cal roots as well as its mod­ern joys.’Jewish Book Council ‘A compelling chronicle of an oft-overlooked piece of 20th-century European history’ Kirkus Review ‘Sparr’s intellectual enterprise of reconstitution and research of half-erased traces is eminently seductive.’ History: Reviews of New Books Journal ‘[Sparr is] like one of those highly-qualified ‘‘blue’’ guides who know so much about London – and can make every detail interesting.’Association of Jewish Refugees Journal

Author Information

Thomas Sparr worked at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem's Leo Baeck Institute from 1986 to 1989. Today he lives in Berlin where he works as an editor-at-large for Suhrkamp and as an independent writer and scholar. Stephen Brown is a playwright, translator, and cultural critic.

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