The third episode of the Jüdische Geschichte Kompakt podcast series, “(Hi)stories of the German-Jewish Diaspora,” has just been released. In this episode, Lisa Sophie Gebhard sits down with author Steven Less to discuss the historical significance of Shanghai as one of the last havens for German-speaking Jews fleeing persecution. Their conversation delves into how the experience of flight affected the second generation, the influence of Shanghai on the life and art of Less’s father, and how his parents’ German-Jewish heritage shaped his own identity.
The episode “Flucht nach Shanghai. Eine Vater-Sohn-Beziehung zwischen Traumata, Erinnerung und Neubeginn“ is available here
A new episode of the Jüdische Geschichte Kompakt podcast series, “(Hi)stories of the German-Jewish Diaspora,” is now available online. This episode delves into the significance of both North and South America for German-speaking Jews after their emigration and flight from Europe. Together with historians Liliana Feierstein and David Jünger, Lutz Fiedler examines the German-Jewish diaspora in Latin America and the United States from a comparative perspective.
The episode “Zweierlei Amerika – Deutsch-jüdische Diaspora in den USA und Lateinamerika” is available here
The new season of the podcast Jüdische Geschichte Kompakt — a collaboration between the Moses Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam and the Institute for the History of the German Jews in Hamburg — explores the global trajectories of the German-Jewish diaspora. Lisa Sophie Gebhard and Lutz Fiedler, together with their guests, examine how German-speaking Jews shaped their daily lives in places such as Buenos Aires, Haifa, London, New York, and Shanghai. The show delves into their local and transnational communities and investigates how individuals navigated their German-Jewish heritage in the aftermath of the Shoah.
For the first episode, historian Atina Grossmann from New York joins the conversation. Renowned for her keen sense of forgotten figures and places, Grossmann has spent several years researching overlooked places of refuge in the so-called Global South. In this episode, she discusses her family’s history, her research, and how the two are intertwined.
The episode “Remapping Survival: Atina Grossmann über deutsch-jüdische Fluchterfahrungen” is available here
Our authors, Bea Lewkowicz (AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive) and Christine Schmidt (Wiener Holocaust Library), participated in the inaugural Eva Reichmann Lecture, organized as part of the LBI 70th Anniversary Celebrations. Alongside Natalia Aleksiun (University of Florida), they examined Reichmann’s life, work, and legacy.
The historian and sociologist Reichmann was forced to leave Berlin in 1939 for London, where she remained until her death at age 101. As an academic who worked outside traditional institutions due largely to forced migration, sexism, and patriarchal structural barriers, she nevertheless made significant contributions to the study of antisemitism and the German-Jewish experience.
The roundtable discussion is available to view here.
The AJR Journal marks its eightieth anniversary with a special issue featuring Dominique Miething (Free University of Berlin), who discusses the legacy ofpacifist and educator Martha Steinitz.
AJR Journal, the journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), commenced publication in January 1946 as AJR Information and has appeared every month since. It aimed to preserve the cultural heritage of German-speaking Jewry in the refugees’ new homeland, but it also sought to ease the process of the integration of refugees into British society.