The bridal couple Taya Levin and Savelli Mackin arrive at the synagogue on Pestalozzistrasse, Berlin Charlottenburg, 1992   

Michael Kerstgens began his long-term photographic documentation of Jewish life in Germany in 1992. The immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union soon came to represent the chief focus of his work.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90, nearly a quarter of a million Jewish immigrants – so-called “quota refugees” – came to Germany from the former Soviet Union. This wave of immigration brought about lasting changes in the German Jewish community. Of the approximately 110,000 members of Germany’s Jewish population, some 90,000 are of Russian-speaking origin. In addition to the challenges of adapting to German society – learning the language, coming to terms with everyday life, finding work, etc. – their integration in the Jewish communities has not always been easy. Many of the immigrants know little or nothing about Jewish religion and history. They were drawn to Germany primarily by the hope of better prospects for the future. Their needs and wishes differ in many respects from those of the old-established members of the communities. Despite the difficulties, however, the influx of immigrants represents a renewal of Jewish life in Germany.
    
Michael Kerstgens is one of the few photographers to have documented the immigration of Russian-speaking Jews intensively over a long period. His photos can be regarded an initial visual reflection on a process which has not yet reached its conclusion and whose outcome is accordingly still unknown. Encompassing 162 shots in black and white, the series belongs to the Jewish Museum Berlin's photo collection. Nearly half of them are on view in this exhibition as inkjet prints.

The photographs are being shown in parallel with the exhibit Berlin Transit. Jewish Migrants from Eastern Europe in the 1920s. They extend the historical view of the theme of migration right up to the present and trace the question of how Jewish life in Germany has changed with the immigration of Russian-speaking Jews through the 20th century.