The documentary by the friends Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias, in which they carefully approach their hometown Jerusalem, is tragicomical and deeply personal.
The filmmakers are among the estimated 25,000 Israelis who have moved to Berlin in recent years. They say when describing their reasons for leaving Jerusalem:
"When we were young and lived in Jerusalem, people tried to intimidate us. They said that in 20-30 years only orthodox Jews and Arabs will remain in the city. They counted on us to save the city, fight for its secular, modern character. They thought we would transform it into the cosmopolitan city it was meant to be.
Past event
Where
Old Building, level 2, Great Hall
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
It didn't work. Instead, the intimidation became a self-fulfilling prophecy. We were so scared that there wouldn't be a place for us in the city that we left. We became a whole generation of young, secular Jerusalemites who left the city. A generation for whom nothing is sacred,who is not willing to fight for anything. A generation of cowards."
But their childhood city won’t let go of them. They return for the film, to renegotiate their relationship with their homeland – they visit places that they had turned their backs on and places they have loved. They join tourist groups, go to the football stadium, talk to street vendors and to Orthodox Jews. The tense relationship between secular and (ultra) religious Jewish forces intensifies when they revisit Dalia's parents home, which could hardly feel more alien – it is now a Yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish school.
Film still; Dalia Castel
Trailer (Hebrew with German subtitles)
| Genre | Documentary |
|---|---|
| Directors | Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias |
| Production Countries | Israel/Germany |
| Language | Hebrew with German subtitles |
| Production Year | 2011 |
| Length | 61 minutes |
| Awards | Authors' Award of the Frankfurt Authors’ Foundation 2014; Best feature film at the Boddinale 2015 |
The film was followed by a discussion with the filmmakers about what makes Jerusalem so unique – yesterday and today.
Film still; Dalia Castel
Audio recording: Discussion with filmmakers Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias following the screening of Jerusalem for Cowards; 19 February 2018, Jewish Museum Berlin 2018
With the support of Siemens AG
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Events Accompanying the Exhibition: Welcome to Jerusalem (17)
Welcome to Jerusalem
Readings, movies, lectures – events for adults, kids, and families during our exhibition Welcome to Jerusalem
The Holiness of Jerusalem as Reflected in its Architecture
25. April 2019
The holiness of Jerusalem is reflected in particular in its impressive sacred buildings. Lectures and ensuing discussion with Florian Lippke (BIBEL+ORIENT Museum Freiburg, Switzerland), Klaus Bieberstein (Otto Friedrich University, Bamberg) and Jürgen Krüger (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology).
Katharina Galor –
The Temple Mount
9 January 2019
Archaeologist Katharina Galor talks about the historical and archaeological heritage of Jerusalem’s most controversial site – the Temple Mount (Har haBait). She presents various research initiatives and highlights the role of religiously or politically motivated agendas in the research process. (with audio recording)
Monday Movies: Du sollst nicht lieben (Eyes Wide Open)
26 November 2018, 7 pm
Feature film debut on homosexuality in a strictly religious environment.
Director: Haim Tabakman
Language: Hebrew with German subtitles
6 pm: Brief tour of the exhibition for visitors to Monday Movies
Monday Movies: Ink of Yam
24 September 2018
While the ink penetrates people’s skin, they tell their stories in the tattoo studio outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
Director: Tom Fröhlich
Language: Englisch, Hebrew, Arabic with German subtitles; Diskussion in German
6 pm: Brief tour of the exhibition for visitors to Monday Movies
Michael Sfard:
The Jerusalem Dispute. The Fight for Human Rights in Israeli Courts
6 September 2018, 7 pm
Lecture by Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers (with video recording)
Monday Movies:
Three Days and a Child
4 June 2018, 7 pm
Directed by: Uri Zohar
6 pm: Brief tour of the exhibition for visitors to Monday Movies
Tom Segev: David Ben-Gurion
17 May 2018, 7.30 pm
Book Presentation and Discussion with the Author
Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem
8 May 2018, 7 pm
Menachem Klein in Conversation with Cilly Kugelmann (with Video Recording)
Monday Movies: Berlin-Jerusalem
16 April 2018, 7 pm
Directed by Amos Gitai
A brief tour of the exhibition in German will be held for Monday Movie visitors at 6 pm. Admission with the museum ticket.
The Mazzah Bakery
5 April 2018, 11 am:
Guided tour and baking workshop for children aged 7 to 10 during the Berlin school break
Jerusalem in Conflict
17 March 2018, 11 am
Public tour for adults on the political conflicts in and around the city of Jerusalem (in German)
Rechavia – Grunewald in the Orient
28 February 2018, 7 pm
Reading with Thomas Sparr on German-Jewish Jerusalem (with Audio Recording; in German)
Monday Movie:
Jerusalem for Cowards
19 February 2018, 7 pm
Film screening and discussion with the directors Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias (with Audio Recording of the discussion)
Who is carrying the Menorah?
8 February 2018, 6 pm
Talk by Steven Fine on Jewish Counter-Histories of the Arch of Titus Spoils Panel (with Audio Recording)
Three Loaves and One Hallelujah
8 February 2018, 11 am
For children aged 7 to 10 during the Berlin school holidays
Concert: A Prelude to the New Exhibition
6 December 2017, 8 pm
Jordi Savall with the Hespèrion Ensemble XXI and the Capella Reial de Catalunya
Jerusalem in Dialogue
(in German)
Two guides with personal connections to Jerusalem lead through the exhibition. Gain new perspectives in a unique tour.
Audio Recordings: Listen to Past Museum Events (66)
Listen to Past Museum Events
Lectures, book presentations, theatrical readings, panel discussions, and award ceremonies
World History in Berlin
The Humboldt Brothers and the Jewish Enlightenment
With: Uta Lohmann, Sebastian Panwitz, and Conrad Wiedemann, Humboldt researchers
Language: German
Lecture/Discussion
30 Oct 2019
Antisemitism Today – A Challenge for School and Society
21 February 2019
Talk by Juliane Wetzel as part of the symposium Actively Countering Antisemitism and Exclusion (in German)
Katharina Galor: The Temple Mount
9 January 2019
Archaeologist Katharina Galor talks about the historical and archaeological heritage of Jerusalem’s most controversial site – the Temple Mount (Har haBait). She presents various research initiatives and highlights the role of religiously or politically motivated agendas in the research process.
Assaf Gavron:
Achtzehn Hiebe (Eighteen Blows)
28 July 2018
Reading and Discussion
Achtzehn Hiebe is a novel of love and a detective story, a piece of contemporary history, and a journey through Israel of today. The Israeli author Assaf Gavron presents his new novel with the actor Golo Euler and the journalist Ulrich Gutmair (taz).
Stolen Judaica
Provenance Research in Israel and Germany
In this symposium, research that explores the origins of Jewish ceremonial objects exclusively in Israel and Germany, took center stage for the first time.
Conference
18/19 Jun 2018
Rechavia – Grunewald in the Orient
28 February 2018
Reading with Thomas Sparr on German-Jewish Jerusalem (in German)
A Canon of Jewish Renaissance
22 February 2018
Bernhard Jensen, author of the first monograph about the Soncino Society in conversation with publisher Thedel von Wallmoden (in German)
Jerusalem for Cowards
19 February 2018
Discussion with filmmakers Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias following the screening of Jerusalem for Cowards (in German and English)
Who is carrying the Menorah?
8 February 2018
Talk by Steven Fine on Jewish Counter-Histories of the Arch of Titus Spoils Panel
The Many Deaths of Jew Süss
22 January 2018
Reading with Yair Mintzker on Joseph Süß Oppenheimer – Jew Süss
Germanija. How I Became an Adult and a Jew in Germany
Reading and discussion on Dmitrij Belkin's narrative that also throws light on immigration today.
19 Oct 2017
IN-/EXCLUSIONS and Self-Empowerment in the Cultural Business
With Max Czollek, Dan Thy Nguyen, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, and Mutlu Ergün-Hamaz (in German)
12 Oct 2017
Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD (People, National Community, AfD)
Book presentation and discussion with Alexander Häusler and the author Michael Wildt (in German)
10 Oct 2017
Incredibly Clever
5 August 2017
Iris Berben reads Paula Buber (in German and English)
Before the After Party
15 July 2017
Reading and talk with the author Molly Antopol, translator Patricia Klobusiczky and actor Katharina Marie Schubert (in German and English).
Yousef Abad
Eliz Sanasarian and Elham Rokni on video art by Elham Rokni and the situation of Jews in Iran from the 1979 revolution to today.
6 Jul 2017
The New Völkerwanderung
Book Presentation by Asfa Wossen Asserate
3 July 2017
Asfa-Wossen Asserate presents his latest book Die neue Völkerwanderung (The New Völkerwanderung) on the grievances of the EU’s Africa policy.
Peter Schäfer – "Two gods in heaven. Concepts of god in the ancient Jewish world"
12 June 2017
Peter Schäfer and Michael Wolffsohn on monotheism in Judaism and Christianity and concepts of a second god.
With Karamba to the Bundestag – My Journey from Senegal to the German Parliament
Karamba Diaby tells of his birth country Senegal, of life in the GDR, his work in the Bundestag, and of his vision of an open and future-oriented society (in German).
1 Jun 2017
Ariel Sabar: My Father’s Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq
Reading and talk with the writer Ariel Sabar on the story of his father Yona Sabar, professor of the Neo-Aramaic language, and the Kurdish-Jewish history.
11 May 2017
The Dress of the Unfaithful Wife
Artist Talk and Discussion on Women and Sexuality in Judaism
9 May 2017
Talk with Andi LaVine Arnovitz, Amy K. Milligan, Professor for Jewish Studies and Women's Studies, and Emily D. Bilski, art historian, on the role of women in religious Judaism.
Israelis in Germany
Ideological Debates and Changing Identities
Talk and Slideshow with Dr. Dani Kranz and Katja Harbi from the University of Wuppertal on Israeli Jews in today's Germany (in German).
4 May 2017
Im/Possibilities – Perspectives on Refugee Participation
Conference on the situation for refugees in Europe and Germany. Recording of the opening event with a talk by Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK, followed by a panel discussion (in German and English).
29 Mar 2017
Our Father: A Sinti Family Recounts
Conversation and reading with the German-Sinti civil rights activist and author Anita Awosusi and her daughter Tayo Onutor about their family’s history (in German).
23 Mar 2017
Europe Against the Jews. 1880-1945
22 February 2017
Historian Götz Aly and Daniel Cohn-Bendit discuss antisemitism in Eastern and Western Europe from 1880 to the present (in German).
The Acid Test
How Fear of Foreigners is Threatening our Democracy
The Islamic studies and education scholar Lamya Kaddor reads from her book and discusses integration with Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz and Andreas Zick (in German).
Gottes Körper (God's Body)
13 February 2017
Christoph Markschies in conversation with Peter Schäfer about Christian conceptions of God and their roots in other ancient religions (in German).
All Sorts of Stories
21 November 2016
The actor Johanna Wokalek reads from Bertha Pappenheim’s German translation of the Maase book, a collection of Yiddish stories, fairy tales, and legends (in German).
Joshua Cohen:
You want a golem?
17 November 2016
Reading and conversation with Joshua Cohen and Caspar Battegay about the golem myth in the age of automation.
A Jew in Neukölln – My Path to Coexistence of Religions
The theology student and writer Ármin Langer reads from his book and talks about Jewish life in Neukölln (in German).
19 Oct 2016
The Clay Giant's Alive!
8 October 2016
Anke Kuhl reads from her comic about two kids and their golem, with musical accompaniment by the cellist Martin Klenk (in German).
Reading with Christian Berkel: Tevye the Dairyman
9 July 2016
To mark the 100th anniversary of Sholem Alejchem’s death, the actor Christian Berkel will read from the new translation of the book Tevye the Dairyman
Herzl reloaded – It’s No Fairytale
Staged reading. Doron Rabinovici, writer and historian, and Natan Sznaider, sociologist, have a fictional email correspondence with Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism (in German).
Reading/Discussion
7 Jul 2016
Ludwig Haas – A Left-liberal Campaigner for Peace and Democracy
9 June 2016
Symposium with Evening Lecture by Gerhart Baum on the liberal Campaigner Ludwig Haas (1875-1930) and "Perspectives of Left-wing Liberalism Today".
The Holocaust and the Problem of Visual Representation
30 May 2016
Talk with artist and exhibition curator Peter Weibel about Boris Lurie and visual representation of the Holocaust (in German).
Helga Krohn: Bruno Asch
19 May 2016
Reading and talk with Helga Krohn on the local politician and socialist Bruno Asch.
Angst ums Abendland (Fears For the West)
Book Presentation with Daniel Bax
Talk with Daniel Bax and Gideon Botsch on Right-wing populist parties, anti-Muslim sentiments, flight and asylum (in German).
6 Apr 2016
Prize for Understanding and Tolerance
Acceptance speech by the 2015 award winner: W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin (in German).
14 Nov 2015
Béla Guttmann - The World History of Football in one Person
4 August 2015
The writer Detlev Claussen presents his book about the Hungarian-Jewish soccer coach Béla Guttmann (in German).
Attempts to Describe Anti-Semitism
Book presentation and discussion on the history of antisemitism research before 1944 with Hans-Joachim Hahn, Olaf Kistenmacher, Dr. Werner Treß, and Franziska Krah (in German).
Reading/Discussion
22 Apr 2015
From a Berlin Farce to a Story of Success
2 March 2015
The writer Daniel Bussenius talks with Inka Bertz and Heinrich Wefing, reporter from Die Zeit, about the museum’s development from 1971 to 2001 (in German).
The Realignment of "Education after Auschwitz" in Immigration Society
Book presentation and panel discussion with the author Rosa Fava, Angela Kühner (University of Frankfurt), Selman Erkovan, history teacher in training, and Marco Kühnert, a guide at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg (in German).
27 Jan 2015
The Book of Job. Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics
The editors of a volume of essays about the Book of Job, Leora Batnitzky (Princeton) and Ilana Pardes (Jerusalem), in conversation with Vivian Liska
Language: in German and English
Reading/Discussion
21 Jan 2015
What’s your "Heimat"?
14 November 2014
W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, and Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, talk about culture, religion, and being at home in a foreign place (in German).
Zimzum. God and the creation of the world
Author Christoph Schulte talks with Micha Brumlik and Vivian Liska about his book on the notion of zimzum (tzimtzum) in Jewish mysticism
Language: German
Reading/Discussion
30 Oct 2014
Hebrew Worlds – On the Presence of Ancient Texts in Modern Ivrith
Anne Birkenhauer, a translator and the August Wilhelm Schlegel Guest Professor of the German Translation Fund and the FU Berlin, gives her inaugural lecture (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
27 Oct 2014
Forgotten Soldiers?
3 September 2014
Historian Tim Grady presents his research on the commemoration of German-Jewish soldiers from the First World War.
The pictures are among us
7 April 2014
Presentation of a book about the treatment and business of art stolen by the Nazis and the Gurlitt case with the writer Stefan Koldehoff and Michael Naumann (in German).
Modernized, then Tolerated?
Micha Brumlik, Petra Bahr, Kadir Sanci, and Thomas Bauer about religion and navigating between tradition and adaptation
Language: German
Discussion
10 Oct 2013
1933: Denial, Opposition, and Protest
Wolf Gruner about his research into German Jews’ responses to Nazi persecution (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
8 Aug 2013
Peter Schäfer: The Origins of Jewish Mysticism
Panel discussion between the author Peter Schäfer, Christoph Markschies, and Micha Brumlik about Schäfer’s book on the history of early Jewish mysticism
Language: German
Reading/Discussion
25 Jun 2012
The History of Jews and Dönme in Turkey
The Turkish studies scholar Corry Guttstadt and the historian Marc Baer discuss the history of Jews and Dönme (converts) in Turkey (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
31 Jan 2011
Perrine Simon-Nahum: Jews in France Today
Talk by Perrine Simon-Nahum about her book on the circumstances of Jews in France, both past and present.
Lecture/Discussion
29 Nov 2010
W. Michael Blumenthal: Around the World in Eighty Years. My Life
W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, presents his memoir (in German).
Reading/Discussion
30 Sept 2010
Jewish Youth Movement in Germany
22 May 2010
German-language talk by Ulrike Pilarczyk and panel discussion with Micha Brumlik, Hans Jakob Ginsburg, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, and Moshe Zuckermann about the history of the Zionist youth movement in Germany (in German).
Dialogues on Jewish Present: On the Question of Redemption – Messianism and the End of Days
with Moshe Idel, Elliot R. Wolfson, and Micha Brumlik about the Messianic promise of redemption and its relevance in the twenty-first century
Language: English
Reading/Discussion
10 Dec 2009
Walther Rathenau's Life: Text and Context
Talk by Shulamit Volkov about the life of the writer, politician, and industrialist Walther Rathenau (in German).
Lecture/Discussion
15 Oct 2009
Migrants Moving History
Saskia Sassen about immigration, diversity, and future prospects for dealing with history and citizenship in multiethnic societies.
Lecture/Discussion
25 Oct 2008
Self Displaced Person. Peter Szondi's Problematic Judaism
3 December 2007
Talk by Andreas Isenschchmid about the life and work of the literary scholar Peter Szondi (in German).
Painted in words. The portrait of a lost time
10 October 2007
Reading and conversation with the artist Samuel Bak about his family’s story and his survival as a child in German-occupied Vilnius (in German).
A synagogue curtain at the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter
23 November 2006
Talk by Vera Bendt about a synagogue curtain that was discovered at the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter, where it had been listed in records as an altar curtain (in German).
Exile in Shanghai
Conversation between W. Michael Blumenthal and Horst Eisfelder about the time they both spent in Shanghai, where 18,000 Jews from Germany had taken refuge (in German).
14 Nov 2006
The place of psychoanalysis in the history of the Jews
30 May 2005
Talk by Eli Zaretsky about the influence of psychoanalysis on Judaism and the place of psychoanalysis in Jewish history.
Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture
In conversation with Susanne Weingarten, Daniel Libeskind presents his autobiography.
Language: English
Reading/Discussion
25 Jan 2005
The Fragile Foundation: The Quest for German-Jewish “Normalcy”
Salomon Korn reads essays from his book about Jewish life in Germany, Jewish culture and remembrance, architecture, and politics.
Language: German
Reading/Discussion
30 Sep 2003
Times of Commemoration: On Jewish Histories and Others
Book presentation by the historian Dan Diner about remembering the twentieth century as an era of violence, forced displacement, and genocide (in German).
Reading/Discussion
24 Jun 2003
