A Portrait of Jewish Life in Berlin

Thursday, January 26

USA 12:00 pm PT / 3:00 pm ET

UK 8:00 pm / France 09:00 pm / Israel 10:00 pm

The talk will last approximately 90 minutes

About this talk

Although associated today mainly with the Holocaust, both before and after the War, Berlin has been a center for creativity--in arts, humanities, and science as well as in Jewish thought.

Philosopher and scholar Moses Mendelssohn arrived in Berlin in 1743, and urged Jews to integrate into secular society. As the 18th century drew to a close, Berlin became the center of the Haskalah, or Jewish enlightenment. In 1845, the Society for Reform in Judaism, was founded in Berlin. And the Weimar years (1919-1933) were the golden age of Berlin Jewry.

Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the city has returned to being a global center for artists, creatives, and others seeking to experience the open minded and supportive environment that Berlin offers. This has led to an influx of Jews from around the world-- ex-Hasidim, Israelis, Russian speakers, Americans, and others--together creating new communities and forms of Jewish life and thought.

About Micki

Micki Weinberg was born in Los Angeles and lives in Germany. He is the founder of SHIUR, a Berlin based international project and community innovating text based discourse and other Jewish traditions for the 21st century.

After graduating with a Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004, he left the US to pursue graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he focused on intertextuality in ancient Jewish literature. He also studied Talmud at the Mir Yeshiva. Micki worked at Goldman Sachs from 2007-2010 in London and Switzerland. Since quitting in 2010, Micki has dedicated himself to making amends for his soul selling time in the banking world through his work with SHIUR as well as art film, theater, and critical essay writing.

Choose your contribution amount

With your contribution you will also be donating to SHIUR, an international Berlin based project that brings together, both in real life and digitally, a diverse group of academics, diplomats, artists, scientists, professionals, students and others to explore culture, theory, Jewish spirituality and other content through a critical lens.

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