Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

More than half a century after the Holocaust, in countries where Jews make up just a tiny fraction of the population, products of Jewish culture (or what is perceived as Jewish culture) have become very viable components of the popular public domain. But how can there be a visible and growing Jewish presence in Europe, without the significant presence of Jews? Ruth Ellen Gruber explores this phenomenon, traveling through Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, and elsewhere to observe firsthand the many facets of a remarkable trend. Across the continent, Jewish festivals, performances, publications, and study programs abound. Jewish museums have opened by the dozen, and synagogues and Jewish quarters are being restored, often as tourist attractions. In Europe, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, klezmer music concerts, exhibitions, and cafes with Jewish themes are drawing enthusiastic--and often overwhelmingly non-Jewish--crowds.

In what ways, Gruber asks, do non-Jews embrace and enact Jewish culture, and for what reasons? For some, the process is a way of filling in communist-era blanks. For others, it is a means of coming to terms with the Nazi legacy or a key to building (or rebuilding) a democratic and tolerant state. Clearly, the phenomenon has as many motivations as manifestations. Gruber investigates the issues surrounding this "virtual Jewish world" in three specific the reclaiming of the built heritage, including synagogues, cemeteries, and former ghettos and Jewish quarters; the representation of Jewish culture through tourism and museums; and the role of klezmer and Yiddish music as typical "Jewish cultural products." Although she features the relationship of non-Jews to the Jewish phenomenon, Gruber also considers its effect on local Jews and Jewish communities and the revival of Jewish life in Europe. Her view of how the trend has developed and where it may be going is thoughtful, colorful, and very well informed.

Genres: Jewish, Nonfiction

338 pages, Hardcover

First published December 16, 2001

About the author

Ruth Ellen Gruber is an award-winning American writer, editor and photographer who has long been based on Europe. She has chronicled European Jewish issues for more than twenty years and works on cultural topics including an ongoing project called "Sturm, Twang and Sauerkraut Cowboys" documenting how Europeans embrace the mythology of the American Wild West.

A former correspondent for United Press International, she has written for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, JTA, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, Hadassah Magazine, Moment, the New Leader, the London Independent and many other publications. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and others.

She coined the term "Virtually Jewish" to describe the way the so-called "Jewish space" in Europe is often filled by non-Jews: klezmer music, culture festivals, museums, tourism, and kitsch as well as serious and sensitive study and involvement.

Her books include National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe, (2007), Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere) (2008), Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe (2002), and Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today (1994).

Reviews

[Shoosh]

My skittish and apprehensive feeling about present-day Europe is becoming more nuanced with every chapter. Absolutly facinating. This is the best University bookstore sales-bin purchase I've made so far.

[Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG this is the best book ever. Ruth Ellen Gruber is super smart, insightful, critical with personal anecdotes and appropriate outrage about the ways that Jewish history/tragedy is packaged and sold by Eastern European cities. Interesting inquiry about the roles of non-Jews, non-Ashkenazi Jews in telling this story. I got this book in Krakow and it decoded the confusing and upsetting experience of visiting all these Jewish museums. Gave historical context, etc. I totally recommend this book, if nothing else then for the metaphor Gruber uses to open the book of the narrative from the 1922 book "The City Without Jews" which I now really want to read.

[Anka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, very accurate and very inspiring - Poland is virtually Jewish, Lublin is virtually Jewish..