Prayer and Practice in a Socialist State: Being Jewish in East Berlin, 1950s-1960s

From roughly the mid-1950s onwards, a curious combination of historical memory and socialist politics helped to create a climate in the GDR that was strangely tolerant of Jewish religious institutions and practices. Yet, the top-down history of the relationship between the East German regime and Jewish institutions is only the beginning of the unusual story of Jews in East Berlin. Taking a micro-historical approach, my talk will analyze everyday religious and cultural practice in East Berlin during the 1950s and early 1960s, through the examples of synagogue services, religious and cultural celebrations, and the provision of kosher food. Together with the other papers on this panel, my talk allows us to make a comparison with Jewish communities in Western Germany, as well as consider the similarities and differences between Western and Eastern Europe more broadly. I posit that East Germany’s geography and history were contributing factors to the government’s willingness to contradict Marxist Orthodoxy regarding religion, especially as support for the small Jewish community could serve in Cold War propaganda against West Germany. The small (and politically harmless) Jewish population in East Berlin made such seemingly aberrant policy decisions all the easier.