Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2009
Capstone Advisor
Phillip Arnold
Honors Reader
Zach Braiterman
Capstone Major
Religion
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
yes
Honors Categories
Humanities
Subject Categories
Other Religion | Religion
Abstract
In this paper, I take a close look at the present condition of the Jewish Community in Berlin. Being a community that, within the last century, has faced the devastation of the Holocaust and the subjugation of the Berlin Wall and accompanying Soviet regime, the Jewish community in Berlin represented, to me, one with an amazing challenge and opportunity to rebuild itself. The aim of this paper was to separate the Jewish community from other communities in Berlin, separate the presence of the Berlin Wall from other historical events, and then consider the possibility that the Wall itself has an inherent religious meaning and that the Jewish community was effected independently and uniquely by that meaning.
In order to fully grasp the condition of the Jewish community in Berlin today, as well as to understand the Wall’s role in Berlin society, traveling to the city of Berlin was a necessary component of this study. The observations, insights and information that trip allowed fuel the theories and the arguments made throughout this paper. Ultimately it has become clear that, while the Wall may not itself be inherently religious, it did in fact have implications for Berlin citizens that affected their religious experience. Furthermore, while the Wall’s effects may not have been exclusively to Jewish Berliners, being a Jew in Berlin at the time of the Wall’s presence and fall did in fact lead to isolation from the rest of Berlin society. Additionally, and most noteworthy, is the shared work that both Jewish and non-Jewish Berliners have done since the Wall’s fall to commemorate their history and acknowledge all that Berliners, as a shared community, have overcome.
Recommended Citation
McClafferty, Michelle, "Religious Implications of the Berlin Wall" (2009). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 431.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/431
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
