Trudy Gold
German Jews and WWI
Summary
When World War I broke out the majority of German Jews enthusiastically supported the fatherland and a hundred thousand fought in the army as they believed they were fighting for their beloved German culture. This session will explore the responses and its consequences for German Jewry.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
It’s a good question, Shelly. depends what you mean by Orthodox. Reform Judaism was by far the majority religion of German Jews. And it had very little to do with religion. It was to prove they were part of German society. They wouldn’t have volunteered, I don’t think, the Ultra-Orthodox. I have to check that for you.
Okay, Peter, you get a wonderful background in Fritz Stern’s Einstein’s German World. There’s a very good book by Niewyk called Weimar, Germany. Once the website is up, we will all be putting together, we’ll be putting together reading lists. If you want to read about this period though, Vienna, the best book is The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig. That’s such a readable book. Amos Elon, The Pity of It All is brilliant, Peter. And you know, on I’m trying to think, I think if you made a stab at those, that’s a really, really good start. And both Fritz Stern, who was also a brilliant journalist, so he knows how to write books, he’s also a scholar, and of course, Amos Elon’s book is brilliant.
Look, there’s always a percentage of people who have money. Foreign investors, who knows where the money comes from? Look, if I’m living in London, where the price of everything is skyrocketing, inflation’s gone up 10%, my daughter is a restaurant critic, one of her jobs, she’s a restaurant critic, and sometimes she takes me to some of the best restaurants in London. They’re full. The theaters are full. There’s always going to be a percentage of people. And also, I know people who are not wealthy, but they spend their money on opera tickets, so they don’t sit in the best seat. They spend their money on concerts because that’s their life’s blood.