Between Individual Origin and Alien Territory: On being a non-Jew working for a Jewish newspaper

Abstract

Having been an editor of the Jüdische Zeitung for some years now, I’m used to being asked in a more or less roundabout way whether I’m Jewish whenever I do an Interview. I have developed a certain experience in informing my counterpart that I’m not, and I have learned to anticipate their reaction, which is normally oscillating between downright disappointment, curiosity and incomprehension – at the very least, I’m always in for a brief, awkward moment of irritation. My interlocutor’s response is easily accounted for. Their disappointment is obviously caused by the fact that they were assuming I actually was Jewish, and, hence, “one of them”, only to find that this is not the case. Curiosity quickly changes into incomprehension, often followed by a sense of irritation about what they feel is an act of presumption: A non-Jew having an opinion on and a perception of Jewish life in Germany. Alternatively, I get the wellintended question why on earth I’m doing this to myself. The reactions of my non-Jewish dialogue partners, however, are just as interesting, since they are even more convinced of the fact that I must be of Jewish origin. Their