Many Jews from Central Europe explored America within a comparative perspective. They journeyed to America as well as to Palestine and the Soviet Union. These destinations brought tourists into contact with decisively different societies that encapsulated competing concepts and models of modernity, Jewish cultures and identities. For many, America represented not just capitalism, but everything modern whether admired or feared. New York’s iconic Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and endless soaring skyscrapers functioned as icons of modernity and progress while the Lower East Side provided a formidable space of exotic curiosity. Most of the more famous Jewish travel writers remained critical of America without committing themselves to any of the competing ideologies of communism or nationalism. It is this political liminality of German Jewish travelers that my talk will explore.

Nils Römer is the Stan and Barbara Rabin Professor at the University of Austin at Dallas. His special fields of interest are Jewish and German culture and intellectual history. He is the author of ‘Jewish Scholarship and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Germany’ (2005); ‘German City, Jewish Memory (2010)’ as well as numerous articles and several edited volumes the most recent of which is ‘German Jewry: Between Hope and Despair’ (2013).

By: Diana Franklin
Last updated: Tuesday, 8 September 2015