Does money erases ideology? German passport popular in Israel

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Actually, this doesn't surprise me. It's just classifying going to other countries ... and makes it a lot cheaper.

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Personal benefits overcome shame? Study explains why 100,000 Israelis, many of them offspring of Jews who fled Nazis, possess German citizenship

Recent years have seen a surge in the number of offspring of Israelis of German descent applying for a passport. These figures are 10 times higher than the number of Israelis seeking citizenship in other European countries, like Poland of Romania.
[...]
A new study conducted by Dr. Sima Salzberg of Bar-Ilan University, which will be published in the Eretz Acheret magazine edited by Bambi Sheleg, reveals that some 100,000 people living in Israel possess a German passport as well.

According to figures provided by the German Embassy, in the past few years about 7,000 Israelis have applied for a passport every year. More than 70,000 such passports have been granted since 2000.

Other countries like Poland, Romania and Austria have only issued up to 6,000 passports to Israelis throughout the past decade.
[...]
Israelis with a German passport don't need a visa to enter the United States, can receive a scholarship for academic studies abroad, can enter countries which Israelis are banned from – and money, the study rules, erases any ideology.

"These figures are the result of many factors," says Sheleg. "It's a fascinating identity issue. What makes 100,000 Israelis, many of them offspring of Jews who emigrated from Germany, apply for a German passport?
[...]
The data are included in a special issue of Eretz Acheret, published this time together with Yakinton, a magazine issued by the Association of Israelis of Central European origin in honor of the 75th anniversary of German Jews' immigration to Israel, which will be held at the Jeckes Heritage Center in Tefen.

The association's chairman, Reuven Merhav, slams the new trend, saying that "there is one passport, a blue one, which carries the State's symbol, and that's the document we use to identify ourselves abroad and which gives us the freedom of movement we have in the world, as of right and not on sufferance."

Roy Horowitz, 28, of Givat Shmuel, one of the Israelis who chose to apply for a German passport, says "I respect the Israelis who boycott Germany, but I don't think like them. The passport saves me a lot of money in a visa to the US and other countries, and helps me reach countries which don't honor Israeli passports. ... ... ...

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@Walter Hinteler,

You say it doesn't "surprise" you; however, you are not candid enough it seems to tell us why it does not surpise you. That thought would make this post have some meaning beyond the proverbial knowing "wink" to those that have your perceptions. Do tell.

You may have used the word, "classifying" in an obscure way? And, what does your inference to it being cheaper infer?

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@Foofie,

Yes, I might have chosen the wrong term - what I mean is said in that report as well: the German passport is just an easy (and way) 'key' to get elsewhere, e.g. without visa (and costs) to the USA.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Yes, I might have chosen the wrong term - what I mean is said in that report as well: the German passport is just an easy (and way) 'key' to get elsewhere, e.g. without visa (and costs) to the USA.

Do you think that for some Israelis there might even be an attempt at snobbishness ("We travel on a GERMAN passport.")? We shouldn't forget that many of the last names that sound German in the U.S., for Jewish Americans, reflect that when the Czar said Jews must have a last name, many took German names in an attempt to put on airs.

I believe that amongst some Jews of German descent there is still a desire to separate themselves from the Eastern European Jews for purposes of social distinction. I have seen that in the U.S. Whether that exists in Israel, I do not know?

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@Foofie,

Krauthammer sounds German but means different.

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@Walter Hinteler,

I don't get the issue here. Clearly its a generational thing and practicality heals all wounds:
Roy Horowitz, 28, of Givat Shmuel, one of the Israelis who chose to apply for a German passport, says "I respect the Israelis who boycott Germany, but I don't think like them. The passport saves me a lot of money in a visa to the US and other countries, and helps me reach countries which don't honor Israeli passports.

You don't really think that Germany will try and pull off another holocaust? If no then what is the issue?

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

You don't really think that Germany will try and pull off another holocaust? If no then what is the issue?

I don't get from what you get the idea that I was thinking about a new Holocaust.

The issue was just ... this news.

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@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

I believe that amongst some Jews of German descent there is still a desire to separate themselves from the Eastern European Jews for purposes of social distinction.

That's certainly true.

0 Replies

@Walter Hinteler,

I thought it was interesting, especially since I didn't know large numbers of people had that much choice in passports.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Clearly its a generational thing and practicality heals

If this is a "generational thing", what does this say about the generation in question? That they have no memory of the past? That they are cheap and would sell their souls for a cheap passport?

Are they the Jews who deny their Jewish heritage? Are they the Jews who changed their last names to hide their identity?

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@Miller,

Miller wrote:

tsarstepan wrote:

Clearly its a generational thing and practicality heals

If this is a "generational thing", what does this say about the generation in question? That they have no memory of the past? That they are cheap and would sell their souls for a cheap passport?

Are they the Jews who deny their Jewish heritage? Are they the Jews who changed their last names to hide their identity?

Just in my own opinion, I am not sure all younger Jews care that much about the 20th century history of the Holocaust. Many are secular. A percentage date and marry non-Jews. Plus, amongst the educated of western countries, I believe it is a desired image to have Jewish friends. I guess the time will come when a German passport has no connotation beyond being a passport. And, perhaps even now it just shows that some Jews of the younger generation just considers the history of the Holocaust an emotional albatross. It might not be the thing to dwell on, if one subscribes to positive psychology?

Personally, I do not want any German nationals to be "saddled" with any guilt over the Holocaust, since I believe that the Holocaust could not have occurred if it wasn't for the fertile soil of the two-thousand year learning curve that anti-Semitic Europe taught Christian Europeans. So, since we will not be finding any guilt amongst the countries that assisted the Nazis in their rounding up Jews, it may not be ethical to think the Germans deserve any greater guilt. And, it may not even be guilt that a Jew should want. I would prefer "remorse" for not having a thriving Jewish culture in Europe. And, on that point, Germany is doing more to rectify its history than a number of other countries. It may be the wisest thing to give Germany an A+ for effort, and realize that other European countries would not even get a C+ for effort.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Clearly its a generational thing

not so much.

hamburgboy has been shocked a few times in the past couple of decades when meeting elderly Jews living in Israel (visiting family in Canada) who made a real point of explaining that they were originally from Germany and seeming to expect that we understand that it meant they meant they were of higher social status than other Jews in Israel.

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@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

We shouldn't forget that many of the last names that sound German in the U.S., for Jewish Americans, reflect that when the Czar said Jews must have a last name, many took German names in an attempt to put on airs.

Aren't most of the Jewish Americans with German names German Jews?

Are you saying that Russian Jews took on German sounding names to pretend to be something they were not?

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I can't speak for every German-Jew, but my German Jewish relatives have always used the term Nazi and German to mean two different things. They had German relatives who were killed by the Nazis. Example: Marlene Dietrich was a German, Eva Braun was a Nazi. Granted, my grandparents would never have bought a Mercedes (the car of Hitler and the SS), but I don't think their grandchildren still hold onto even this idea of boycott. Most of Europe was anti-Semitic for 100's of years and happily tried to exterminate Jews on various levels. Hitler was just very good at organizing the effort.

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@Miller,

Miller wrote:

tsarstepan wrote:

Clearly its a generational thing and practicality heals

If this is a "generational thing", what does this say about the generation in question? That they have no memory of the past? That they are cheap and would sell their souls for a cheap passport?

How many generations has it been since the Holocaust? Should this generation continue to ignore and punish the lot of Germans who not only are several generations removed themselves from the Holocaust?

That they have no memory of the past?
That's nonsense. This isn't the same as forgetting what happened. It has absolutely nothing to do with denial either. It's understanding what happened in the past and just moving on.

If you had a father or grandfather who committed a crime, I expect you want your great grandchildren to be ostracized as well for something they couldn't possibly have an responsibility for, right?

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@Miller,

Miller wrote:

Foofie wrote:

We shouldn't forget that many of the last names that sound German in the U.S., for Jewish Americans, reflect that when the Czar said Jews must have a last name, many took German names in an attempt to put on airs.

Aren't most of the Jewish Americans with German names German Jews?

Are you saying that Russian Jews took on German sounding names to pretend to be something they were not?

I believe that many Jews that came here from Eastern Europe (the bulk of Ashkenazi Jews) had those names that sounded German-Jewish, but were taken at the point that the Czar mandated that all Jews in his realm take on a last name. Prior to that, Ashkenazi Jews did not have last names.

And, it was not to pretend to be German; if anything, I believe, it was to effect a certain panache, since German Jews were considered the elite of European Jewry, in the eyes of Eastern European Jews. Sephardic Jews lived in another civilization - the Ottoman Empire, or Christian Europe that was once Moslem (Spain) or countries that Sephardic Jews evacuated to during the Inquisition - Italy, Portugal, Holland. Sort of like when one meets an American Jew with an Anglecized last name. They do not hide the fact, I believe, that they are Jewish, but it might have effected a certain panache for a prior generation for business/social reasons? Remember, Miami was once "restricted."

Today, the Jews coming from Eastern Europe seem to have what sounds like Russian names. Perhaps, a testament to the decades under the Soviets? And, some Jews of Polish descent had names that sounded Polish, but ended in an "sky," rather than the Christian way of "ski"?

I also, read/heard that some of the names of Eastern European Jews, from the nineteenth century (when they were mandated to take a last name), were effecting a bit of humor, in that a Jew living in the crowded conditions of a ghetto, may have taken on the name, for example, of Rosenfeld, "a rose in the field," that one did not find in the ghetto.

2 Replies

@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

Prior to that, Ashkenazi Jews did not have last names.

It depends on wast you call "last name".

About 1000, Gerschom ben Jehuda (960 - 1040) wrote abozt various things related to to Ashkenazi Jews in Worms (Rhine).
Other Germans in those days didn't have last names either, but were just named (for instance) Dietrich von Worms.

1 Reply

@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

Today, the Jews coming from Eastern Europe seem to have what sounds like Russian names. Perhaps, a testament to the decades under the Soviets? And, some Jews of Polish descent had names that sounded Polish, but ended in an "sky," rather than the Christian way of "ski"?

The ending -ski (plus -s'kyj in Ukrainian, -ský in Czech, -skij in Russian) is originally showing the relation to a place, used mainly by lower nobility.
Later, in newer times, this meaning was lost.

The ending -sky might be just a different kind of writing, but "ski/sky" has nothing at all to do with origins being Christian and/or Jewish.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Foofie wrote:
Prior to that, Ashkenazi Jews did not have last names.

It depends on wast you call "last name".

About 1000, Gerschom ben Jehuda (960 - 1040) wrote abozt various things related to to Ashkenazi Jews in Worms (Rhine).
Other Germans in those days didn't have last names either, but were just named (for instance) Dietrich von Worms.

Sorry. I meant Jews in Czarist Russia.

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Does money erases ideology? German passport popular in Israel

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