re: #226 000G

Was that always the case, though? It originated mostly from German, AFAIK.

…

I hate that so much contemporary German-Jewish culture in Germany is now just past things like memorials and gravestones plus dealing with Germans’ obsessions about Israel. Not enough life, dammit!

I visited Frankfurt a couple of years ago. We had an 8-hour layover at the airport (returning from a visit to Israel) and decided to go out and do some touristing. We took the train to the Jewish neighborhood. We visited Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s beautiful old synagogue, and had an overpriced lunch at the Frankfurt JCC. The Frankfurt Jews were the most UNFRIENDLY folks we had ever (not) met. No one introduced themselves, and they all had an aversion to speaking German: everyone spoke Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish or English (in that order). Yes, they were suspicious of strangers because of recent stabbing attacks, but, we were obviously “friendlies.”