In the wake of World War II and the Holocaust it seemed there was no place for German in
Israel and no trace of Hebrew in Germany - the two languages and their cultures appeared as
divergent as the directions of their scripts. Yet when placed side by side on opposing pages
German and Hebrew converge in the middle. Comprised of essays on literature history
philosophy and the visual and performing arts this volume explores the mutual influence of
two linguistic cultures long held as separate or even as diametrically opposed. From Moses
Mendelssohn's arrival in Berlin in 1748 to the recent wave of Israeli migration to Berlin the
essays gathered here shed new light on the painful yet productive relationship between modern
German and Hebrew cultures.
