Jonathan Kaplan

- Question: When is the day of reunification?
- Answer: October 7, 2009. On that day the DDR will be sixty years old and can enter the Federal Republic as a pensioner

These and other jokes were published are cited in a 1967 airgram from the US Mission in West Berlin to the Department of State

I’m writing an article about German-Jewish exiles in the UK who later helped build the GDR. Many were active in Communist circles and co-founded the FDJ in London. In 1949, Junge Welt, then edited by Hans Jacobus, covered a socialist youth festival in Budapest that included an Israeli delegation

I recently saw a CFP for a panel at a serious academic conference that was predicated upon a politically-motivated and inaccurate view of German history. Many of you surely saw the same CFP.

Here are the historical facts:

1/x

#Event | Im Rahmen des Seminars “Deutsch-Israelische Beziehungen” spricht Jonathan Kaplan (Università di Verona) über Israelpolitik in der DDR. Ideologie und Diplomatie | Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg | Details: www.hfjs.eu/hochschule/p...

In Präsenz | Anmeldung erforderlich

Still reflecting on Passover and a recent UK research trip: at the National Archives in London, I came across "With a Strong Hand" (ביד חזקה), published by the Jewish Aid Committee of Britain (JACOB) in 1966, warning that the fascist and Nazi threat in Britain was far greater than many had realized

Let the research trip the US begin!

Excited to speak at the Jewish History Colloquium at George Washington University!

📅 Wed, March 19, 1 PM
📍 Gelman Library, GWU

If you're around, join us, just be sure to register: calendar.gwu.edu/event/jewish...

Hope to see you there!

Some nice discoveries in an antiquarian bookshop in Leipzig

Pros: free coffee in the visitor lounge
Cons: 20£ for copying documents!

Archive adventures ahead! Kicking off ten days of research in the UK
First stop: The National Archives

First visit to the new Stasi archive offices in Berlin. Modern space, Cold War tech policy… still no WiFi?!

🎗️🙏
#bringthemhome

לצערי לא אוכל להגיע. אבל אשמח להפגש אם תגיע ללייפציג.

Liebe Münchner*innen,
Ich lade euch herzlich zu meinem Buchvortrag nächste Woche ein!
Dienstag, 21.1, 19 Uhr, Historicum 🏛️

Save the date: 15. Januar 2025 | 15:15 | Theologische Fakultät | Universität Leipzig

Ich freue mich sehr, meine Forschung im Rahmen des Kolloquiums der Forschungsstelle Judentum an der Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig präsentieren zu dürfen

👉 www.theol.uni-leipzig.de/forschungsst...

It’s been a productive week at the Bundesarchiv.

By the way, do you know that incredibly talented colleague?
Here are the cards Otto Winzer, the East German Foreign Minister, received from his coworkers for his 65th and 70th birthdays

חיפאיות.ים!
‏בשלישי הבא (14.1) נארח מפגש ראשון בסדרת ״צהרי ספר״.
‏איך נולדה המדיניות הישראלית בשטחים? כיצד החלטות שהתקבלו לפני יותר מ-50 שנה הביאו אותנו לאיפה שאנחנו היום? והאם משה דיין מתהפך בקברו או דווקא מתרווח בנחת?
‏בואו לשמוע את ד״ר עמרי שפר רביב ולשאול שאלות על ספרו החדש 📖

נס חנוכה!

Buntes SharePic mit einem Ausschnit aus dem ebenfalls bunten (organe-grünen) Cover der Publikation "A New Orient" von Amit Levy

A new Orient.

@amitlevy.bsky.social will present his new book
on Monday, 23 December at the @leobaeckjeru.bsky.social
and on Zoom
leobaeck.org/upcoming-eve...

and one month later, on Thrusday, 23 January 2025, 11 a.m., at the Dubnow Institute in Leipzig
www.dubnow.de/en/event/a-n...

EP 67: Zwischen Antizionismus und Antisemitismus: Die Israelpolitik der DDR im historischen Kontext Podcast Jüdische Geschichte · Episode

Und nun mit dem richtigen Link 👉 open.spotify.com/episode/61Mx...?

Stop trying to make Bluesky happen. It’s not going to happen

Letzte Woche Vorträge auf Hebräisch & Englisch – aber keine Sorge, euch Deutschsprachige vergesse ich nicht!😊
Mein Vortrag zur DDR-Israelpolitik ist jetzt im Podcast Jüdische Geschichte der LMU verfügbar 🎧
👉 delivery-01.itunes.uni-muenchen.de?jwt=eyJhbGci...

Ciao Verona! 🥳
I'm thrilled to share that I've been granted the #MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship. I will conduct my research at the Center for European Studies at the the University of Verona, on interactions between Jewish organizations in the western bloc and the GDR

91 years ago, February 5, 1933, Walter Steinfeld, a Jewish student from Breslau, was killed by SA members during a against the Nazis. His tragic fate, documented by historian Willy Cohn, marks him presumably as the first documented Jewish victim of the Holocaust.

The reading room at the German National Library in Leipzig is under construction. The temporary reading spaces are located in parts of the building I've never seen before...

Last day of Hanukkah

חנוכייה מעזבונו של אבי סבי שמעון קפלן ז"ל

‏Hanukkiah of my great-grandfather Shimon Kaplan z"l