Israeli Jews in the New Berlin: From Shoah Memories to Middle Eastern Encounters

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s quote “Nefolet shel nemoshot” (the fallen of the weaklings) became an oft-repeated saying to describe—more like bedevil—Israeli Jews who emigrated from Israel. Historically defined as traitors to the Zionist project of the Jewish state, they were reproached for supposedly regarding their own individual desires as more important than their participation in the collective efforts of Israeli Jewry to create a home for the Jewish people. Yet, despite this strong ideological reproach, Israeli Jews have been emigrating from Israel since the state’s creation: they returned to Germany,¹ to Poland,² and to any previous home