Jews and Turks in Germany after 9/11 · 89associational ties, organize campaigns against anti-Semitism and racism,
and make claims to German state authorities.
Although Turkish immigrant leaders take the German Jewish trope as
a model, there are three major questions that need further research. First,
how does the Jewish community in Germany react to immigrant groups
who take them as a model? In our preliminary research, we found that
the presence of Jews at some Turkish commemorative events is still mini-
mal overall, and while Jews are an important reference for German Turks,
Turks play a minimal role in Jewish debates except by default, as fellow
targets of neo-Nazism and as a religious community with occasionally
or potentially similar political and legal claims.^66 This pertains especially
to seeing the religious needs of the respective communities recognized
by the German state. Individual Jews have played, and are playing, an
important role in the fight against racism, neo-Nazism, and in foster-
ing closer relations with the Turkish and/or larger Muslim community.
One of these organizations is the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, a founda-
tion started by Annetta Kahane following some racially motivated kill-
ings by neo-Nazi skinheads; another, the Jüdische Kulturverein, founded
by Irene Runge, caters mostly to Russian immigrants and East German
Jews, also in Berlin. It is indicative, however, that—probably on account
of their East German Jewish background—both women have remained
marginal to the Jewish leadership in Berlin and the Jewish community in
Germany at large.
A second question that demands further research is the issue of class
differences between Turks and Jews. In both communities, we found
that culturally and in terms of class, Turks and Jews inhabit different
worlds. Most Jews are solidly middle class, in many if not most cases,
with higher secondary degrees and often some university education. A
small but significant number of Jews are recognized public intellectuals
in Germany. Most Turks, on the other hand, arrived as guest workers and
are proletarianized peasants with minimal education, as Navid Kermani
has observed.^67 In contrast to Britain and France, virtually no Muslim
elites have arrived in Germany, and even among most German-born
Turks and Muslims at large, both their class and education are still clearly
distinct from those of the Jews.^68 There is, however, a small but signifi-
cant stratum of educated, middle-class Turks, very much at the level of
their Jewish counterparts, even though they still inhabit different worlds
and their encounters with Jews are few and far between. The issue of