Hi everyone! Thanks so much for tuning in. In this post I’m going to tell you about my first three weeks in Germany as a Fulbright scholar. I’m first going to start by telling you a story – or rather I’m going to explain an age old German tradition. This tradition is called the “Das Wanderjahr” which in German means, “The Wander Year.”

In the medieval times, when German apprentices hit a certain level of their career training, they were then encouraged to set out on a year long journey, in order to master their crafts and train in the studio of many professionals. The Wander Year was meant to be a growing year, a year to allow German youth to discover the world. Then when the apprentices returned home, they were no longer considered apprentices. Rather, these young people were now adults and were encouraged to open up their own shops or studios.
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I learned about this tradition when I was in German class last semester. I remember how that lesson in class left an impression on me – I was curious to learn more about it. Now that I am here in Germany on a Fulbright scholarship, exploring the country for myself, I feel I can truly say that now I’m on my own “Wanderjahr” – Wander Year. I am discovering the lands of Germany and am training in the German tradition.  I am discovering both parts of the world and capabilities within myself that I had never seen or used before. 

I first arrived in Germany about three weeks ago. When I landed, I was both excited and nervous to begin my year-long stay here. Initially, the word “year-long” scared me. It felt like such a long time. I remember writing in my diary my first night –wondering if I could truly handle this 11 and a half month stay. I mean, this is what I had applied for right? This is what I had wanted. But could I do it? Was the Fulbright year doable? Parts of me still felt nervous and afraid.

My first night in Germany, I had to remind myself of all the reasons I wanted to be here. I had to remind myself of the point of my project – to learn more about the resurgence of Jewish life in Germany, post World War II and write about it for both American and German audiences. I had worked so hard in applying for the Fulbright. I can still remember myself sitting in the Berlin cafés last summer writing my Fulbright application. This was what I had wanted since I was a sophomore in college. I had wanted this European adventure for so long.

Now that I was here, I could hardly believe it. I was now going to live in a dorm for the next six weeks and learn German with 29 other American Fulbrighters. While there are over 200 American Fulbrighters placed in Germany, only 30 of us were selected for this program which starts a month and half before our grant period begins. For the first three days, we had a Fulbright Orientation, where we met the heads of the German Fulbright commission and we learned what was expected of us as American Fulbrighters. They explained how as Fulbrighters, we were American representatives abroad. The Commission hoped that during the year we’d push ourselves and make many German connections, so we could keep the bonds between Germany and America strong for the years to come. 

As the orientation went by, I found it all very exciting. It was really fun getting to know the other American Fulbrighters in my group. We come from all over the United States and our projects range incredibly. While I am here in Germany on a journalism scholarship and my research here is more humanities based, I’ve met people in my program who are musicians, artists, scientists and researchers whose projects all sound so interesting. We’ve spent many nights just sitting at picnic tables, under the German stars and sky, hanging out and discussing it all.

Not only that, but I have met many new people living on my floor. Most of my neighbors are international students who chose to stay in the dorms over the summer. As I explained to my Mom over Facetime one night, I feel like my dorm is like a little United Nations. We come from all over the place! Many of the students living on my floor come from the Middle East – from Syria, Iran, Palestine, and other places. There are also several students from Germany, Korea, and China. They have all been very kind to me thus far and are curious to learn about life in America. They have been particularly interested in our presidential election, which I have tried explaining to them to best of my ability. 

Once the Fulbright orientation ended, it was time to begin our German language classes. Before the program began, I had to take a language placement test. To my surprise, I was placed in the highest level class – level four German – so now I am in a class of six people and we meet every weekday to study German for 4.5 hours. The class is both challenging and fun. We are only allowed to speak in German. I believe this aspect of the class has helped me improve my German speaking skills, although for me, the best way to learn has been speaking and hearing German outside of the classroom.

When speaking to people who hardly understand English, I feel the pressure to speak German slowly and get it right.  While my German certainly isn’t perfect – I don’t even feel like I’m truly conversational yet – it’s really been fulfilling to communicate with German people in their own language. It’s been challenging for me, but I believe I have grown just from trying to do it. These past three weeks in general have just been really fun. While it was a little hard at the beginning to settle in and adjust to “the German way of life” – not to mention I caught a terrible cold my first week here - the longer I have stayed here the more I realize how similar German culture is to American culture.
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While the language in Germany certainly is different, and certain aspects of life here definitely differ from American life, for the most part, I can see how America and Germany are two very similar places. The people in Germany have been very kind to me. The public transportation is great. Germany as a country is beautiful and I’ve loved exploring it. I’ve had the chance to visit the nearby city of Frankfurt twice and see their amazing museums. I’ve seen work by artists that I learned about in my art history class. I’ve learned about German writers that lead such interesting lives. I’ve gotten to go hiking and see such beautiful places, I wish I could turn all of my pictures into post-cards. 

I truly feel so lucky to be in Germany here on a Fulbright scholarship. Every day I feel like I grow, even just a little bit. This whole journey – I guess one that most post-grads call “real life” – certainly looked daunting for a while. But now that I’m here in Germany, exploring a new country with 29 other Americans with me, things that once looked so intimidating to me don’t seem as frightening as they were before. I’m now learning how to live on a tighter budget - the Fulbright gives us a specific stipend to live on for the entire year. I’ve opened a German bank account, found German housing, gotten a German cellphone number, and I’m in the midst of applying for a residence permit that will allow me to stay for the year long grant period. I’m learning how to look out for myself, although in a way, I think my travels in college and the way my parents raised me, helped prepare me for this long before.

I became worried during my first night in Germany that I’d feel really alone during my Fulbright year. I was afraid that I wouldn’t make many friends and that I’d miss my family and friends at home every day. But in fact, I was wrong. Even when I'm back in my dorm room at night, having finished my German classes, hanging with my Fulbright friends, and catching up with friends and family via Facetime, and I’m ready to go to bed and I have my little room all to myself, I don’t feel alone because I know that there are good people here in Germany and in America who are looking out for me. And I know I can handle it – this whole “independence” thing.

Every day I feel like I’m learning – “wandering” – in a way. I’m looking forward to training more as a journalist and pursuing my Fulbright project. Being here has been fun and in many ways, its been rewarding and eye opening. I truly feel very lucky to be here and I can’t wait to see where this Wanderjahr in Germany takes me next.

Until next time,

​Arielle

Dear readers,
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Thanks so much for tuning in. I can’t believe it has been a year since I have last written. The last time I wrote to you, I was in the midst of my studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. That was last summer, when I participated in the Leo Baeck Summer University for Jewish Studies. It was there where I learned about the dynamic history of Jewish life in Germany and how Jews have rebuilt their community in Germany since the end of the Second World War.
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I left the program feeling excited because I learned an incredible amount. I had fabulous teachers and amazing classmates, all who showed me how complex and rich the German-Jewish relationship is. I loved meeting modern day German people and becoming acquainted with their communities. Whether I was meeting German Jews whose family had lived in the country for generations, or Russian-German-Jewish people who had lived in Germany since the fall of communism; whether I was meeting young Israelis who had moved to Berlin in recent years or American expats who had served in Germany as journalists or US army officers during the Cold War years – I felt as though I met a plethora of different kinds of Jewish people. Each one of them had their own interesting story and unique Jewish identity. It reminded me of how diverse Jewish life is not only in Germany, but truly around the world.

Diversity was a key word during my summer in Europe last year. I had the opportunity to travel to Warsaw, Krakow, Berlin, and Paris to study each of their diverse Jewish communities. What I learned is every community has its own story, its own history, and its own array of voices. I was lucky to hear many of those voices in my travels through my interviews and observations.

Last summer, when I was in Paris, I had the opportunity to interview many Jewish people. All of them stated how proud they were to be French, but each of them had different destinies that I would learn about in the interviews. About half of the French people I spoke to told me that they were planning on making Aliyah to Israel. They loved France but felt like the country could no longer be there home. They felt that there was too much anti-Semitism in Paris and they very scared. They wanted to provide safe lives to their children. They didn’t want to live in France where they felt like they were living in fear. 

The other half of the French people I spoke to told me that they wanted to stay in France. They said France was their home and it was there that they would stay.  They recognized the danger of rising political far-right and far-left. Many felt that non-Jewish French people hardly paid attention to the rise in anti-Semitism, showing a blind eye to the issues although it was right there in front of everyone’s faces.
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These Jews I spoke to, however, did not want to give up on France. Nobody did, even the ones who were planning on making Aliyah. They believed in France – in its values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. They believed in its history and its future as a democratic nation. They felt as though Jews were an important part in the fabric of French of society. As one of my interviewees quoted Prime Minister Manuel Valls – “France without Jews is not France.” They believed that and I believed it. When I left Paris last summer, I was both troubled and moved by what I had heard. 

​The thought came to me: Did the Jews have a future in Europe? Was Jewish life sustainable in places like Paris? Deep down, I still believed so. I will remain forever an optimist. But I remember going to Notre Dame and saying a small prayer for the Jewish people there. Although I wasn’t Christian, and I didn’t know if anyone in there was truly “listening” to me, for some reason I still felt it was the right place to make my prayer. My hope was that in time people would stand together and not give up on diversity – not give up on the right that all people have to live in the place that they consider home. I prayed that we’d fight for the right that all people have to live with dignity, safety, freedom, and respect.

I came home to the United States as a changed person after my summer in Europe. I had lived through and experienced so much and I had heard so many different stories. It took me a while to process what I had learned, and I’m still processing it all today. I never expected that those stories would bring me to where I am now.
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Tomorrow, I will take off on my greatest adventure yet – a year long stay in Germany as a grantee of the United States Fulbright Scholarship. I’m going to continue the research I began last summer – studying the resurgence of Jewish life in Europe, post-World War II. This upcoming year, my research will focus solely on Jewish life in Berlin and Germany, although my experiences from past travels will surely shape the discoveries to come.

​When I think about last summer, I think about all the experiences that changed me. I loved hearing the tales of the resurgence of Jewish life in Poland, post-World War II. I learned about how particularly after the fall of communism, generations of people across Poland were suddenly discovering their Jewish roots. These “discoverers” were now rebuilding Poland’s Jewish community out of the ashes showing that life can continue, even after what was considered history’s greatest blow – World War II and the Holocaust. Seeing the resurgence of Jewish life in Poland myself gave me hope for the future. It showed me how there can be a brighter day when people work together. I made many friends during my time in Poland – people who were strangers at first – but now today I keep in touch with many of them.

​My time in Berlin showed me how a country devastated by four decades of war and four decades of communism could rebuild and have a strong foundation that now celebrates tolerance and equality. As a descendent of World War II veterans and Holocaust victims, I felt particularly touched when I visited Germany last summer and saw how much the country did to commemorate the Holocaust and completely change its ways since the Second World War.  Now Germany is a leader in Europe – a leader in moral, economic, and social justice. I feel proud to go back to Germany next year and represent my country as a cultural and academic ambassador. I realize how much America has to learn from Germany. While I truly believe that I am a citizen of the greatest country in the world, I cannot wait to live in Germany and learn about their culture. I will live in a city that was once divided by a wall, but today is united and stronger than ever before. 

​Lastly, my time in Paris taught me how important it is to simply be aware. It taught me to be aware of the issues of people around the world – not the just the issues going on with myself and taking place in my own community. My travels have taught me how the world is truly one great big neighborhood and we have to be there for each other.  When we become more aware, that is the first step towards taking responsibility. 

Through my travels, I’ve come to realize that we are one world and one community. It is our diversity in nationalities, religions, sexual orientations, genders, races that make us stronger. From my interviews and experiences, I’ve found that it is both our differences and similarities that can make us more united as people.  In one day, I leave for Germany and I hope these lessons I’ve learned will propel me into the next steps forward.

I will be arriving in Germany on August 7 in Marburg to begin a six week intensive German language program. After that, on September 22, I will land in Berlin and begin my ten month stay there. I received what is called a Fulbright “Young American Journalism Award” which will enable me to spend the year researching the Berlin Jewish population, writing my memoir, and working for different German and American media outlets. I will write about what I’ve learned from my Fulbright experience in the hope that what I say can influence people. I hope to raise awareness for Berlin’s Jewish population and help support change that will affect us for generations to come.

In Berlin, I plan to immerse myself in the city’s diverse community. I hope to become involved in both its Jewish and secular activities. I look forward to meeting people from all parts of the world – people of different religions, origins, and ethnicities. I want to learn about the multidimensionality of German culture and meet all different kinds of Berlin residents. For instance, I hope to meet refugees from the Middle East and German people who have lived there since the Second World War. The real point of the Fulbright is to help bring countries together and to promote positive cultural exchange. I feel so extraordinarily lucky to have this opportunity to represent my country abroad. This dialogue between the US and Germany is extremely important to me and vital to our future as allied nations.

I dreamed of becoming a Fulbright scholar ever since I was a sophomore in college. It was then when I decided that I wanted to start learning German in order to go Germany, meet its people, and learn about history from another angle. For most of my life, I felt as though I looked at the world and at history in one particular way. Now, after my travels, I’ve come to understand that life is meant to be seen from as many angles as possible. Deep down, I feel that I am a story teller, so as many voices as I can hear – I will listen.

I want to thank you, the reader, for reading this and for hopefully reading more of these posts as I write them. I lastly want to thank my parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers and friends who have supported me on this journey thus far. When I started writing this blog “Saving the Shtetlach” three years ago, I had no idea the adventure would continue beyond one summer – let alone beyond four years of college. But now as a post-grad, I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my life.  I feel so grateful just to be here – with you – and taking the next step.
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            All the best,
            Arielle