Today Moslem around the world gained a man of integrity of a Jewish man
who
took the bold step to become a Moslem.c Henryk Broder (61), one of the
most
controversial and engaging writers
in Germany today emraced Islam at Rida mosque in Newcoln . He has been
a thorn in the side of the Establishment for thirty years. The son of
two Polish Holocaust survivors, Broder is not only a trenchant
political critic and observant social essayist but an invaluable
chronicler of the Jewish experience in late twentieth-century Germany.
He published eighteen essays, lately translated for the first time
into English. The first was written in 1979 and the most recent deals
with the post-9/11 realities of the war on terrorism and its effects
on the countries of Europe. Other essays address the debate over the
construction of a Holocaust memorial in Berlin, the German response to
the 1991 Gulf War, the politics of German reunification, and the rise
of the new German nationalism. A Jew in the New Germany showcases
Broder's biting wit, his sense of history, and his ability to draw
broader connections between what appear at first glance to be minor or
isolated incidents. In these essays he charts the recent evolution of
German Jewish relations, using his own outsider status to hold up a
mirror to the German people and point out that things have not changed
for German Jews as much as non-Jews might think. Again and again he
shows himself to be chillingly prophetic, especially regarding Israel
and the crisis in the Middle East. A Jew in the New Germany is a bold
new addition to the German Jewish tradition of caustic cultural
commentary from a writer whose perspicacity and candor have turned him
from a voice in the wilderness to one of the most widely read
essayists in Germany today.
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