Rocking the Wall: Bruce Springsteen in Berlin

Here is our newest book: Rocking the Wall, The Berlin Concert that Changed the World. It is about a famed concert Bruce Springsteen gave in 1988 in Berlin, Weissensee, it was a concert that helped bring down the Wall one year later. The author is Erik Kirschbaum, a Berlin-based Reuters correspondent from New York. We have a Kickstarter running, it tells you more about the book; also, you can get the book as well as other cool rewards, such as a postcard of Bruce with a piece of the actual, real Wall. Here is more: www.kickstarter.com

by Eva C. Schweitzer

The Times Are Screaming For Satire

Last Monday at the Leo Baeck Institute was a great success. New Yorkers are, evidently, interested in Berlin, since more than one hundred people came. Sadly, Professor Julius Schoeps from Berlin could not make it after all. However, Eugene Dubow, who founded the office of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin, delivered a fabulous speech, as did Anne Nelson, who pointed out that Tucholsky's books had been burned exactly eighty years prior in May 1933.

For everybody who keeps asking, who the heck is Tucholsky, here is the Wikipedia link.

In addition, we now have a Kindle Sort with his landmark story Berlin! Berlin!, and The Times Are Screaming for Satire. The latter is an ironic take on the hardships a cabaret writer suffers. It is also an extremely funny and probably only slightly exaggerated behind-the-scenes description of political cabaret in Weimar Berlin and the constant infighting between desperate authors, ruthless agents, anxious directors, bossy theater owners, vain actors and actresses—and the befuddled audience, and the press, who is watching it. This story has not aged one little bit and could very well take place in today's New York.

And, of course, there is also a T-shirt:

Berlin! Berlin! The Clock Is Ticking...

This was an exciting week! I just shipped a couple of boxes to Amazon, containing the first copies of Jews in Berlin, a book of 750 years of history Jewish life in Berlin, with an update on Jewish life today, from the Chabad Lubavitchers to the gay scene of Tel Aviv. I live near Times Square, and the nearest UPS station is in the basement of the Toys‘R'Us on Times Square. So, I borrowed a cart (from our maintenance staff), loaded it with boxes and pushed it through the throngs of tourists towards what is supposed to be the world's biggest toy store. Well, it sure is the fullest! After I unloaded the cart, a guy in a uniform and with a walkie talkie alerted another guy in a uniform with a walkie talkie to let me and my push cart out at a special, tourist-free door. It made me feel like a part of the working crowd on Times Square, and very special indeed.

Jews in Berlin will also be available at Barnes & Noble in the next few days. However, if you want the book discounted, and hand-delivered by the publisher, and with a fancy gift bag, courtesy of Berlin Partners, come to the Leo Baeck Institute, 15 West 16th Street, Manhattan, NY, on May 13, 6pm. There is a small fee at the door, but you will get a free glass of wine and real German chocolate. Julius H. Schoeps, one of the authors of Jews in Berlin and knowledgable just about everything, will speak.

Also Berlin! Berlin! will be presented at the Leo Baeck Institute, a story collection by Kurt Tucholsky about his hometown, never before translated into English or published in the United States. Anne Nelson, who wrote the foreword, will speak as well. Berlin! Berlin! will be available in a few days as a softcover, the hardcover will follow suit (as a tiny, tiny publisher I don't know the exact day when the mighty Gods of the Amazon will put it up). The hardcover has a dust jacket and a gold stamped spine. I recommend it dearly as a gift for everybody who loves Berlin.

by Eva S. Schweitzer

Boxed in By Books

Yesterday, I got the first, brand-new copies of our newest book, Jews in Berlin—186 copies, to be exact. I ordered 100, and the printer decided to send twice the amount (a small glitch in the automated setup, well, what can you do). UPS was supposed to deliver them in 16 boxes. I got 15 boxes, but that is more than enough. I live in a tiny, tiny studio in the middle of Manhattan. Today, box number 16 came.

Also, Berlin Partners sent me two boxes with post cards, pens, maps, posters, and more, from Berlin. I will distribute them all at our presentation of Jews in Berlin, together with Kurt Tucholsky's Berlin! Berlin! at the Leo Baeck Institute at 15 W 16th St.. I hope to see you all there, because otherwise I need to find a new place to live.

by Eva C. Schweitzer

http://www.lbi.org/events/jews-berlin/