ABSTRACT

This article attempts to lose the abyss between the offspring of victims and perpetrators. In chronicling a journey from New York, to Berlin, to Jerusalem, the author seeks to engage not only the contemporary legacy of the Holocaust but also the roots of her own othering of Germans and Palestinians. She seeks answers to controversial but crucial questions: Will Germans and Israelis move towards a less confining and ideological notion of their identity, or will they instead find themselves unintentionally perpetuating a cycle of fear, hate, and oppression? Can Israeli Jews and Palestinians break down the walls of blindness between them? The article proposes that mutual recognition and acknowledgement of intersections of experiences can undo the process of dehumanization done by former and present generations on each side.