(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)June 20, 2016

(MAHWAH, NJ) –Dr. Kerry Wallach, Assistant Professor of German Studies at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, discuss “Jewishness on Display: Gender and Jewish Visibility in Weimar Germany” on April 21 under the auspices of The Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Dr. Wallach argued that there was, in fact, a pronounced desire for visibility among Jews in Weimar Germany, and that gender played a central role in decisions about displaying Jewishness. Instead of “passing” as non-Jews or overtly displaying Jewishness at all times, many Jews inhabited a state of ambiguity in public, but adopted signifiers of Jewishness such as badges or hairstyles that became perceptibly Jewish to certain observers.

It became possible, even desirable, to display Jewishness without eroding it, and to be recognizably Jewish without standing out from the crowd. Dr. Wallach showed that articles in the Jewish press, memoirs, films, literature, and other cultural texts depicted such conspicuous displays of Jewishness or the absence thereof.

Kerry Wallach’s work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Leo Baeck Institutes in New York, London, and Jerusalem; the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC; and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The holder of a Ph.D. in Germanic Literatures from the University of Pennsylvania, her doctoral dissertation was awarded the Women in German Dissertation Prize. She is also a co-editor of the new book series “German Jewish Cultures,” a joint endeavor of Indiana University Press and the Leo Baeck Institute London.

Recent publications by Wallach include articles on Weimar film, journalism, Jewish beauty queens, fashion, department stores, and Jews in popular culture.

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