Blogerim

Interview with Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias

Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias prepared for the interview by sitting on the sofa to watch Jerusalem for Cowards together; photo: private

Dalia Castel is a filmmaker, Orit Nahmias an actress at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theatre. Both grew up in Jerusalem – they are childhood friends and their paths have crossed on numerous occasions. Today, they both live in Berlin. When asked why they made a documentary about their hometown, they  finish each other’s sentence: “We had questions, …” Orit begins to explain, “… about Jerusalem,” Dalia adds. They turned their questions into a very personal documentary: Jerusalem for Cowards (2011). The film will be screened at the Jewish Museum Berlin on February 19^th, and the screening will be followed by a discussion. → continue reading

On the trail of a coffee shop

It was a very special moment for me when I got to unpack recently a new collection for the Archive. A small package from Tel Aviv lay in front of me. The sender was Mor Kaplansky, an Israeli film-maker, with whom I had been corresponding since spring of this year.

Unpacking the collection of the Family Nagler; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Ulrike Neuwirth

It had all begun in March, at the finissage of Nosh, the Jewish Food Week. In a small café in Kreuzberg, the documentary film Café Nagler had just been shown. The film is about a coffee shop of that name, which had once stood on the Moritzplatz. While in Berlin today, there is no evidence that the café ever existed at the site, descendants of the Naglers in Israel have kept its memory alive right through the present day. The film moved me greatly. I was excited to see on the screen that Naomi, grandmother of the film-maker, had preserved certain treasures such as a coffee service with the emblem of the café and a set of silverware bearing the initials “N”. I also noticed various photographs and documents.

→ continue reading

One hundred and sixty-one years ago today Sigmund Freud was born. In honor of his birthday we would like to recommend a video by Nurit Yedlin, which discusses the founder of psychoanalysis with the aid of a miniature version of Freud’s study in Vienna.

A film by Nurit Yedlin, Tel Aviv, 2016

For 47 years Freud treated his patients in the study reproduced here, before emigrating to London via Paris with his family after the Nazi annexation of Austria in June of 1938.

If you’re in a more playful mood you can address the question of what you actually see when you lie on that couch — in an online game on our website that we developed here at the Jewish Museum Berlin for a past exhibition on psychoanalysis. You will find further documentation of that show as well as publications on Freud and his work at www.jmberlin.de/en/sigmund-freud

Have fun browsing!