Germany has “Rent-a-Jew’

Because of how few Jews there are in Germany, most have never met one.

The service, as described by the German publication Deutsche Welle, isn’t exactly as weird as the name implies. It’s basically a seminar service: Some organization hires Rent-a-Jew to put together a presentation (DW observed one such presentation in a school). Then Rent-a-Jew sends over some, er, Jews — mostly young volunteers — who talk to the assembled students about what being Jewish is actually like.

Okay, so it’s still a little weird. But weird in a way that speaks to how Germany, decades after the Holocaust, is struggling to sort out how to interact with the country’s small — but rapidly growing — Jewish minority.

“A lot of people want to be more than just the regular Jewish stereotypes in Germany, reduced to victims,” Alexander Rasumny, one of the organizers behind Rent-a-Jew, tells me. “A lot of people want to be seen in their own right.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.