´Ein kleiner, von allen gehasster, feiger Jude war ich. So fühle ich mich zumindest´.
Arye Sharuz Shalicar is a often spotted in the German media those days, as a spokeperson of the IDF for the German journalists. He is articulated, up to the point and fluent in the international language of public relations. But before, a few years ago, before making aliya in 2001, he was a boy from Wedding, versed in the language - both body and verbal - of (mostly) Arab gangs of Berlin, like the PLO-Boys and many more.
In a similar vein with Ben Salomo´s memoir of life as a Jew - and Israeli - in the Berlin rap scene, Shalicar adds a different layer of information about the heated hate against Jews among his Palestinian and non-German colleagues. While reading his fights and humiliations as a teenager growing up as a non-religious Iranian Jew, I was automatically thinking the latest weeks of anti-Israeli protests in areas like Neukölln or Sonnenallee. Nothing new under the sun, apparently.
Shalicar´s memoir also shares his limited contacts with the local Jewish community, limited both in terms of language - due to the predominance of Russian - but also the reserves against non-European Jews.
The book is a journey of self-discovery and reconnecting with his own roots and heritage, against all odds. A story of resilience in an unkind world.
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