The Blue Sofa | 39th Berlin Jewish Culture Days

At the Neue Synagoge, three voices from contemporary Jewish literature will come together. Their stories take us from Jerusalem via Berlin to New York, from memories of the Shoah to the present day following 7 October. They tell of loss and love, of origins and new beginnings – and of how literature opens up spaces in which diverse experiences become visible.

Assaf Gavron explores the story of four friends growing up near Jerusalem in the 1980s: with music, pop culture, first love and the dream of freedom. But the country’s conflicts catch up with them. When one of the friends dies on a military mission, the carefree nature of their youth comes to an end. The result is a portrait of an Israeli generation caught between new beginnings, loss and a longing for normality.

Shelly Kupferberg takes us to Berlin during the Nazi era. The focus is on two women: Liane Berkowitz, who joins the resistance, and Martha E., who observes, remains silent and preserves. Decades later, it becomes clear that even the seemingly silent witness has become part of the story.

Dana Vowinckel tells the story of a love affair in an increasingly polarised present. Anton is Jewish; Alma is not. What begins as an encounter between two people becomes, after 7 October, a story of belonging, vulnerability and the question of what binds people together when the world around them is drifting apart.