“They Call Me Jeckisch” is the first joint production of the Israeli-German theatre partnership between the Theater Heidelberg and Teatron Beit Lessin in Tel Aviv. The premiere took place in Heidelberg, Jan. 21, 2010. This documentary project is based on real experiences and stories told by Israeli Jews of German descent. Here is what two of the participating actresses in this project – Ute Baggeröhr and Hadas Kalderon – experienced while travelling in Germany and Israel:
Ute in Israel
Tel Aviv. In a taxi. Disco-music playing in the background. Ute: Shalom. / Taxi Driver: Shalom. / U: I have to go to Zoa House. It’s of Beit Lessin Theatre. / T: You’re an actor? / U: Yes. Actress. (laughs) / T: Actress. (laughs) My English is not so good. / U: Yes, my English also is not so good. / T: German? / U: Yes. (pause) You can hear it? (pause) / T: Maybe the look is a little bit. / U: The look?! / T: No? It’s a Jewish German? / U: No. / T: No? / U: Atheist German. / T: The nose is Jewish. / U: My nose is Jew… Yeees I know (laughs) / T: You can’t run from it, you know (pause) It’s not so bad to be Jewish. / U: No, I… / T: People killed us and heat… hate us… / U: It’s difficult to be Jewish but it’s not bad. (pause) It’s also not so nice to be German sometimes. / T: To be here? / U: No. To be German. It’s… / T: Not a good past you say. / U: Ähm… ja. Sometimes not so. / T: Hey yeah. (laughs) / U: Every time you have to talk about the old history. (long pause) But you are right, this is the first country where my nose seems normal. (laughs) / T (laughs): You are joking about the Jewish, eh? Okay…we are used to it. / U: No, you started, please… (long pause) / T: You are a dancer? / U: No, actress. / T: Your leg. Dancer leg. / U: This? I’ve got this from my family. / T: It’s here. Zoa House. / U: Yes! Toda.
Hadas in Germany
Hadas: I had my birthday while I was rehearsing in Germany. It’s on the 10th of December and I had to go by train from Heidelberg to Frankfurt to pick up my boyfriend at the airport. Nina came with me to the Hauptbahnhof in Heidelberg and explained to me how to buy the ticket from the machine. But apparently neither of us took the ticket so… I went on the train and after it had already left the station I saw a young man taking out a ticket. And suddenly I realised that I didn’t have one. So I asked him: “Do you have to show the ticket to someone” and he said yes, so I looked again for the ticket knowing that I didn’t have it and I got hysterical. “You won’t be thrown off the train” the young man tried to console me, but I kept panicking. “I am from Israel” I told him, but he just laughed and said that they might not even come to check my ticket, “which I do not have” I whispered. So I kept peeping around the seat in front me, trying to hide and checking for the conductor at the same time. Please don’t come! It’s my birthday! They didn’t. “See”, said the young man, “you got a birthday present.” “Yes. I was born again on a train in Germany.” My birthday. On a German train. Yes…
The textes were first published in the program of “They Call Me Jeckisch”.
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