Global Neighborhoods: Jewish Quarters in Paris, London, and Berlin

Chapter 11: Neighborhoods of Globalization

Chapter 11 Neighborhoods of Globalization The spaces of globalization are not uniform because they include different places with unique traditions, cultures, and histories that make the whole circuit a coherent, but diversified landscape of networks of nodes. Each place deploys its own mode of globalization and relates to extralocal units in ways that enhance the global complex of which it is a part. The European Jewish diasporic neighborhood is one example of such a place. It is influenced and shaped by both the global metropolis in which it is incorporated and the formal institutions of the ethnic group located outside the historic enclave. While the previous chapters discuss and document the extent of the relations of these neighborhoods with municipal governments, putative homelands, and other diasporic sites in other countries, they pay little attention to the role of formal Jewish institutions outside the enclave. These, too, must be analyzed in order to comprehend fully the internal dynamic of the social organization of the Jewish neighborhood in the European Union as a pivotal node of transglobal diasporic urbanism. It must be said at the outset that the Jewish neighborhoods examined in this study are only a small fraction of the Jewish population in Paris, London, and Berlin. The rest of the population lives elsewhere in integrated neighborhoods. Intraurban Jewish migration in these cities is usually not from an integrated neighborhood to the historic enclave, but rather from the enclave to an integrated neighborhood, because this movement toward deghettoization is seen by the larger community as a sign of success, progress, and upward mobility. In this local urban network of multiple nodes, the everyday life of the enclave is intertwined with Jewish life in the integrated neighborhoods through family relations, patronage of shops, synagogue attendance, and the staffing of social services centers and public facilities because some of the workers in these offices live elsewhere in the city. The synergy that exists between the enclave and the larger urban diasporic community is a natural one that benefits both sides, but also sheds light on the development of these sites. 195 196 Global Neighborhoods To explain the specificity of the Jewish organizational context in which these neighborhoods of globalization operate, this chapter first attempts to provide a demographic profile of the Jewish populations of Paris, London, and Berlin by identifying areas in the city where the diaspora is concentrated, presenting maps and the best estimates of the population available along with some ethnographic observations. None of these neighborhoods coincides with the boundaries of the administrative districts of the municipality. Some even span more than one administrative district. While the Paris enclave of Le Marais is shrinking, the Berlin neighborhood of Sheunenviertel exists more in terms of recuperated buildings than as a residential Jewish neighborhood ; in contrast, the two London neighborhoods of Stamford Hill and Golders Green are expanding as a result of international migration, mostly from Eastern Europe and Israel. The chapter then explains how formal Jewish organizations located outside the historic enclaves in the cities influence the developmental paths of the neighborhoods. They affect the neighborhood in different ways, and their influence is felt more in some periods than in others. In any case, their contribution to the daily life and institutions in the neighborhood should not be ignored. For some, the influence is direct because they sponsor personnel, serve as trustees, do different types of volunteer work in institutions that cater to the neighborhood community , or contribute financially to local organizations; in other cases, they affect the enclave only indirectly, by influencing state policies and formal institutions’ agendas so that their implementation may positively enhance and benefit the neighborhood. Finally, the chapter discusses various aspects of the macrostructural context that also influences the evolution of the neighborhoods. One can think here of the relations of Israel with the governments of France, Germany, and England (political, diplomatic, military, and trade relations); the Jewish philanthropic organizations that have their subsidiaries in these countries; Jewish organizations that function at the level of the European Union; and the multinational firms that move people around, either to Israel or to any of these countries, especially firms that are in the technology field (mostly biotechnology and information technology). The chapter explains how these different actors contribute directly or indirectly and minimally or maximally to the well-being of these neighborhoods. The sociological literature has yet to tackle in a systematic fashion intragroup relations between...