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Negotiating Cultural Identity on the Stage: Maria Dronke, a German-Jewish Actor in New Zealand
- Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies
- Purdue University Press
- Volume 29, Number 4, Summer 2011
- pp. 46-66
- 10.1353/sho.2011.0134
- Article
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1,100 Jews found refuge from Hitler in New Zealand before 1940. They experienced both geographical estrangement and cultural alienation in a British colonial setting still profoundly influenced by its settlement phase. How did the new arrivals adjust to the Dominion way of life? What factors aided their survival and acculturation at the "edge of the Diaspora"? The present article addresses aspects of acculturation and integration of German-Jewish artists in New Zealand, questions of cultural identity, and the retention of Germanness and Jewishness abroad, using the biography of the actor Maria Dronke as the lens through which to examine these issues.