The Jews are unanimous in their opinion: "In Europe it is impossible for us to be fully Jewish. We live in constant fear. We are still, and increasingly, targeted. For us New York is paradise. New York knows how to deal with diversity and Jews."
Margot Vanderstraeten, writer and freelance journalist, had been trying for years to gain access to the Jewish-orthodox community in Antwerp, but it didn't work. At least not directly. Because at the end of 2012, some of the Jews who had formerly lived in Antwerp but had moved to New York welcomed her in their midst. Vanderstraeten spent two weeks talking, eating and walking with the modern-orthodox families.
Her drive was and still is curiosity. How do you combine strict religious traditions and the modern world, why do we, non-Jews, know so little about the Jewish world, their 'way of being'? Shouldn't it be time for a change?
Katja Heinemann is a German documentary photographer living in Brooklyn. Her photography is characterised by social commitment. One of her concerns: "We're all remembering the Holocaust. Absolutely necessary, but why do we still not know what being Jewish is about? Why is there no attention whatsoever for Jewish culture and traditions in our regular education programms?"
Photo's: © Katja Heinemann
