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Thousands Of Israelis Now Call Berlin Home And Make Their Cultural Mark

Berlin's buzzing food scene, its fine cultural offerings and its real estate boom all have the imprint of the city's burgeoning Israeli community.
People relax on Admiralbruecke bridge in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin on April 8, 2018. An estimated 10,000 Israelis have moved to the German capital in the last decade or so, leaving an imprint on the city of more than 3.5 million.

For decades after the Holocaust, many Jews refused to visit Germany. Some still do.

But now it has become common to hear Hebrew spoken in the bakeries and bars of Berlin.

At least 10,000 Israelis are estimated to have moved to the German capital in the last decade, according to Tal Alon, the Berlin-based editor of the Hebrew-language magazine Spitz. (The Israeli Embassy in Germany said it had no official statistic.)

Though the community is much smaller than some of the, opened last fall by Tel Aviv celebrity chef Meir Adoni. And the director of Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater, , is Israeli, as is , the conductor of Berlin's state opera.

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