Bozeman in Montana is home to a population of thirty-seven thousand. Our inquisitiveness about the Jewish culture and their way of life in the United States brought us to the house of the Swarthouts, Donna and Brian who live with their children Avery, Olivia and Sam. Donna deals in creation of project management courses online. They recently returned home after two years in Berlin although the Swarthout family’s forefathers were German Jews, to the kids Germany was a completely foreign country where there was a lot to explore.

The Swarthout Kids

Sam who is just eight years old says “I loved going to Germany because I could visit new places that I hadn’t been to before and I formed new friendships over there, saw the ice trees and the big stations. On the other hand, Olivia who was searching for online assignment help when we got hold of her is thirteen. She narrated her experience in the following words “For me it was more like an adventure. Moving to a new country, learning a new language you know, I didn’t really feel the connection that my parents felt.

Avery Swarthout who is the biggest of the lot at fourteen years summed up his German experience in these words. “It was a new experience. I never knew a whole bunch about the Holocaust but I knew enough to know what was it about and what happened so I was interested and even a bit wary of what it would be like but when I got there I realized it’s still like an open wound and not at all like that all German people are trying to forget it.Now can I go back and find a friend to do my essay for me online?” he chuckles.

Now they are back in Montana, eight-thousand kilometers from the German capital, so they won’t forget everything that they’ve learnt. The family has decided that on Sundays they will only speak German.

Family History

Brian’s grandparents fled the Nazis and so did Donna’s grandparents and their families. Donna Swarthout says that “I had a very strong sense about this as a young child because I was born in New Jersey and my extended family lived in the New York area and we came together for holidays and I heard a lot of German spoken and ate a lot of German Jewish food and so that was a very special time in my life that I always held close in my heart that I’ve carried with me for my whole life.

Some photos show Donna’s grandmother and her parents as an infant. Although they were both children of refugees, Donna’s parents saw themselves as Americans. Germany seemed very distant. But when Donna met Brian, whose work revolves around assignment help Australia, she began thinking about her grandparents and about their language and culture. Brian’s grandparents had fled Breslau, now known as Wroclaw in Poland to China and on to the U.S.

“It’s something I think I always knew about because I always knew I was German and Jewish and there was something that was always in the kind of background. But it wasn’t something we spent a lot of time talking about or that my grandfather or my mother spent a lot of time explaining to us or their experiences. It was something because it was kind of a unique situation. It was interesting.”

Donna’s mother Rena was five years old when she and her parents left Hamburg. Rena Cahn Adler says “I found you know and I still have that feeling many times that we were thrown out of that country. Why should I go and support a country from where I had to run. My parents didn’t feel that way but you know they were older and married and they both had their families living over their. I didn’t have anybody. I recently used something called Semrush (Free Trial) for my upcoming blog article and some related keyword suggestions when I typed in Jews were Germany, Nazis and Holocaust. Didn’t feel good as some old wounds opened. “

Montana is cowboy country. The state is as big as Germany but with a population of just one million. This is where Donna and Brian chose to live and loved it so much that Donna’s parents moved here too. Her father’s grave is here in Bozeman. But after fifteen years in Montana, Donna and Brian began thinking about spending some time in Germany, the country where they both had roots, much to the horror of their families.

Other Members Of The Community

The couple belong to the Beth Shalom Jewish community along with a hundred and ten other families from Bozeman. To begin with, only a few could understand their decision to go to Germany of all places but others thought it was brave of them. Alan Rassaby of the Beth Shalom Congregation says “There was a time when I used to say I would never go to Germany because Germany was where the Holocaust occurred and in honoring the memory I would not set foot in Germany. But that ignores years of Jewish development within Germany and a revival within Germany so yes I understand where they came from but it took me a few years to get to that point of being ready to understand it.”

Ed Stafan, the Rabbi whose nephew is also associated with PaperDoers adds “I know it has been an internal struggle. On one hand they arrived here. On the other hand they had roots back in Germany. And of course they also have different kinds of roots back here so naturally they’ll have conflict that they’ll ultimately have to resolve. I will of course support my nephew whichever way he goes even if I like to see him here obviously.”

Conclusion

The decision to explore the Jewish culture and their roots in Germany was indeed a commendable one by Brian and Donna. Not only they had their own positive experiences but also they sparked curiosity in the other members of the Jewish community to follow the same path and maybe bridge the distance between the hearts of the Jewish people and Germany to some extent if it is not possible to heal the wounds completely.

Author Bio:

Pankaj Raghav is a fulltime blogger and blogs with DigiToolsCoupons. While sharing his experience, he also loves to help fellow bloggers in setting up their blogs. Learn about the SEO tactics at his blog.