After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90, nearly a quarter of a million Jewish immigrants – so-called “quota refugees” – came to Germany from the former Soviet Union. This wave of immigration brought about lasting changes in the Jewish community. Of the approximately 110,000 members of Germany’s Jewish population, some 90,000 are of Russian-speaking origin. Michael Kerstgens is one of the few photographers to have documented the immigration of Russian-speaking Jews intensively over a long period. In his work, he focuses on the social and religious challenges facing Jewish immigrants to Germany as well as on the situation of long-established German Jews.

The photographs relate farewells and new beginnings, those arriving and those settled, and the search for belonging and religious tradition.