A slice of Israel in Berlin

July 23, 2007 - 2:52 PM by Avi

I’m sure I was missed here on ISRAELITY last week, but I had no time to blog as I was at a conference in Germany. While it was quite an interesting experience to be in Berlin – seeing the new Europe — wide streets and tremendously clean buildings, and a perfectly timed transportation system, it was also a bit scary realizing what happened in this modern European city just 65 years prior – I have to admit that I was a bit homesick. Luckily (and to my shock), down the street from our hotel was a little taste of Israel. No, I’m not talking about the shwarma stands opened by Turkish immigrants (immigrants? Some of them had been in Germany for decades!) but rather a bit of the Israeli fashion scene. In addition to strong relations with Israel, it seems Germans also have a penchant for Israel fashion. Yes, there was a CASTRO down the street (even though I doubt most Berliners realized that this chic upscale shop, sharing the name of an infamous Cuban dictator, was actually Israeli). You see, CASTRO (named, in fact, after Aaron Castro, the company’s founder and a Greek immigrant to Israel in the 1930s and not the brutal ruler of Cuba) has gone global. Originally a fashion designer with its founding in the 1950s, the company branched out into retail in 1985. Saturating the Israeli market, it opened its first international store in Germany in 2003.

Those moments I was missing Israel last week, I only had to look up the street to one of Berlin’s newest and chicest shops: the Israeli CASTRO.