Berlin – One can say that he was one of the biggest unsympaths that one comes across in Berlin. The way Arye Sharuz Shalicar describes himself, you wouldn’t want to have met him in the dark, one of those guys where some people change the side of the street. Shalicar, who grew up first in Spandau and then in Wedding, spent his time in the 90s with claws, graffiti and robbery.
He is now 44 years old and has long since broken out of the criminal milieu of Weddings. He is a major in the reserve in the Israeli army, its spokesman and official of the Israeli government. He writes books and is a columnist.
It was a tough road up to then. During his time in Berlin, Shalicar hung with the Turkish “Black Panthers” gang from Nauener Platz. He had best friends with the Lebanese-dominated “Kolonie Boys” of the El-Zein clan and was the leader of the largest graffiti gang in Berlin: “Berlin Crime”, which was out in the neighborhood at night, spraying, rioting and causing chaos. “Berlin Crime gave me meaning in life. At least from the point of view of a youngster from the street ”, Shalicar writes in his book“ 100 wisdoms for mastering life – even if you come from the ghetto ”, which will be published on Wednesday.
The teacher just wanted to give a recommendation for a secondary school
When he received a recommendation for a secondary school in the 6th grade of the Konkordia elementary school in Spandau, it was clear that his teacher did not assume that something could become of him one day. However, his parents managed to get a recommendation from a secondary school.
Private
In the 90s in Wedding: Shalicar with a gang buddy.
Shalicar’s youth was hampered by another circumstance: As the son of Iranian Jews, he got to know the anti-Semitism of his Muslim gang buddies. At the age of 14, he thought about which way to walk home from school and at which subway station he would get off in the evening after football training so as not to get caught up in brawls in which several people would have pounced on him .
Nevertheless, he even assimilated into the Muslim parallel society in Wedding and became a member of the gang. “The aggressive attitude of many young people thus also passed on to me, and I was open to almost any criminal challenge, as long as it earned me respect on the street and, if possible, money. I was like her. Spoke like her. Wore the same clothes as her. Behaved like her, ”he writes. “You would never have identified me as a Jew. We were all black heads. Muslim kids in the ghetto district. With no prospect of a decent job. Without hope! We hung out together so intensely that at some point I really felt like her. Like a Kanake. “
To catch up, Arye Shalicar had to do three times as much
Shalicar still managed to get his high school diploma. At 23 he could no longer bear the hatred of Jews. He emigrated to Israel and left not only all the people who would have loved to kill him because he is Jewish, but also all who loved him.
He believes in miracles that can be conjured up with hard work. To make up for lost time, he put three times more activities into his day than anyone else. In Jerusalem he began studying international relations, Middle East history and politics, which he graduated with honors in 2009. He earned money in part-time jobs, and in the evenings he took language courses. He had to catch up, get to know people, make connections.
BLZ
Shalicar is now the spokesman for the IDF Forces, the Israeli army.
“Learn, learn, learn!” Is one of his hundred tips and highlights it with examples from his life. Or: “Get up again and again”. Or: “Forgive!”. Just as he has done to his Weddinger gang pals for the past twenty years.
But which target group is his book aimed at? It is unlikely that the adolescents for whom he wrote these tips would do the work of reading a 256-page book. “On the one hand, the target group is adolescents of all stripes, especially from problem areas and especially those with a migration background,” says Arye Sharuz Shalicar. “But also teachers and social workers, all professions that help adolescents. If I had found out about a book at the age of 18 that someone wrote who was in the same shit years ago but made it out and is now writing books and is a civil servant, then that would be the only book I would have read at the time. “
At the end, he tells of a buddy who just got out of jail and wrote to him that he should have listened to him sooner to get his life under control.
In September Shalicar’s autobiography “A wet dog is better than a dry Jew” was released as a film in German cinemas. “100 Wisdoms to Master Life” will appear on October 13th in Finanzbuch Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-95972-382-4, 14.99 euros
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