The vivid title of this book is taken from a letter by the poet Else Lasker-Schüler from the 1930s and describes her elevated mood while strolling through the quiet city of Bern. "Such walks, floating, make life bearable," she writes further. However, the notion that life can be endured, and at times feels "stratospherically" light, also alludes to the burdens and pressures of those years, the challenges faced by Jews in many parts of Europe. The title makes it clear that this collection includes texts documenting a wide range of Jewish experiences, thought processes, and figures of memory from various eras: from medieval privileges to stigmatizing exclusions, to violent expulsions; from civil emancipation in the 19th century to powerlessness during the Holocaust, and to the public recognition of the Jewish religious community. The connections of Jewish intellectuals with Bern provide insights into the high points of European intellectual life. Jewish artistic and political modernity was characterized by a spirit of renewal and the experience of exile. For many, Bern became the place where their dream of studying came true. Again and again, the image of the cloud city reflects the changing climate: between the Jewish hat and the Alpine paradise, melancholy and dreaminess, stubbornness and soaring heights, anxiety and bourgeois life, liberal sentiment and the pursuit of social participation.