jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

philosophical concept of Liberal Judaism? Or do they just find it more comfortable that you can speak
German and not have to pray in Hebrew? I think you’ve got to make the distinction here exactly why they
have these members. Not that I want to criticize the people who live this concept and carry it out. That’s an
important intellectual and philosophical concept that you should know if you are in a position of authority
in the Jewish Community. I think that the Community should be integrated and united, but in the sense of
Orthodox Judaism regarding religious matters. Everything else should be determined by democratic
plurality.
● Do you see any unsolved problems or tensions between the veterans and the immigrants? How would you
characterize their relations today?
It’s difficult to say for all of Germany. Things are also partially segregated. There are completely different
Communities with completely different approaches to the immigrants. When speaking of the Communities,
the majority, you’ve got to face the truth that the majority of Jews in Germany are immigrants. From
105,000 Community members, the centrally organized Jewish Community in Germany, according to
different estimates 85-90,000 are immigrants. Which conflicts should we talk about when the vast majority
are immigrants? That there are political tensions, for example in Berlin, I admit. But if you want to get into
the problems in Berlin, you need to also analyze which immigrants ran in the election, who won, who had
to resign from office after a huge argument. You can’t generalize. These are individuals. In the large
Communities there are leaders, but the leadership still rests with the veterans. This will be a process, a
political, a pluralistic, a democratic one, and at the end, I’m 100% convinced of this, it will end that the vast
majority will also prevail in the leadership as well.
● How far is Israel central to Jewish life in Germany?Do you think that in the next few years, the level of
identification with Israel will remain the same, grow or decline?
I personally would very much like to see the sense of identification with Israel grow, but something must
be done for this to happen. Today we do have a completely different situation. Now everything is different
and it’s up to the organizations. They now must, maybe for the first time ever, deal with the fact that people
are asking themselves why do I need to do something for Israel? This question wasn’t raised earlier.
Before, many people were sitting on their packed suitcases and everyone understood that everyone wanted
to leave with these suitcases to this country, and somehow help this country. Now the circumstances are
different and the organizations need to be active, proactive. They shouldn’t react, they can’t expect that this
identification will grow by itself, because there is a completely different social structure in place now, for
political reasons and so on. You can discuss this for a very long time. But what should be done? They
should deal with this actively. They should convey the significance to the young people and explain it to
them. I don’t want to say that nothing has been done in this regard, but, for example, in Ukraine or in
Russia much more has been done in this area than in Germany and now people need to change their minds
here as well.
● You personally don’t see a danger that German Jewry or European Jewry could drift away from Israel
due to political differences?
No. You shouldn’t confuse solidarity with identification. The feeling of solidarity is immense, everyone is
aware of being Jewish and that Israel is a Jewish state, an outpost of democracy, a bastion of democracy.
You feel solidarity with it, but if your interest in it will increase or decrease depends on the people who
have the expectations, they need to become active. The feeling of solidarity in the sense of being ready to
express your support and so on is one thing, but to identify with it, to say yes, it is also something of a
home for me, that’s a different phenomenon, I think.
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