jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

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4. BENJAMIN BLOCH June 15, 2009, Frankfurt ● Mr. Bloch, what are the biggest problems the Jewish Community in Germany is facing today? The main problem is that the 18-30 year olds are rarely reached by the Communities. We are now looking for solutions to this problem, not just us, but we were talking about this with all related Jewish groups and institutions, we’re now looking into ways how to achieve this, how to recruit this age group. The Communities are just not reaching them. ● Why not? Is it because the people are too busy? Or is it due to what’s being offered? It depends, and there might be different reasons. The question is how the people were treated at the beginning, how were they integrated? People forget that, for example. Then it depends on what they are offering. Why should young people come? What are they being offered? Is someone having a party? There are more interesting places for that outside the Community. ● You say that the 18-30 year old age group is the most difficult to reach in all Communities, Is this true also with the students? There aren’t so many student unions. The BJSD exists on paper, but in reality it looks different. There’s a group here and there, but imagine, there are thousands of Jewish students here in the bigger towns. Compared to what there used to be, there is no active student life here in Germany. There are various reasons for this, also laziness. The institutions had told the students they had funding available and didn’t do anything with it. They’ve gotten a negative image over the years that’s remained. Now Chabad comes and invites the students to Paris for a weekend, to a five-star hotel. That’s not great student work. That’s just a nice get-together. Now it’s really difficult. The Jewish Community in Germany is facing the question that when it doesn’t succeed in recruiting these young people, how should the Jewish Community work in the long term and not just on paper? ● Then in the worst case scenario it will be like in 1989? No, there had been much more in recent times. There was an active student life. There were activists like Dani Diener and Mark Glezermann and really moved tings forward. ● Is the current weakness in young people’s activity a German specific problem, or have you heard similar problems from the French, British or Dutch? I think it’s more significant in Germany than in other places. ● Why? I’m also responsible for Europe where we also try to do some things, and can say that in France and in England, the student movements are much more active than here. Or in Belgium. Much more active. This [here] is a consumer society. Of course, when they get all the support from the state, all the help in those countries. Who supports anything here? 23 | P a g e
● It’s probably an unusual situation in Germany with the great number of non-Halachic Jews who were also part of the Russian Jewish influx during the 1990’s. How should they be taken care of? I’m the wrong person to ask about that. ● It’s just about your opinion. No, I’m the wrong person to ask. I can’t give you information about that. I’m responsible for those who are members in the Jewish Community. I’m not working for everything under the sun. You can do that, and whoever wrote this questionnaire. This isn’t in the interests of the Jewish Community. ● What is your personal impression of the programs conducted together with Israel? To what extent do you think that there the interest is the same as 20-30 years ago, or is the interest decreasing? What programs are you talking about? ● Birthright Israel, for example. What’s the point of Birthright in Germany? How many people have participated from Germany? About 3,000-4,000, what kind of feedback can you expect from that? This is my criticism. There’s was a study from the Brandeis University about the Birthright program, but its conclusions still haven’t been implemented up till today. There was a special meeting in London with experts from all over Europe, and we have discussed previous results. ● Could you say some words about the contents and previous results of the Lehava program? This is a project of the Central Welfare Office for Jews in Germany. We began the project seven or eight years ago. We said that we wanted to bring young people here from Israel, put them in traditional homes, and try to assist the Communities in creating and building up a Jewish infrastructure. To sell Jewishness authentically, not necessarily religiously. The next group of young Israelis will arrive in September. I interviewed the people and there will probably be eight people coming here. ● Eight people? Yes, we used to have more, but now we’re having eight. We used to have a different Rabbi, but we modified the program a bit last year. Now there are three itinerate Rabbis who work here, supported by the Zentralrat and by us. The Lehava people, there are now four centers where they’re active; in Cologne/Düsseldorf, in Dresden, in Berlin, and in Munich. Those are the centers and from there they also outreach communities in the peripheries. That’s a greater success. The main problem is the language. The people who came to Germany, there are some who speak Russian, and other languages, but none of them can speak German. They learn German here, we offer an intensive German course, but we also have found the ways and methods how we can overcome this problem. In any case, there are Communities who ask that we send people, for example from Frankfurt/Oder [Eastern Germany] and from Dresden [Eastern Germany]. Besides this, we send people to vacation camps where we can prepare the children for the machanot, the summer camps. The Israelis stay here for one year. ● Is there a special program that evaluates the Lehava projects? Or do you ask the Community to make an evaluation? We ask for an evaluation every time. We ask if people were satisfied, we ask for feedback, where have there been problems, where does it work well. Yesterday I was speaking to someone who was going to Cologne. 24 | P a g e
Page 1 and 2: JEWS AND JEWISH EDUCATION IN GERMAN
Page 3 and 4: Leading figures: The agenda of the
Page 5 and 6: 1. TOBY AXELROD May 13, 2009, Berli
Page 7 and 8: Yes. Aside from the three-day festi
Page 9 and 10: 2. DMITRI BELKIN Frankfurt, June 8,
Page 11 and 12: lives, they would say that they are
Page 13 and 14: ● And how much are they percentag
Page 15 and 16: This has been different from town t
Page 17 and 18: something that would be different?
Page 19 and 20: oth are led without contact or with
Page 21 and 22: don’t go to synagogue every Sabba
Page 23: Germany after the 1990’s is a del
Page 27 and 28: 18-30 year olds, yes, and within it
Page 29 and 30: ● Well, Chabad could say they’r
Page 31 and 32: in German politics. This still does
Page 33 and 34: I think the Jüdische Allgemeine Wo
Page 35 and 36: I would say so. The Community reall
Page 37 and 38: think you know them better, I’m t
Page 39 and 40: centers. The state supports them in
Page 41 and 42: 7. GESA EDERBERG May 4, 2009, Berli
Page 43 and 44: these spaces. Places where people m
Page 45 and 46: the respective Community and less o
Page 47 and 48: synagogue to meet the people and th
Page 49 and 50: 8. DAVID GALL May 28, 2009, Munich,
Page 51 and 52: if the people in the Ministry don
Page 53 and 54: presume, the close connection with
Page 55 and 56: The question is how could they thro
Page 57 and 58: ● Is the percentage of young peop
Page 59 and 60: Israel is important. I can’t say
Page 61 and 62: Very poorly. People might be willin
Page 63 and 64: This would only be possible with st
Page 65 and 66: Yes, I see it in the bigger Communi
Page 67 and 68: ● What the perspectives for someb
Page 69 and 70: Now we are also in talks with the U
Page 71 and 72: ● At least probably for those who
Page 73 and 74: I am sure that one of the next issu
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● There was an overall survey in
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12. KÜF KAUFMANN June 17, 2009, Le
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keep the kindergarten afloat financ
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meeting the board member responsibl
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Probably everything together, we wo
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13. CHARLOTTE KNOBLOCH June 19, 200
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10. Many Jews in Germany seem to ke
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14. MICHAEL KOGAN June 12, 2009, D
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● If you come to the Community be
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● You mean there are good things
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15. SERGEY LAGODINSKY June 11, 2009
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● Would you say that most Russian
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to make a big fuss out of not being
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16. ARKADY LITVAN May 27, 2009, Han
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can’t speak German well up to tod
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● Another youth center? Our youth
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17. JEWGENIJ SINGER June 8, 2009, F
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philosophical concept of Liberal Ju
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For the Community board election, f
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The social circumstances have impro
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Well, from the perspective of the F
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understand me in stores or doctors
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librarians all over Germany. Now we
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Yes, and in Hebrew. That’s one di
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organize that with the help of othe
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will be some immigrants who are dee
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We started with 17 kids, and I thin
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● What do you think about the gen
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and the question exactly how volunt
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Opening to different movements. Tha
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young people are always treated as
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I think what is really missing is t
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Community]. I don’t see this plur
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● What are the principal Jewish s
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� What would you say about the yo
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throughout Germany]. They come out
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There are some challenges of true a
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Unfortunately, the reporting about
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