jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

One area that’s been grossly neglected is the Internet. Kids and young people move around to a great extent
via Internet portals and sites, social networks. Why not found a group with its own profile and try to find as
many friends as possible? This connection to usefulness and everyday life and Jewish life, being Jewish,
culturally – in the Internet - has to work better. In this way people might be won over. I think that the
Communities are trying, but people don’t have the money or don’t have the personnel for it. However, it
seems to me that it would be a way to reflect the reality of people’s lives a bit more, to get closer to people
and interest them in Judaism.
● It’s no secret that many Jews in Germany keep their distance from Jewish Community bodies. What are, to
your knowledge, the main reasons for that? What is to be done about this?
I don’t want to gloss over the issue. 200,000 contingent refugees who came here as Jews, not all of them are;
in all fairness you’ve got to admit that some of them came on the Jewish ticket. That means that they’re
happy that they could come here and enjoy the social welfare state and begin a new life, but they said at the
very beginning that they don’t want anything to do with the Community. They’ve got this stamp in their
passport, and as soon as they’re finished with the paperwork, they’re out of here, that’s it. I don’t think that’s
xenophobic to say, but a fact. It’s really not explainable in any other way when not even 100,000 remain from
200,000 in the Jewish Communities. It can’t just be the ethnic question. What else? The secularization, of
course. The Russians are coming from a secular world of communism, socialism, dictatorship. They had the
Jewish mark in their passport, but some didn’t even know what it meant. Then they come into a society that is
also undergoing secularization. There is no reason to annul this; they can continue to lead secular lives. No
one demands it of them. They weren’t obliged to join the Community. And that’s the way it should be. The
Communities were, this should be said, from the very beginning, absolutely overwhelmed. At least the
smaller and the middle sized ones. They could absorb a few hundred but not thousands and more at the same
place.
● It seems that the German distribution policy was counterproductive. Do you agree?
I think the government had good intentions, I don’t think anyone was acting in bad faith.
● How would you assess the general cooperation between Jewish Communities and organizations and state
officials and politicians?
I think that, by and large, the working together is productive. My impression is that it always depends on the
local peculiarities. If there is a good chemistry between Community chair X and mayor Z, then the
cooperation works much better. Then things can be regulated directly. If there’s animosity, then it’s much
more difficult to get funding.
My impression is that the states and the localities are prepared to help, there’s no general attitude of refusal;
concessions are made to support Jewish life. All states have by now concluded state contracts with the Jewish
Community and they even have improved on them, and gone further. Of course this is symbolic politics, but
not only. The people are also doing it out of conviction, and it’s also considered good form to support Jewish
life. I think that, in general, it works out quite well. There are, of course, one-offs, where it doesn’t work so
well, but I think that by and large both sides try hard and that’s why it works.
As I said, the important thing here is, like in every political act, the chemistry at the local level. Can I work
well with this person? Then it will work better when I have to apply for something in the economic stimulus
package as when I have trouble with this person anyway. My impression is that the Communities are
involved in the daily life of the towns and localities, beyond the days of remembrance. On these days it’s
always something special, but there are also local initiatives against anti-Semitism, for example, and I think
that that’s a good sign that Jews as a group are accepted and recognized.
I wouldn’t draw a very skeptical picture here, with all the details when, say, 50,000 € is wanted for this and
that. It is always difficult when Communities are short on money but tend to build nice, large synagogues and
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