jews and jewish education in germany today - The Westbury Group

didn’t want it. We didn’t get the 2/3 majority in the representative assembly. The majority wanted it, but we
needed the 2/3. I think this was only the first attempt, we will try it again. But you see, this is a blatant
example of discrimination. As for membership, there are no real chances to institute the associated
membership right now, I don’t see much openness towards this idea.
● From many places we’ve been told that it’s very hard to get young FSU immigrants committed to
continuing Jewish Community involvement. You have worked for several Jewish institutions in Germany. Do
you agree with this assessment?
Yes. I see the problem, I understand the problem. I think the problem is not the people, but the ways to recruit
them and to work with them. The problem is the overall image of the Community. And the overall image is
not sexy. Why should they come and commit? I mean, they live here, they’re well integrated into German
society; basically we’re losing these families. They have to pay extra taxes if they join the Community; this is
one of the big problems for them.
● So you would say this is a natural trend, also occurring in France and Great Britain? It’s not a specific
German problem?
No, I think it’s a specific German problem. I don’t know the situation in France or in Great Britain. But I
know that here the Community is very bureaucratic, and which in many cases does not have the means or the
fantasy to work with them. It’s a very closed Community. For example, if there are younger fathers who are
in an intermarriage, they’re automatically excluded. Why should a young father be a member of this
Community and pay the extra taxes for it if his children are not accepted as full-fledged members of the
Community? So it all hangs together. Also there are no ways of looking at the American experience. How
can we bring programs from the United States to Germany? This is what we are trying to do with Gesa
Edelberg [Conservative female Rabbi in Berlin, O.G.] here, who is very open to American ways of
recruitment and we’re hoping that we can use some of her techniques.
● Some voices are talking about a new pluralism of Jewish life in Germany. Do you share this view? And if
so, what are the most essential components of this new German-Jewish pluralism? And is it viable for the
long term, or just a temporary trend?
I’m a proponent of plurality. I think it depends on what you understand under Community. I say that we
should open up the Community and make it a true “community”. For me, the Community numbers are not the
numbers of the people who are on the record and who pay taxes, but for me the numbers are of the people
who actually participate and who feel engaged and are interested in this belonging to something, to this
group, to this Community of Jews. In that sense I don’t care what means you take, as long as it’s not
missionary and intolerant to other groups. It’s fine. I don’t like all these fights and struggles between different
Jewish organizations.
● How would you describe the current relations between religious and non-religious Jews in Germany? Are
there problems, or is there an acceptance of one another?
I mean in cities like Berlin the secular-religious relations are not a problem. It’s actually quite normal. But in
cities like Kassel, where I come from and where my brother is now, I think that there isn’t a broad acceptance
in the Community. I mean the Rabbi there is the one who’s orthodox and there are a couple of people who are
orthodox, but otherwise everyone is Russian. And I think it doesn’t matter what means you employ trying to
get them interested. Many Russians have a problem with reform movements, they have a problem with
female Rabbis, but these are questions of working with them and educating them and showing them the
plurality of their Jewish life.
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