Jewish Community Divided
April 21, 2007
Historian Julius H. Schoeps said this week that the Jewish community, which is the largest in Germany, was more like a "Russian cultural association" than a religious group.
Some 300 to 350 members would like to form a new breakaway group, according to Schoeps, who left the association last year.
"People don't feel as if they belong any more," said the historian, who runs the Moses Mendelssohn center in nearby Potsdam that hosts research into European-Jewish ties.
Traditions dying
Schoeps complained that the traditions of the community, whose roots reach back to the 17th century, were not being kept alive.
He also attacked the way that the association is currently being run, saying that it was being treated as a "self-service store" that employed too many people.
Religious differences between some of the more orthodox newcomers and more liberal members also appear to be the source of discontent. In particular, a decision to ban urns with cremated remains being interred in Jewish cemeteries has been met with anger.
In a letter to the association, former community chairman Albert Meyer criticized the prohibition of a 150-year-old tradition. Orthodox rabbis believe cremation prevents resurrection of the body.
Mixed reaction
Secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Stephan Kramer, expressed mixed feelings about the possible split. "I regard it with joy and concern," he said.
On the one hand, Kramer argued that it demonstrated the presence of an "active Jewish life" in Germany. On the other, he said he regretted any splits that resulted from internal differences.
The community has over 12,000 members. Some 80 percent of them come from the former Soviet Union, according to Schoeps.
Berlin's Jewish population was devastated in the Holocaust. Some 55,000 of the city's Jewish population fell victim to the Nazis. Only 6,500 Berlin Jews survived the war -- and not all chose to remain in Germany.
A sizeable number of Jews from the former Soviet Union emigrated to Germany in the wake of perestroika, swelling the numbers of the German capital's Jewish population.