Reform Judaism in Germany: A Renaissance
In recent years, immigration has led to a more than six-fold increase in the number of Jews in Germany. For the first time since the Second World War, Liberal Judaism is once again becoming established in the land of the Holocaust, creating a link to a destroyed tradition.
When you get through to the answering machine of the Liberal Jewish Congregation in Cologne, a female voice explains in German and Russian that no-one is available to take your call: the majority of the members of the Congregation, which calls itself Gescher LaMassoret (meaning “bridge to tradition”), are of Russian origin.
From a single church service to 22 communities
Gescher LaMassoret was established in 1996 – at a time, in other words, when Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union were radically changing the overall face of Judaism in Germany. In the early 1990s, some 30,000 Jews were living in Germany; today that number has risen to around 200,000. The country responsible for the phenomenon known as the Shoah, the extermination of European Jews between 1933 and 1945, has become a destination for Jewish immigration. This development, which for decades would have been unthinkable, also has another surprising consequence: it is making possible a renaissance of Liberal Judaism in the land in which the movement once began.
According to the 1997 Lexikon der jüdisch-christlichen Begegnung (i.e. Encyclopaedia of Jewish-Christian Encounter), “there is a scattering of liberal Jews in the Federal Republic of Germany, and even some liberal Rabbis, but only Berlin offers a liberal service.” Twelve years on, the “Union of Progressive Jews”, the umbrella organization of Liberal or Reform Judaism in Germany, has 22 member communities with some 4,500 members, and maintains – in cooperation with the Abraham Geiger Kolleg – its own rabbinic seminary.
Conflicts between the new and the established
The resurgence of Liberal Judaism in Germany is provoking complex conflicts within the Jewish community. This is because the Central Council of Jews in Germany is increasingly losing its traditional sole representative capacity as a result of the new trend, since some parts of the liberal Jewish communities no longer feel that it represents them. However, because the Central Council also distributes public monies, the new communities are forced to negotiate with the Council to secure financing for themselves, or have to resort to legal action. Activities are often very restrained and take place behind closed doors, however, so that the public is not presented with the image of a Jewry in dispute.
To represent the interests of Reform Judaism, a liberal organization was established in the German state of Lower Saxony called the Landesverband Israelitischer Kultusgemeinden (i.e. State Branch of Jewish Cultural Communities), which can act as the state’s contractual partner. The young liberal congregation in Cologne also took their case to the administrative court to secure their share of state funds, money that had previously been allocated solely to the orthodox community. Before taking legal action, the congregation had tried in vain to reach an agreement with the Central Council community.
Support from the Protestant Church
In early 2009, the synagogue Etz Chaim (“Tree of Life”) was inaugurated in Hanover – and with it Germany’s largest liberal Jewish community centre to date. The synagogue was formerly a Protestant church. In 2007, parishioners in Bielefeld had taken up residence in a church for three months to prevent it from being sold and converted into a synagogue. In Hanover, by contrast, the conversion proceeded largely without conflict. The state of Lower Saxony and the region and city of Hanover invested two million euros in the project because the community centre, offering a kindergarten, a youth room and a counselling centre, also helps promote integration. When the Hanover Liberal Jewish Community was founded in 1995, it had 79 members who had left the unitary community – today it boasts 600 members from 14 countries.
The support given to the new Jewish communities by the Protestant Church is no isolated case: in Göttingen, a half-timbered synagogue was rebuilt on a piece of land belonging to the Church: during the Night of Broken Glass on 9 November 1938, the building only survived because it was being used even at the time as a shed on private land. The liberal Gescher LaMassoret congregation in Cologne also received premises at low rent from the Protestant Church, which wanted to face up to its history: here, in Cologne’s north, Jews were baptized in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the meantime, the major Christian churches have officially rejected this “Jewish mission”.
Germany is the cradle of Liberal Judaism, which emerged from the civil Jewish emancipation movement in the early 19th century. Among the new features introduced were services in the local language and choral singing accompanied by an organ, just like in Christian churches. In daily life, dietary regulations, tefillin and Sabbath rules have either been largely abolished or are left to individual interpretation. In theology, there was a shift towards historical and critical religious research. The first conference of the World Union for Progressive Judaism took place in Berlin in 1928. Just a few years later, the persecution and extermination of Jews by the National Socialists began.
After 1945, the centres of Liberal Judaism moved to the USA and Israel, with new ideas being embraced in the USA in particular. These include complete gender equality in religious matters and a controversial definition of Jewishness which recognizes Jewish descent via a Jewish father.
works as an author for German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk and as a lecturer for the Thomas-Morus-Akademie (specializing, among other things, in Christianity, Judaism and Islam) in Cologne.
Translated by Chris Cave
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
March 2009
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