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...Meanwhile in Germany
Chaim Shapira
The Reform movement arose in Germany. Before the Holocaust, it was the
dominant religious expression of German Jewry. Today, however, that same
movement is fighting for its rightful place within the Jewish community of
Germany, according to Rabbi Uri Regev, director of the World Unon for
Progressive Judaism.
The struggle takes on a new urgency, Regev said this week, following the
announcement that the German Federal Republic intends to significantly
expand from 1 million euro to 3 m. euro its support to the Zentralrat der
Juden in Deutschland, the central organization of the Jewish community in
Germany. This support would be largely aimed at the social and cultural
integration of Russian jewish immigrants to Germany who have caused the
community to swell from 30,000 in 1990 to 100,000 today.
However, Regev said, the Zentralrat has in effect shunned the reform
movement, as have local Jewish communities which receive subsidies from the
German states as a result of the local "church tax."
According to Shmuel Bahagon, director of the Union Progressiver Juden in
Deutschland, most of the Russian immigrants have little or no knowlegde of
Judaism, but they are all considered members of the official,
Orthodox-conrolled, Jewish communitiy, to which they look for moral and
material support. The size of the Reform communtiy, on the other hand, is
estimated by the number of dues-paying members.
As an example of the problems faced by local congregations, Regev said that
the Refrom community in Munich, whith about 150 members, most of them
Russian immigrants, had been meeting in a veriety of rented quarters with no
support from the local Jewish community or the Zentralrat. Recently Regev
said, the group appealed to the synagogue-community center, which is to be
build from funds obtained from the sale of the site of the prewar central
synaggue of Munich.
The mayor in turn repsonded by sending the Reform group a letter from the
local offical Jewish community, saying that the congregation was part of a
momvement which had rituals, such as men and women sitting together and
ordaining women as rabbis, which had no connection to Jewish tradition.
Under these cirumstances, the mayor sid, he could not act in the matter.
The paradox, Regev added, was that the prewar central synagogue, the site of
which was being sold, had been a Reform congregation.
Regev said that one of the options which the movement was considering was to
claim the rights to the property of Reform communities which had been taken
by the Nazis. It was also working on an international level and two weeks
ago Regev, Bahagon, and a group of American Reform leaders met with the
German ambassador in Washington.
Regev also said that if need be the Reform momvement would turn to the
courts and he noted hat in one case,, the High Administrative Court of
Germany ruled that the Liberal congregation of Halle had to be considered
part of the larger Jewish community. The World Union has also appealed to
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, he said.
Regev said that he believed that eventually the leaders of the Zentralrat
would realize that if they wanted to maintain a unified Jewish community,
they wouuld have to accommodate the Reform, but he added that if they did
not, the movement was ready to continue the fight.
"We expect an answer that will relieve our minds, but if not, we are ready
to mobilize our people around the world", said Regev.
Der jüdische Regenbogen
Jerusalem Post
Friday, January 10, 2003 . 7 shvat 5763 . 5 Dhu Al-Qa'adah 1423 |
