Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
Encyclopedia
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
organizing many Jewish organisations in Germany. It was founded on July 19, 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish community and increasing interest in Jewish affairs by the (West) German government. Originally based in the Rhenish areas (Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
and Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
), it currently has its seat
Seat (legal entity)
In strict legal language, the term seat defines the seat of a corporation or organisation as a legal entity, indicating where the headquarters of this entity are located...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. The Jewish community in Germany has around 100,000 registered members (although far more Jews live in the country without belonging to a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
). From its early years, the organization has received strong financial and moral support from the government.
History
In its early years, its leadership was composed of native German Jews, while most of the Jewish community in Germany was made up of Polish-born Jewish Holocaust survivors who had come to Germany as displaced persons, fleeing from the sporadically anti-zionist communist regime of Poland. Thus, the organization called itself "Central Council of Jews in Germany" rather than "Central Council of German Jews." Over time, the Polish-born Jews or their children acculturated to German society and became leaders of the Jewish community. By the late 1980s, the organization considered changing its name. Since the collapse of the communist regimes of eastern Europe, Germany has experienced a great influx of Russian and other Jews from the former Soviet Union. Although most of the Jews now living in Germany are recent immigrants, the organization is dominated by the so-called "German" Jews (who themselves are primarily descended from the Eastern European immigrants of the immediate postwar years).At various times in its history, the organization has faced corruption scandals, most notably under the administration of Werner Nachmann
Werner Nachmann
Werner Nachmann , was a German entrepreneur and politician, and was president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland also known as Central Council of Jews in Germany, from 1969 to 1988....
, involving financial irregularities. After Nachmann's death, Heinz Galinski
Heinz Galinski
Heinz Galinski was president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland also known as Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1988 until his death in 1992....
, the chairman of the West Berlin Jewish community for 43 years, assumed the leadership of the Zentralrat and brought it stability and respectability. Under Ignatz Bubis
Ignatz Bubis
Ignatz Bubis , German Jewish leader, was the influential chairman of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland from 1992 to 1999. In this capacity he led a public campaign against German anti-Semitism...
, the Zentralrat assumed a much greater profile in German public life, and the Jewish community's leadership felt increasingly confident weighing in on public debates concerning Holocaust memory and German identity. In more recent years, the division between more observant and more liberal Jews has strained the organization, which remains (or claims to be) the sole representative body of the Jewish community in Germany and which generally supports strict observance. In April 2004, open controversy erupted between the leader of the Zentralrat der Juden, Paul Spiegel
Paul Spiegel
Paul Spiegel was leader of the Zentralrat der Juden in Germany and the main spokesman of the German Jews...
, and the leader of the more liberal organisation Union progressiver Juden in Deutschland, Jan Mühlstein
Jan Mühlstein
Jan Mühlstein is a journalist, German Jewish activist and the former chair of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany.- Life :...
. The latter demanded equal financial support from the government for his organisation.
In 2009, the Central Council criticized the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
over its decision to lift the excommunication on the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. It later boycotted a ceremony in the Berlin parliament which commemorated victims of the Holocaust, saying its leaders had been treated without the proper respect in previous years.
Chairmen/Presidents
- 1954-1963: Heinz GalinskiHeinz GalinskiHeinz Galinski was president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland also known as Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1988 until his death in 1992....
- 1963-1969: Herbert Lewin
- 1969-1988: Werner NachmannWerner NachmannWerner Nachmann , was a German entrepreneur and politician, and was president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland also known as Central Council of Jews in Germany, from 1969 to 1988....
- 1988-1992: Heinz GalinskiHeinz GalinskiHeinz Galinski was president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland also known as Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1988 until his death in 1992....
- 1992-1999: Ignatz BubisIgnatz BubisIgnatz Bubis , German Jewish leader, was the influential chairman of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland from 1992 to 1999. In this capacity he led a public campaign against German anti-Semitism...
- 2000-2006: Paul SpiegelPaul SpiegelPaul Spiegel was leader of the Zentralrat der Juden in Germany and the main spokesman of the German Jews...
- 2006-2010: Charlotte KnoblochCharlotte KnoblochCharlotte Knobloch was elected President of Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland in June, 2006. She is also Vice President of the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress...
- 2010-present: Dieter Graumann
Secretaries-general
- 1950-1973: Hendrik George van Dam
- 1973-1988: Alexander Ginsburg
- 1988-1992: Micha Guttmann
- Stephan J. Kramer