16 Friday, January 23, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Jews of East Germany Free from Repression, But Face Isolation By ROCHELLE SAIDEL-WOLK ALBANY, N.Y. (JTA) — Most American Jews know virtually nothing about the German Democratic Repub- lic (GDR or East Germany), and even less about its Jewish population. Although America has maintained diplomatic re- lations with the GDR since 1974, this Warsaw Pact na- tion is generally ignored here. For most Americans and Israelis, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) is the only Ger- many. In an effort to part the Iron Curtain enough to show to Western Jewry that the Jews of the GDR are well-treated, for the first time the Liga fur Volker- freundschaft (League for Friendship Among the People) of the GDR invited a delegation of three Anglo- Jewish journalists, includ- ing this correspondent. The GDR was pro- claimed on Oct. 11, 1949, following a series of People's Congresses in the Soviet Zone. The lead- ing party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED), was formed in 1946 from the Communist Party and the Social Democrats. (The U.S. State Depart- ment describes the coali- tion as a "forced fusion"; the government of the GDR refers to a "volun- tary merger.") - The GDR was recognized by the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc nations im- mediately after proclaiming itself a nation, but it was largely unrecognized by non-Communist countries until the 1960s. America withheld recognition until 1974. Even today, the United States considers East Berlin, the capital of the GDR, as the Soviet sec- tor of that city and not a le- gally constituent part of the GDR. According to Helmut Aris of Dresden, chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities in the GDR, there are about 650 'mem- bers registered in the eight Jewish Gemeinden (com- munities) of the GDR. (Dr. Peter Kirchner, head of the Berlin Gemeinde, used a figure of 550.) About half of the total Jewiih community is in the East Berlin Gemeinde, with the rest in Dresden, Karl Marx Stadt, Halle, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Thuringen. In East Be- rlin, Dresden and Leipzig, I spoke with the leaders of the Gemeinden and visited their • headquarters, synagogues, cemeteries and memorial sites. Unlike the United States, where organized Jewry counts "unaffil- iated" Jews as part of the Jewish population, only Voluntarily "registered" Gemeinde members are considered Jews in the GDR. "Otherwide, we would be following Hit- ler's racist theory," Aris and numerous state offi- cials explained. But if the "unaffiliated" Jews of the GDR were counted, as they are in America, the Jewish popu- lation would rise considera- bly. One Gemeinde official estimated the number to be as high as 8,000, with half that number in East Beilin. Amidst these and other ironies, the ever-smaller Jewish Gemeinde of the GDR exists, encouraged by the government. The Gemeinde publishes a quar- terly magazine, Nac- hrichtenblatt, a Jewish calendar and information booklets. A kosher slaughterer comes to Berlin from Budapest regularly, and a rabbi comes for the high holidays. (At other times, Gemeinde members lead services.) There is a summer camp for Jewish children. Kirchner and Aris often represent the Jewish community at international meetings, with observer status at the World Jewish Congress. There is still a viable Jewish community in the GDR. In the not too distant future, possibly within our lifetime, this once glorious Jewish community may disappear. When leaders of the Jewish community are asked to predict the fu- ture of Judaism in the GDR, most take a stance of unrealistic optimism. According to Aris: "When we review the history of the Jews, we notice there are ups and downs. We survived the Holocaust, and we hope we will sur- vive in the future ... We do not think about it so much. I already have two grandchildren who are members of the Gemeinde (community)." Aris admitted, however, that there was no Jewish wedding in Dresden in re- cent years, and none in the entire GDR last year. "By living today and working for our community, we are preserving Judaism ... We will do our best," he said. Eugen Gollomb, head of the Leipzig Gemeinde, said simply: "Jews live with hope." But statistics belie his. hopefulness. In his community of 54 Jews, the most recent Jewish wedding took place in 1955. There are only five Jewish chil- dren in Leipzig. Twin boys, sons of a Jewish mother and a father who converted to Judaism, became Bar Mitzva two years ago. Their parents are now divorced, their father no longer Jewish. Gollomb is the Hebrew and ritual teacher. An Au- schwitz survivor, he laughed as he recalled his father forcing him to study in a yeshiva in his native Lodz, Poland. Now the once reluctant scholar is the only source of traditional Jewish education for his Gemeinde. Gollomb's wife is not Jewish. The wife of another community leader, Aaron Alderstein, converted to Judaism, as did his daugh- ter's husband. Isolation from other Jewish communities is a serious problem for the Jews of the GDR. Dr. Peter Kirchner, a 45- year-old neurologist who heads the East Berlin Large selection of rings watches and other fine jewelry 14 and 18 K GOLD Diamonds and Fine Jewelry Thee services done on premises • Jewelry Repair • Watch Repair • Restringing No Job Too Small WEINTRAUC "Where the customer comes first" Quality jewelers for 3 generations All bankards honored Mon.-Fri: 9 to 5 Sat. 9-3 23077 Greenfield Advance Bldg. suite 389 Sfld. 557-5544 t Gemeinde, attributed this to the negative image among Western Jewry of the GDR as a Communist state. "They do not know of our unhindered life as Jews here," he said. "There is no anti-. Semitism, as in West Germany." With the world's Jewish population severely di- minished by the Holocaust, it is ironic that many American Jews have "writ- ten off' the brave remnant of Jewish people in the GDR, nearly all of them survivors or children of sur- vivors. Some of the possible ex- planations for this may be the Communist East Ger- man government limits compensation for Holocaust victims to those who live in the GDR; the government is pro-Palestine Liberation Organization; political ac- commodation to West Ger- many of the part of Ameri- can Jewish leaders and their disapproval of East Germany's policies in other countries have not pre- vented American Jews from building bridges to those Jewish communities. Aris explained the image of Jews (Gemeinde mem- bers) in the GDR as follows: "A Jewish citizen in the GDR is entirely the same as any other citizen in the GDR:He can hold any posi- tion." He cited as an exam- ple non-Communist Gemeinde member Dr. Kurt Cohen, a retired Supreme Court Justice. (But Cohen is an exception. Unless a Gemeinde member is also a communist, he is rarely in government.) "I stress that anti- Semitism has been eradi- cated and will be punished by law," Aris said. "I cannot deny there are still some anti- Semites here, people now 60 years old who sucked up anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk," he added. To insure that anti- Semitism and other forms of racism will not be transmit- ted to future generations, the Communist regime of the GDR has made anti- fascism the overriding theme of all education. "Af- ter the war, we carried out a democratic school reform," Rudi Helmer, an Anti- Fascist Resistance Fighters' official explained. "Anti- humanist -and fascist ideologies were eliminated from school books. New teachers with democratic views were employed .. . Nazi sympathizers were removed (from teaching jobs) 100 percent. There are laws to prohibit fascist propaganda, such as the 1950 Law for the Protection of Peace." Asked if it was difficult for Jews to live in a country that strongly supports the Palestine Liberation Organization, Aris re- sponded: "We feel about the PLO as all Jews feel. The Jews of the GDR and all Jews are against any kind of terrorism, no matter where it comes from." He said that he favored United Nations Security Council Resolu- tions 242 and 338, and that they "guarantee for all countries in the Middle East and the people of these - countries the right to live within safe borders." "Jewish citizens, just as all other citizens of the GDR, support these resolu- tions," he added. "The ques- tion of territory has to be de- cided by the states involved. I am of the opinion the re- mainder of the Second Tem- ple, the Wailing Wall, should remain in Jewish hands. But it's up to the states involved." Other members of the Jewish community throughout the GDR pri- vately expressed warm feelings for Israel in sub- tle ways — a hope to go there one day, a request for an Israel-made reli- gious object, or just a sad smile, a sigh. It is difficult for the Jewish commu- nity to get a clear picture of current and historic events in modern Israel, because Zionist writings are "verboten." In the library of the East Berlin Jewish Community headquarters, for example, Zionist and fascist litera- ture are both relegated to a back room, requiring spe- cial permission for entrance. The press, like the gov- ernment, is pro-PLO. One official of the Jewish com- munity said he knew the newspapers were one-sided, but he doesn't have suffi- cient information to give answers. He can, however, listen to a number of West- ern radio stations beamed in from West Berlin and elsewhere. Werner Handler, head of the international desk of GDR Radio, admitted, "it is not good for an anti-fascist German state not to have relations with Israel." He added, how- ever, "it is impossible, with the expansionism going on there. At the be- ginning, Israel didn't want to, or couldn't have, relations with the GDR. Now the situation is very complicated," he said. (The complications are the results of Israel's ties with the United States, and with West Germany, through reparations; and the GDR's allegiance to the Soviet Union.) Rudi Helmer, an official of the Anti-Fascist Resis- tance Fighters, one of the most highly respected groups in the GDR, ex- plained his country's posi- tion as follows: "The Pales- tinian people are entitled to determine their own fate. They have the right to con- struct their own state and the right of independence. We still maintain that safety and security must be safeguarded, and, frankly, we say we do not agree with some of the imperialist atti- tudes of Israel toward her Arab neighbors." Helmer's group has connections with resistance fighter organiza- tions in Israel. Asked how GDR teachers deal with Zionism in their classes, Education Ministry official Doris Wetterhahn (also a "Communist of Jewish descent") said: Zionism is not taught as ra- cism, but as "a bourgeois ideology that developed at the time when British im- perialism ruled in Pales- tine. This was the root of the developments we see tod in Israel. No one has an. thing against a peaceful Is- rael that lives on an equal basis with her Arab neighbors," she explained. "We teach the students that progressive people in Israel and in the Arab countries fight together against im- perialism." At present, the Jewish community of the GDR is struggling to stay alive de- spite formidable demog- raphic odds. If the future of Judaism in the GDR seems less viable than the present, probably even hopeless, the government does not appear to be at fault. Based on my observations and interviews, it does not seem that the GDR, like some other Communist countries, forcibly represses religion. The Jewish com- munity receives support from the government for synagogue and cemetery maintenance, cultural events and other activities. But isolation and attrition, and not government repres- sion, are gradually dissolv- ing the community. 110- Soviet Emigres Assisted by COIF NEW YORK — Since 1972, 250,000 Jews have left the Soviet Union, of which some 90,000 have settled in the United States, where a comprehensive re- settlement program has been implemented with the assistance of $46.7 million from the Federal Block Grant. More than an equal amount has been contrib- uted by local Jewish com- munities which have ab- sorbed the Russian immig- rants. Through this nationwide effort, Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union have re - ceived financial assistance, vocational counseling, lan- guage and vocational train- ing, health services and personal counseling in multi-faceted programs coordinated by local Jewish federations. The Council of Jewish Federations has administered the matching grant on the national level. Tremor Check SAFED (ZINS) Israel's National Institute of Seis- mology has set up earth- quake monitoring equip- ment in Safed and elsewhere in the Galilee. A spokesman said tremor activity is expected early this year. Israel is situated on a geological fault run- ning from the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.