Central Council of Jews in Germany. He is a possible
does Germany justify its liberal policy toward Jewish
contender to replace the late Ignatz Bubis as council
immigration when more than 4 million Germans are
president.
unemployed and when Israel wants these Jewish
There are now nearly 12,000 Jews in Berlin alone,
immigrants for itself?
a tiny minority in this city of 3.8 million inhabitants
To be sure, Germany's Jewish newcomers often
— but Berlin now has a Jewish community larger
have little connection to the Holy Land, and little
than that of Milan, Italy, and many other major
more than a piece of paper certifying their being
European cities.
Jewish. Raised in the communist atheist tradition,
The immigrants brought back life into a commu-
they usually have more cultural than religious bonds
nity that was in danger of being very over-aged, to
to Judaism. But the Hebrew stamp on one's passport
put it lightly," said Nicola Galliner, director of Jewish
— once associated with discrimination — is now vir-
adult education programming in Berlin. We have
tually a ticket out of a world whose poverty and
two Jewish junior high schools and one high school
growing xenophobia outweigh the advantages of free
in Berlin, and none of these schools would have been
speech and free enterprise.
possible without these immigrants."
With enough rubles, one can buy proof of a
The immigrants are old
Jewish maternal grand-
and young, resigned and
mother on the black mar-
hopeful.
ket.
But Jewish leaders say
Pushed to leave the former
fakers
pose less of a chal-
Soviet Union because of eco-
lenge
than
does the task of
nomic hardship, anti-
integration.
Semitism or fears for the
Germany's fast-rising Jewish
Newcomers need to learn
future in chaotic new condi-
German, and find homes
population
is
changing
the
tions, all have personal rea-
and
jobs. Jewish leaders
sons for choosing Germany
landscape of this country
would
like them to show
over Israel, where hundreds of
long associated with
an
interest
in religion, and
thousands of other ex-Soviet
not
just
use
Judaism. as a
Hitler and death camps.
Jews have immigrated since
ticket
for
social
help.
1990. These reasons include
For
some,
the
process
Germany's liberal policy in
has produced resounding
accepting ex-Soviet Jews, not
success.
to mention a desire by many
"In Frankfurt, we have
to live in a country that is
had
an unbelievable infu-
both a solid democracy and a
sion of oxygen into Jewish
firm member of the European
life with these former
Union.
Soviet
Jews," Friedman
"It's very difficult to get to
said.
"They
are creative, a
America; you can't get into
lot
of
them
are
artists, and
England," said a Berlin Jewish
the
younger
generation
is
activist, who asked to remain
very
quickly
integrated."
anonymous. "Germany has
Inna Slayskaja, 44, a Yiddish singer from
Many of those who
the highest standard of living
Birobidzhan, with her son, Genja, 11. "I see
work
with the new immi-
in Europe. It's Germany or
myself as Jewish," she says, but Genja, though
grants
are expressing frus-
Israel, and if you are desperate born in Ukraine, feels like a German.
tration
and even cynicism.
ou will g o an
yw h ere.
"After 10 years, people
The Slayskajas, for example, left Ukraine in 1991,
here still make their Passover seders in Russian," said
after learning that their son's playground had radioac- Judith Kessler, who has been handling immigration
tive sand in it, probably from Chernobyl. "I knew
issues for the Jewish community in Berlin since
Germany took Jewish families," said Inna Slayskaja,
1990, coordinating language classes, vocational train
who had cousins in Berlin. "We came with two suit-
ing, social clubs and publishing a German-Russian
cases.
Jewish magazine.
Germany's open door for Jews is no accident. It is
We have done something wrong," said Kessler,
connected with responsibility for the Holocaust.
who herself came to Germany from Poland in 1972.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Germany
"We took them by the hand and served them in their
established a liberal immigration policy for Jews.
own language.
They are eligible for housing, financial aid, language
Andy Steiman, who until recently was acting rabbi
instruction and help in finding work.
for the former East German state of Mecklenberg,
They may also become German citizens more
dismissed the idea of a real "Jewish revival." It's just
quickly than usual, a right usually extended only to
numbers, he said.
immigrants from ethnic German families. Under
He told of a young couple who met because of a
European Union regulations, citizens of one member
Passover seder, which they attended because it means
country have the right to live and work anywhere in
a free meal. "When they got married," he said, "they
the E.U.
didn't want to have a chuppa [marriage canopy]
The influx has presented major challenges as well
because they think it is antiquated. And when they
as rewards.
had a baby boy, they didn't want to have him cir-
How does the established Jewish community inte-
cumcised because they claimed it is a human right
grate a largely non-religious population? And how
PEACE on page 14

School Is More
Than A Symbol
T

BerlingTA
he opening of a new school for Jewish
teachers in eastern Berlin is being hailed as
a sign of the variety and maturity of post-
Holocaust Jewish life in Germany.
The Lauder Judisches Lehrhaus, which aims
to train a new generation of Jewish educators
for a community sorely in need of them, is one
of a few new developments intended to meet
the needs of a growing and increasingly diverse
Jewish population.
"This is a symbol of the profound resilience of
the Jewish people," said American businessman
and philanthropist Ronald Lauder to a gathering.
He addressed several hundred Jewish leaders and
local politicians in Berlin's ornate Rykerstrasse
Synagogue, which survived the Holocaust. "The
flickering flame is
once again being
funned into life," he
said.
The school
Lauder financed is
one of several Jewish
institutions that
have opened recent-
ly. These institutions
reflect not only the
phenomenal growth
of Jewish life here,
but also the fact that
Germany's Jews feel
freer to express their
Ronald Lauder
religious differences
after decades of pre-
sentin
. g a self-protective facade of unity.
Options are growing for liberal or Reform
the generation that is roughly in its 20s,
t growing number of young adults are
eligious roots, trying to keep kosher
wearing their tallit (prayer shawl)
public.
t er recent Jewish developments in
..y include the opening this summer of
ew Jewish courts, one Orthodox and one
rthodox; a new Reform-style congregation
at started meeting in Berlin; and a liberal rab-
inical school scheduled to be dedicated later this
Month in nearby Potsdam.The Lauder school, -
which has been operating in temporary head-
cpiarters for about a year, is of a more traditional
bent. It is intended to address one of the most
serious practical problems of the growing
German Jewish community — a lack of teachers
and rabbis.
As in every pluralistic society, the institutions'
ideological differences create problems.
Germany's two Jewish courts disagree on essen-
tial questions of conversion, divorce and burial.
But the official community supports both. E

4

12/24

1999

7

