Germany has largest growing Jewish community - 04/02/2007
Germany is experiencing the fastest growing community of Jews in the world, according to the World Jewish Congress. Since the German government relaxed immigration laws for Jews following
reunification in 1990, tens of thousands of Jewish migrants have settled in vibrant communities. Most Jewish immigrants have come to Germany from the Soviet Union after the fall in
communism in 1989.
According to the Central Council of Jews in Germany, an estimated 250,000 Jews now live in the country, with nearly 110,000 of them registered religious community members. Today, the traditional Jews celebrate Sabbath with a Hebrew prayer of welcoming being spoken in the country that perpetrated the Holocaust. "Twenty years ago, this would have been impossible in Berlin," said Siegried Jarosch, a real estate agent born and raised in the German capital. "But today we have an amazing Jewish infrastructure with kosher butchers, bakers, Jewish schools and several synagogues."
According to the Central Council, there were only 23,000 Jewish community members in Germany before 1990.
"In 2005, more Jewish immigrants came to Germany than to Israel," said Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council. "Without immigration, most of the Jewish communities would not exist anymore."
Berlin has the biggest Jewish community with 12,000 registered members and eight synagogues, followed by Munich with 9,200 members and a new synagogue, community center and Jewish museum.
Just 62 years ago, the world learned of the Nazi genocide that killed over 6 million Jews, including 200,000 from Germany. In Dresden, the ordination of the first three rabbis since World War II was celebrated as a milestone in the rebirth of Jewish life in Germany.
Before the Holocaust, there were 600 Jewish schools in Germany. Today there are seven. In 1933, there were 120,000 members in Berlin's Jewish community - 10 times bigger than today.
Still says Rabbi Chaim Rozwaski, an orthodox rabbi from New York "it's a miracle that the Jewish people are coming back to resettle in Germany." Rabbi Rozwaski was brought to Germany by the Ronald Lauder Foundation, the same organization which promotes the reconstruction of Jewish institutions in Germany and central and eastern Europe.
Grieshaber, Kirsten. "Germany's Jewish community is fastest-growing in the world." Lewiston Tribune 29 March 2006: 4A.
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