Central Council of Jews in Germany

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Logo of the "Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland"
The Leo-Baeck-Haus in Berlin: Headquarters of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland

The Central Council of Jews in Germany (German name: Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) is a federation of German

Reunification of Germany (1990). As of 2015 the Jewish community in Germany has around 100,000 registered members,[1] although far more Jews live in the country without belonging to a synagogue.[citation needed] From its early years, the organisation has received strong financial and moral support from the government.[citation needed] Since the end of November 2014, Josef Schuster, an internist from Würzburg, has been president of the Zentralrat. He follows Dieter Graumann
, who was the incumbent from November 2010 to November 30th 2014.

The Zentralrat is the German affiliate of the World Jewish Congress (WJC).

History

In its early years, its leadership was composed of native German Jews (

collapsed in 1991). Although most of the Jews now living in Germany are recent immigrants, the organisation is dominated by the so-called "German" Jews (who themselves are primarily descended from the Eastern European immigrants of the immediate postwar years
).

anti-Semitism in Berlin, September 2014

At various times in its history, the organization has faced corruption scandals, most notably under the administration of Werner Nachmann (president 1969 until 1988), involving financial irregularities.[citation needed] After Nachmann's death (January 1988), Heinz Galinski (1912–1992), the chairman of the West Berlin Jewish community for 43 years, assumed the leadership of the Central Council and brought it stability and respectability. Under Ignatz Bubis

(1927–1999), the Central Council 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 organisation, 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 Central Council, Paul Spiegel (1937–2006), and the leader of the more liberal organisation Union of Progressive Jews in Germany, Jan Mühlstein (born 1949). The latter demanded equal financial support from the government for his organisation.

In 2009, the Central Council criticised the Vatican over its decision to lift the excommunication on the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X.[2] 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.[3]

Chairpersons/Presidents

Secretaries-general

See also

References

  1. ^ "Mitglieder - Karte der Landesverbände und jüdischen Gemeinden" (in German). Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland. Archived from the original on 2016-12-28. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  2. ^ German Jewish leader assails pope over peace with rebel bishops[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Council of Jews snubs German Holocaust ceremony". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-04-05.

Further reading

External links
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