Commentary
Judy Dempsey
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Source: Getty
In The Media
Germany Making Jews Feel Unwelcome
Following a regional court ruling that circumcision amounts to bodily injury, Germany's Jewish and Muslim communities are in uproar, seeing the court’s decision as an attack on their religious and cultural identity.
By Judy Dempsey
Published on Sep 17, 2012
Source: New York Times
He said that there were three classes of Jews.
The first consisted of those who lived in Israel. The second were those who lived in the United States and other countries. And the third, and lowest, were those who lived in Germany.
Israeli leaders and the media vilified those Jews who decided to remain in Germany after 1945 or who had chosen to return to Germany if they had survived the Holocaust. They were considered traitors.
It must have been a very lonely time for those who made that extraordinary decision to live in Germany.
Today, Berlin is a different place. It is home to tens of thousands of Jews who have a bustling, lively community. They can worship in several synagogues, send their children to Jewish schools, have kosher shops and sign up for classes to learn Hebrew.
Berlin is hip, too. Each year, young Israelis throng to the German capital. The German authorities have made every effort to commemorate and show what Jewish life was before the Holocaust and how it is being slowly rebuilt.
What a change from the dark years of the 1950s, when West Germany’s total Jewish population was estimated at 10,000 to 15,000. More than 220,000 now live in Germany because many chose to settle here rather than move to Israel after the Soviet Union collapsed over two decades ago.
Indeed, Germany is now home to the fastest growing Jewish communities in Europe, as successive governments have made enormous efforts to make the Jews feel welcome, safe and free to practice their religion.
And that includes circumcision. Circumcision has become a controversial issue after a regional court in Cologne last June ruled that it amounted to bodily injury.
Since then doctors across Germany have stopped performing them, fearing prosecution. The Jewish and Muslim communities are in uproar, seeing the court’s decision as an attack on their religious and cultural identity. The German government is now rushing through a new law that would spell out that male circumcision is legal.
Of all countries, Germany is the one that can least afford to look inhospitable to Jews. Yet, ironically, it was here that a court first challenged the ritual. Now, all over Europe there is a growing debate about whether the practice should be continued.
About the Author
Judy Dempsey
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe
Judy Dempsey is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie Europe
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Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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