Progressive Jews from across Germany joined their international contemporaries in Berlin for their 11th annual convention, which focused on the integration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.
Held from 14 to 17 July, the event included an array of workshops, and gave participants the opportunity to exchange experiences, discuss questions about religion and ethics and learn liturgical music.

At the conference, rabbis and cantors from the USA and Russia supported their German counterparts by participating.

Lior Dagan, from the Israeli Embassy and Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin from Zurich reported on Arzenu, the newly founded progressive-Zionist organization.

Arzenu and the student group Young and Jewish Germany were both accepted for membership in the Union – as was the religious congregation of the Wolfsburg region, near Hanover.

Some 16 congregations and 3 organizations are currently members of the Union.

Jan Muehlstein, from Munich was re-elected as Germany’s Chairman and Katarina Seidler, of Hanover, his deputy.

Expressing his hope for the future of the Progressive community, Dr. Jan Muehlstein, Chairman of Germany’s chapter of the Union for Progressive Judaism said: “After witnessing these confident, young men and women leading prayers, I do not think that we have anything to worry about for the future of our congregations.”

Back To Its Roots

Liberal Judaism was born in 19th century Germany, the first time that established orthodoxy was challenged on an institutional level.

Encompassing the Reform and Re-constructionist wings of Judaism, Progressive was the dominant stream of Judaism in Germany prior to the Second World War. But since the second world war, the German Jewish Community became more conservative – having been influenced greatly by the more Orthodox Polish and Russian Jews.

The director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), based in Jerusalem, Rabbi Joel Oseran said he was proud to see that “Liberal Judaism is once again anchored in its country of birth ”.

Increased Integration

Until June 2004, the 16 congregations of Germany’s Progressive Union received none of the $4 million subsidies afforded to the 84 congregations associated with the Central Council of Jews in Germany - despite having been the birthplace of liberal Judaism.

But according to Rabbi Walter Rothschild, who participated at the UPJ convention, this is beginning to change.

He told EJP “It appears that some of the taboos are crumbling. German politicians are beginning, at last, to tackle some of the backlog of corruption and misuse of public funds within the Zentralrat [Central Council of Jews in Germany] and it is the Liberal congregations, through their efforts to attain justice, that are enabling this to occcur."

In April 2005, a delegation of the Reform movement met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Interior Minister Otto Schilly and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to underline the urgency in continuing the process of equal treatment for all streams of Jewish life.

The April meeting was the first time that the Reform movement had government level meetings with German officials, since World War Two.