Jewish People's Party

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The Jewish People's Party was an organization within German Jewry in the Weimar Republic . She ran for Jewish municipal council elections and for elections to higher-level Jewish bodies. As a basically Zionist organization, it stood in opposition to the liberal and orthodox groups. But there were also conflicts with the Zionists who were oriented towards Eretz Israel .

history

The Jewish People's Party was founded in 1919. The People's Party was essentially based on Zionist principles, but did not call for a Jewish state in Palestine. Nonetheless, she saw the Jews as a people and pleaded for the previously religious communities to be transformed into “people's communities”.

The party viewed the Jews as a national minority . She advocated expanding the synagogues as well as social, cultural and school facilities in the communities. The party had support above all in parts of the Jews who immigrated from Eastern Europe , because it campaigned for the equality of this group.

The main opponent was liberal Judaism. This was represented in particular by the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith , which, however, did not run for elections in the Jewish communities. In the area of ​​the Jewish community councils, on the initiative of the People's Party, the previous majority and census suffrage was replaced by proportional representation , at the expense of the Liberals. Against this, it was not uncommon for the People's Party to form alliances with the Orthodox.

In Berlin, for example, this led to the Liberals becoming a minority in the municipal council elections in 1926 after decades. The People's Party provided the mayor with Georg Kareski . In 1928 she also had the majority in Duisburg.

In the long run, however, she was unable to achieve a dominant position. In 1930 there was a fierce election campaign in Berlin. There the Liberals won 53% of the vote and the People's Party only 36% of the vote. The organization was also temporarily successful in other cities. However, she was unable to break the position of the liberals. Even if a certain balance was reached between the People's Party and the Palestine-oriented Zionists after 1925, the nonetheless existing opposition meant that the Liberals were able to recover. In view of the end of free Jewish life since 1933, it is unclear which direction would have prevailed in the medium term.

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