Union of Progressive Jews in Germany

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Union of Progressive Jews in Germany
(UpJ)
logo
legal form Public corporation
founding 1997
Seat Bielefeld
purpose Umbrella organization of mostly reform Jewish communities and organizations
Chair Walter Homolka
Members 27 congregations, around 5,000 members
Website liberale-juden.de

The Union of Progressive Jews in Germany (UpJ) is the umbrella organization of predominantly reform Jewish communities and organizations in Germany . Since September 30, 2015, it has been a public corporation with its seat in Bielefeld . It has 26 parishes and three organizations with a total of 5,200 members. It is a member of the “ World Union for Progressive Judaism ”, chaired by Walter Homolka .

history

Favored by the immigration of Jews from former Soviet Union since the early nineties was in the fast-growing unit communities the need for alternatives to the commonly orthodox stamped service . From 1995 onwards, liberal minyanim and congregations were founded in some places . They are characterized by: streamlined liturgy , prayer texts in egalitarian language with parts of the mother tongue, the abolition of gender segregation in worship and equal rights for men and women in rites . The first supraregional meeting point of this movement was the Evangelical Academy Arnoldshain in Taunus from 1995 to 2002 .

In June 1997, UpJ was founded in Munich and entered in the Hanover Register of Associations in 1999 . Founding chairman of UpJ as a registered association was Jan Mühlstein , who left office in July 2011. Micha Brumlik (1997) and Michael Lawton (1997–1999) previously held this office. During its tenure, the UpJ was still known as the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany, Austria and Switzerland .

In the autumn after the founding of the UpJ the rabbis Jonathan Magonet and Walter Homolka published the first prayer book ( Siddur and Machsor ) Seder ha-Tefillot . Was released in 1998 under the aegis of Rabbi Michael Shire a Passover - Haggadah . In the years 1999-2004 translated Annette M. Böckler the Torakommentar of Gunther Plaut into German. Since 2015 the books of the Hebrew Bible have been published in the translation by Rabbi Ludwig Philippson , revised by Rabbi Walter Homolka, Hanna Liss and Rüdiger Liwak .

The Central Council of Jews in Germany was hostile to the UpJ in the first few years. He insisted on the principle of the unified community and emphasized his claim to sole political representation for the Jewish community in Germany.

In November 2000, the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam opened its own, scientifically oriented liberal rabbinical seminar as an affiliate of the University of Potsdam. In autumn 2001, young Jewish adults from liberal communities founded the youth organization Jung und Jüdisch Deutschland , a member of the worldwide Jewish-progressive youth movement Tamar Olami .

After the Federal Administrative Court had ruled liberal communities on an equal footing with other Jewish communities in a fundamental decision , a new orientation in relation to the Central Council became apparent. Initially there was a heated argument about the state treaty that the Federal Government had concluded with the Central Council on January 27, 2003. The main issue was the distribution of the associated funding. Since the summer of 2004 the relationship between the Central Council and the Union has visibly relaxed. Since then, Jewish liberal communities have been involved in programs and projects of the Central Council and the Central Welfare Office of Jews in Germany and can also place participants there.

UPJ Netzer (formerly Jung und Jüdisch junior) forms the framework for the child and youth work of the Union communities and is networked with the international organization Netzer Olami . In May 2005 the progressive Zionist organization arzenu Germany was founded in Munich , which was accepted into the Union as a member organization in the same year and thus represents the Zionist values ​​of the UpJ. arzenu Germany is a member of the Zionist Organization in Germany and of the arzenu World Association.

The State Association of the Jewish Communities of Schleswig-Holstein and the State Association of the Israelite Religious Communities of Lower Saxony - both unite member communities of the UpJ and / or the WUPJ - were admitted to the Central Council on November 20, 2005. However, some liberal communities outside of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony are still struggling through legal action for their recognition by the regional associations of Jewish communities and their participation in the state treaties with the federal states.

The general assembly decided on July 16, 2006 to join the non-Orthodox General Rabbinical Conference Germany (ARK) with its rabbis , one of the two rabbinical conferences under the umbrella of the Central Council. In future, its religious tribunal ( Beth Din ) will also make binding decisions for congregations of the Union of Progressive Jews on questions of a religious law nature - above all the recognition of converts to Judaism .

Chairperson

Positions of the UpJ

After a ruling by the Cologne Regional Court on the legality of a religiously motivated circumcision of a four-year-old boy in May 2012, the World Union for Progressive Judaism (which, according to its own statements, represents "1.8 million Jews in 45 countries and 1,200 communities on six continents worldwide") protested the judgment. (... "expresses your horror and outrage at the recent decision of a German court ... We urge the courts and the government of Germany to quickly reverse this decision and with it the fundamental threat it poses to the foundations of our religious beliefs . "). Leslie Bergman, President, European Union for Progressive Judaism (EUPJ) and Sonja Guentner, Chairwoman, Union of Progressive Jews in Germany signed this statement, along with three other officials .

Reform churches in Germany

The majority of its member organizations are Jewish local communities that expressly represent a liberal Judaism or "progressive Judaism", only a few are Jewish unitary communities and thus obliged to unite all religious currents under one roof.

Liberal Jewish communities in Germany can be found in:

Reform churches in Austria

Reform churches in Luxembourg

Israel Jacobson Prize

To honor milestones in liberal Judaism , a prize is awarded every two years in memory of one of the first and most important reformers of Judaism, Israel Jacobson :

literature

  • Heinz-Peter Katlewski: Judaism on the move. About the new diversity of Jewish life in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Jewish Publishing House, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-934658-38-5
  • Heinz-Peter Katlewski: III - 7 Recent developments in the German-speaking area. Supplementary delivery 2003. In: Michael Klöcker , Udo Tworuschka (ed.): Handbuch der Religionen. Churches and other religious communities in Germany. Olzog-Verlag, ISBN 3-7892-9900-6
  • Jonathan Romain, Walter Homolka : Progressive Judaism. Life and teaching. Jüdische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-934658-81-4
  • Seder ha-Tefillot. The Jewish prayer book. Edited by Jonathan Magonet in collaboration with Walter Homolka, from the Hebrew by Annette M. Böckler . Volume 1: prayers for Shabbat, days of the week and pilgrimage festivals; Volume 2: Prayers for the High Holidays. Union of Progressive Jews in Germany eV, Bielefeld 2010 / Jüdische Verlagsanstalt Berlin, Enger ISBN 978-3-934658-52-3 and ISBN 978-3-934658-59-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ordinance on the granting of the rights of a corporation under public law to the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany with its seat in Bielefeld from September 29, 2015 GV. NRW. P. 683
  2. ^ Roland Kaufhold: Strong Liberals. The association invited to the annual meeting and elected Walter Homolka as the new chairman. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017 .
  3. ^ Israel Jacobson Prize. In: liberale-juden.de. Union of Progressive Jews, accessed July 14, 2017 .
  4. Prime Minister Armin Laschet receives the Israel Jacobsen Prize 2020. State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, February 28, 2020, accessed on February 29, 2020 .