JEWS AND JEWISH EDUCATION IN GERMANY TODAY Volume 2: Interviews with Leading Figures The agenda of the Jewish population of Germany Principal Investigator Eliezer Ben-Rafael Tel-Aviv University Investigators Olaf Glöckner (Potsdam University) and Yitzhak Sternberg (Open University; Beit Berl College) Under the Auspices of The Potsdam Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum and the Potsdam University January 2010 THE L.A. PINCUS FUND FOR JEWISH EDUCATION IN THE DIASPORA JERUSALEM IN CONJUNCTION WITH CHAIS FAMILY FOUNDATION, THE PEARS FOUNDATION, SCHUSTERMAN FOUNDATION - ISRAEL, SEVERYN ASHKENAZY, THE ROSALIND & ARTHUR GILBERT FOUNDATION, EDMOND J. SAFRA PHILANTHROPIES TABLE OF CONTENT List of interviews 1. Toby Axelrod, 13. Charlotte Knobloch 2. Dmitri Belkin 14. Michael Kogan 3. Evgueni Berkovitch 15. Sergey Lagodinsky 4. Beni Bloch 16. Arkady Litvan 5. Micha Brumlik 17. Jewgenij Singer 6. Christian Böhme 18. Tatyana Smolianitski 7. Gesa Ederberg 19. Joshua Spinner 8. David Gall 20. Adriana Stern 9. Mikhail Goldberg 21. Lala Süsskind 10. Johannes Heil 22. Larissa Syssoeva 11. Walter Homolka 23. Yehuda Teichtal 12. Küf Kaufmann 1 | P a g e Leading figures: The agenda of the Jewish population of Germany As presented in Chapter 7, this investigation aspired to bring in the feelings and analyses of leading figures of the present-day Jewish population of Germany: How do they see the “burning issues” on the agenda of this population. The following brings out the texts of the 23 face-to-face interviews which were conducted during 2008-2009. List of interviewees Toby Axelrod leads the office of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) in Germany. She writes for the London Jewish Chronicle, Hadassah Magazine, the Jerusalem Post and Golem; she also works as a translator. Ms. Axelrod was a co-founder of Limmud Germany in 2006, and she chaired the (German-wide) Limmud Festival in Berlin in 2009. Dr. Dmitri Belkin, born in 1971 in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), immigrated to Germany in 1991 and has worked on several joint research projects in Germany and in the USA. He is a member of a Liberal congregation which belongs to the United Jewish Community in Frankfurt. Currently, Dmitri Belkin is the curator for a German-wide exhibition “20 years of Russian-Jewish Immigration to Germany”. Dr. Evgueni Berkovitch, born in 1945 in Irkutsk (USSR) immigrated to Germany in 1995. He works as a computer specialist in Hanover and has created the internationally known Russian language web portal “Notes on Jewish History” (Zametki po evrejskoj istorii). Benjamin Bloch, born in 1943 in Jerusalem, has served as the head of the Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany (ZWST) since 1987. He is one of the initiators of the project Lehava that brings young Israeli volunteers to Germany to stimulate local Jewish Community work, especially youth work. Dr. Christian Böhme, is a political scientist, historian and journalist. He worked for several newspapers in Berlin, then changed to the Jewish weekly Jüdische Allgemeine. For several years now Dr. Böhme has been the editor-in-chief of the Jüdische Allgemeine, the only Jewish weekly published across Germany. Prof. Micha Brumlik, born in 1947, is lecturer for pedagogy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and is well known as German Jewish publicist who deals with recent trends in German society and in inner- Jewish development since 1990. For years he was also very committed in the Jewish-Christian dialogue in Germany. Gesa Ederberg, born in 1968, serves as a Reform Rabbi in the Jewish Community of Berlin. She also heads the (conservative) Masorti Movement Center in Berlin and its Educational Center (Lehrhaus). Rabbi Ederberg is also a founding member of the General Rabbinical Conference within the Central Council of Jews in Germany (ARK). David Gall is a clinical pharmacologist in Munich and a member of the Liberal Jewish Community Beth Shalom. In 1994, he created the first and best known German-Jewish web portal Ha Galil. Ha Galil is an independent site providing comprehensive information on Jewry and current events. Mikhail Goldberg, born in 1962 in Kiev (Ukraine), is the editor-in-chief of the monthly Evreyskaya Gazeta, established in 2002. The Evreyskaya Gazeta is currently the only German-wide Russian language Jewish newspaper. It is produced in Berlin and has between 30,000 and 40,000 readers. Prof. Johannes Heil is the Rector of the University of Jewish Studies (Hochschule für Jüdische Studien) in Heidelberg. Born in 1961, he is a well-known historian concentrating especially on Jewish history in the period of late antiquity and early Middle Ages. He is also deeply involved in research on anti-Semitism. Prof. Walter Homolka is the director of the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, the first Rabbinical College for non-Orthodox Rabbis in Europe. Rabbi Homolka, born in 1964, is also an adjunct full professor at the University of Potsdam and serves as a member on the Executive Board of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ). 2 | P a g e Kuef Kaufmann, born in 1947 in Marx (USSR), has been the head of the Jewish Community in Leipzig since 2003. Kaufmann studied art direction and has also worked as journalist, cartoonist and satirist. He is the first Russian Jewish immigrant who was elected as head of a Jewish Community with more than 1,000 members Dr. Charlotte Knobloch is the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) and head of the Jewish Community in Munich (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern). Dr. Knobloch is also vice president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC). Michael Kogan works as a Rabbi in the Jewish Community of Düsseldorf. He was born in Moldavia, worked as engineer and theater director in the USSR and later studied to become a Rabbi at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem. Now an Israeli citizen, he’s been working in the JC in Düsseldorf since January 2005. Sergey Lagodinsky, born in 1975 in Astrakhan (Russia), is a judge and publicist living in Berlin, where he is also an elected representative of the local Jewish Community. Lagodinsky studied law (in Germany) and public administration (at Harvard) and also serves as an advisor to the American Jewish Committee in Berlin. Arkady Litvan, born in 1946 in Odessa, is a board member of the Orthodox Jewish Community in Hanover (which belongs to the Central Council of Jews in Germany). Litvan was the head of the Jewish Community in Odessa from 1980-1990, before the family immigrated to Germany. In the early 1990’s he was committed to (re-)building Jewish Communities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Eastern Germany) Jewgenij Singer, born in 1983 in Ukraine, is a political scientist and businessman in Frankfurt am Main. For several years he has been the head of the Jewish Student Union in the federal state of Hesse (Western Germany), and he is also an elected representative of the Jewish Community in Frankfurt am Main. Tatyana Smolianitski, born in 1963, graduated from Moscow State University with a PhD in history and came to Germany in 1992. In the mid-1990’s she co-founded the association “Gesher – Integration through Culture and Education” (Gesher – für Integration durch Kultur und Bildung e.V.) in Dortmund, which has proved to be very successful in Jewish adult education especially in the federal state of North Rhine- Westphalia (Western Germany). Joshua Spinner, born in 1971 in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) is vice president of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and leads the Lauder Yeshurun Community in Berlin. The Berlin Center includes also the yeshiva Beit Zion and the Hildesheimer Rabbinical College, which trains future Orthodox Rabbis for Germany. Adriana Stern, is a German-Jewish writer from Cologne, and a board member of the Liberal Jewish Community Gesher le Massoret. Born in 1960, she became well known with several children’s and juvenile books. Adriana Stern is also active on committees in several social initiatives and NGOs in Germany. Lala Süsskind, born in 1946 in Poland, has been head of the Jewish Community in Berlin since 2008. She studied sociology and has been active in the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO Germany and Berlin) for many years. She is also a board member of the German Israeli Society (DIG) in Berlin. Larissa Syssoeva, born in 1948 in Moscow, is a biologist and artist, now heading the Berlin office of the World Congress of Russian Speaking Jews (WCRJ). She is also a member of the Jewish Community of Berlin, and very committed to cultural and arts projects supporting immigrants. Yehuda Teichtal, born in 1972 in Brooklyn, came to Berlin in 1996 and immediately began pioneering work for Chabad Lubavitch in the German capital. Here he has two functions: He is employed as a Rabbi of the United Jewish Community of Berlin (belonging to the Central Council of Jews in Germany), and at the same time he is the head of the Chabad Lubavitch Center which opened in 2007. 3 | P a g e 1. TOBY AXELROD May 13, 2009, Berlin ● Mrs. Axelrod, you are strongly involved in the organization of Limmud Germany, this year even as chair of Limmud.de and coordinator of the three-day festival. What’s your main motivation? It has been my intention to contribute actively to the vibrant Jewish life here in Germany, especially to a program without fences and borders, one including all ages and Jewish denominations. I was looking for a movement that reflects Jewish diversity, and that can bridge divergences. ● What are the prospects for Jewry in Germany in the short-term and long-term? From the demographic point of view, I think that the number of organized Jews in Germany will now remain more or less on the same level.