A Judenrat was an administrative body established in German-occupied Europe during World War II which purported to represent a Jewish community in dealings with the Nazi authorities. The Germans required Jews to form Judenräte across the occupied territories at local and sometimes national levels.
The Union progressiver Juden in Deutschland is a "Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts", a publicly chartered association, founded in 1997 as the congregational arm of Liberal Judaism in Germany. It is headed by Irith Michelsohn and has around 5,200 members. It is an affiliate of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Rabbi Walter Homolka was former President and was also the most senior rabbinic figure associated with the UPJ, and the Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg serves as rabbinical seminary since 1999.
Paul Spiegel was leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the main spokesman of the German Jews. He was widely praised for his leadership of the German Jewish community, which had grown from the remnants left by the Nazis into the third largest Jewish community in western Europe.
Ignatz Bubis, German Jewish leader, was the influential chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1992 to 1999. In this capacity he led a public campaign against German antisemitism. Bubis's high profile both in Frankfurt and nationwide involved him in a number of public controversies.
The term Halbjude is a derogatory term for people with a non-Jewish and a Jewish parent. The overwhelming majority of the so-called half-Jews were legally classified as "first-degree Jewish hybrids" during the era of Nazi Germany. Occasionally, the term was used even before the Nazi era. Within Judaism the term half Jew is unusual, since it does not recognize any partial degrees of Judaism; one can either be Jewish or not.
The Reich Representation of German Jews was a Jewish umbrella organization founded in Germany on 17 September 1933. It was established to coordinate and represent the activities of Jewish political and religious groups, with headquarters in Berlin, and provide legal defence in the face of growing persecution of the Nazi era. The organization was constantly being reorganized and remained active in communities nationwide until after the Holocaust. It ceased to exist in June 1943. The Berlin Rabbi Leo Baeck was elected president of the Reichsvertretung with Otto Hirsch acting as its chairman.
Heinz Galinski was president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1954 to 1963 and 1988 until his death in 1992, and Holocaust survivor.
Norbert Wollheim was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a board member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and a functionary of other Jewish organisations.
Philipp Jenninger was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union and diplomat. He was the ninth president of the Bundestag from 1984 to 1988. He also served as Member of the German Parliament, the Bundestag (1969–1990), Minister of State at the German Chancellery (1982–1984), German Ambassador to Austria (1991–1995) and German Ambassador to the Holy See (1995–1997).
The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 by the Leo Baeck Institute of New York City, an international research institute devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. It is the highest recognition the Institute bestows upon those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Jüdischer Kulturbund, or Der Jüdische Kulturbund, was a cultural federation of German Jews established in 1933. It hired over 1,300 men and 700 women artists, musicians, and actors fired from German institutions. According to Jonathan C. Friedman, it grew to approximately 70,000 members, while Saul Friedländer tallies its roster as high as 180,000.
Werner Nachmann, was a German entrepreneur and politician, and was president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1969 to 1988.
Israelitisches Familienblatt was a Jewish weekly newspaper, directed at Jewish readers of all religious alignments. Max Lessmann and Leo Lessmann founded the Familienblatt, which was published by the printing and publishing house Buchdruckerei und Verlagsanstalt Max Lessmann first in Hamburg, and then in Berlin (1935–1938). The Familienblatt was the only newspaper dealing with majorly Jewish issues in Germany which was run by a private business not aligned to a Jewish organisation of any kind. The editorial and printing offices were located in ABC-Straße 57 in Hamburg. The Hamburg agglomeration, consisting of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Danish-Holsteinian cities of Altona and Wandsbek as well as the Hanoverian city of Harburg upon Elbe, had been an important Jewish centre in Europe and in number with c. 9,000 persons, the biggest in Germany. Only by the first third of the 19th century did Berlin, Prussia's capital, overtake with Jews migrating from the former Polish provinces, which Prussia annexed in the Polish Partitions. Originally directed to readers in Hamburg's metropolitan area the Familienblatt gained more and more readers and spread nationwide in Germany. Israelitisches Familienblatt was prohibited to appear any further after the November Pogroms on 9–10 November 1938.
The Reich Association of Jews in Germany, also called the new one for clear differentiation, was a Jewish umbrella organisation formed in Nazi Germany in February 1939. The Association branched out from the Reich Representation of German Jews established in September 1933. The new Association was an administrative body concerned predominantly with the coordination and support of the emigration and forcible deportation of Jewish people, subject to the Reich government's ever-changing legislation enforced by the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt). The legal status of the new organisation was changed on 4 July 1939 on the basis of the Nuremberg Laws, and defined by the 10th Regulation to the Citizenship Law issued by the Reich's ministry of the Interior. The Association assumed the so-called oldReichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, which was the name under which the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden had been operating since February 1939.
Central Council may refer to:
Josef Schuster is a German physician and since November 2014 President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
The Center for Jewish Studies Heidelberg is an accredited institution of higher learning, supported by the Central Council of Jews in Germany and funded by the German federal government. The HfJS operates in close cooperation with the University of Heidelberg and opens its doors to students and scholars, regardless of religious affiliation.
Salomon Korn is a German architect and an Honorary Senator of Heidelberg University. Since 1999 he has served as Chairman of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main and since 2003 as Vice President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany.
Dieter Graumann is an Israeli/German jurist and economist. From 28 November 2010 to 30 November 2014, he was President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and has been Vice President of the World Jewish Congress since 6 May 2013. He succeeded Charlotte Knobloch in both positions.
