Jewish Community of Berlin

The Jewish Community of Berlin (Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin) describes itself as Germany's largest Jewish city community and a unified congregation (Einheitsgemeinde) that brings together different religious streams, from liberal and conservative to orthodox. It is a corporation under public law (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), enjoying the same tax and other privileges as the Christian churches in Germany, and since 1994 its relations with the State of Berlin have been governed by a state treaty. Its offices are located at Oranienburger Str. 28-31, 10117 Berlin. The community states that today more than 20,000 Jews live in Berlin, most of them from states of the former Soviet Union, and about half are organized as members of the community.

The community's own history page traces Jewish life in the area of today's Berlin back to a gravestone in Spandau from 1244, with Jews first documented in 1295 in a privilege of the Berlin clothmakers' guild. It recounts repeated cycles of settlement, expulsion and murder, including the plague and first persecutions in 1349, expulsion from Brandenburg in 1446, accusations of host desecration and ritual murder leading in 1510 to torture, burnings at the stake, beheadings and expulsions, and further pogroms and expulsions in 1573. After all Jews were expelled from Vienna in 1670, 50 wealthy Viennese families were allowed to settle in Berlin in 1671, laying the basis for Berlin's development into a center of Jewish life in Europe with about 170,000 Jews by the beginning of the 20th century. The community's 'About us' page states that during National Socialism, of the former 160,000 Berlin Jews, 55,000 were victims of the Shoah, and that after 1945 it initially seemed inconceivable that Jewish life could ever exist again in Germany; today more than 20,000 Jews live in Berlin, most from states of the former Soviet Union, about half of them organized as members of the community.

Germany's largest Jewish city community and a Europe-wide unique unified congregation (Einheitsgemeinde) uniting liberal, conservative and orthodox streams.

1. 1Home - JG Berlinjg-berlin.org
2. 2Über uns - JG Berlinjg-berlin.org
3. 3Geschichte - JG Berlinjg-berlin.org
4. 4Jewish Community of Berlinwikidata.org