Germany - Funding Cuts to Rabbis Angers Orthodox Jews |
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News Source: Haaretz/ Telegraph
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Germany - The German government has ignited a row with the country’s Orthodox Jews after it stopped funding the training of Orthodox rabbis.
The authorities have been subsidizing the training of rabbis for several years, but the interior ministry recently announced that it would only fund Liberal rabbis from now on.
Thomas de Maziere, the interior minister, blamed “the budget situation” for the decision, the Times reports.
Mareike Kutt, an official at the Interior Ministry, stressed that Germany pays €5 million a year towards the reconstruction of Jewish life in Germany, an additional €300,000 to the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam that trains Liberal Jewish rabbis and cantors, and another €½ million to the Heidelberg College for Jewish Studies that teaches future Liberal and Orthodox rabbis. “The Government is not discriminating against any denomination,” Ms Kutt told The Times.
However, the move has upset the Jewish community.
Jewish officials have claimed that the government made the decision because it no longer wanted to deal with Orthodox Jews.
“They like Liberal Jews because they are seen as easygoing, not reminding them all the time about anti-Semitism and the Shoah [Holocaust],” Stephan Kramer, the secretary-general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the paper.
“This is a matter of principle rather than money,” says Rabbi Spinner. “Why is an Orthodox institution being treated differently from a Liberal one?” The flare-up is part of a more general confusion about multiculturalism that is troubling Germany. A bestselling book by a maverick central banker, Thilo Sarrazin, has flushed out Islamophobic attitudes to such a degree that there have been attempts to start up an anti-immigrant party.
Since the Second World War, Germany has been trying to re-establish a Jewish presence in the country. There are now some 120,000 Jews living in Germany, and many are Orthodox.
Traditionally every German head of state since the war has made a speech setting out the implications of the Holocaust for his country. This year, apparently because of tangled government policy, President Wulff’s speech will be more difficult than usual.
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Read Comments (23) — Post Yours »
1
Nov 01, 2010 at 07:53 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
Funding liberal rabbis? That is a steera liberals can't be rabbis sinces they don't believe in Torah min Hashem
2
Nov 01, 2010 at 08:13 AM Benny Says:Report as Inappropriate
What a surprise!?
I thought Germany like all the Jews!?
Rabbi Spinner! Instead of creating the whole infrastructure there, work on getting all the Jews out of there, less we forgot what happened there 70 years ago. Take all these 120,000 Russian Jews out of there, they suffered enough and let's build their home in USA, country of chesed(of kindness) or eretz Isroel, their(and ours)home!
3
Nov 01, 2010 at 08:37 AM charliehall Says:Report as Inappropriate
This may be payback for our own intolerance. We should be defending germany's muslims from the intolerance rather than joining in the anti-muslim bigotry. Nobody should be surprised that anti-muslim intolerance expands to us.
4
Nov 01, 2010 at 08:37 AM Godol-Hador Says:Report as Inappropriate
I don't understand. Germany has been paying money to train orthodox Rabbis?? Who and where are these rabbis or Yeshivos?
What am I missing?
Can somebody explain?
5
Nov 01, 2010 at 09:09 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
They are modern orthodox, not real normal orthodox, that's why we never heard of them and that's why they never have any chidushei Torah.
6
Nov 01, 2010 at 09:22 AM TorahTruth Says:Report as Inappropriate
Just get out of there! How much clearer do they need to make it that we are not wanted in Germany or any place else in Europe for that matter. To paraphrase Ms. Thomas... GO HOME TO ISRAEL!
7
Nov 01, 2010 at 09:38 AM DavidMoshe Says:Report as Inappropriate
Generally speaking, no state (with the possible exception of Israel) should be funding the training of rabbis, liberal or otherwise. And, generally speaking, if a state wishes to fund the training of rabbis, the rabbis themselves ought to (politely) decline. One who finances something thereby gains both influence and control. I think the revival of Jewish life in Germany might well be a good thing for Germans and for Jews alike (I suspect there would have been no R' Hirsch without a German intellectual tradition), but it would probably be a better thing if the Jews picked up the tab for the training of their own rabbis.
8
Nov 01, 2010 at 09:39 AM David Says:Report as Inappropriate
#1 Nobody can be a rabbi. Real semicha ended long ago.
#5 Don't go around with your frumometer out. It's obnoxious.
9
Nov 01, 2010 at 09:47 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
To #2- You seem to think that all of the 120,000 Jews in Germany are Russian Jews. In fact, many Israeli Jews, and native German Jews reside there, as well as Jews from other countries.
10
Nov 01, 2010 at 09:55 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
Most of the rabbis doing the real work in Germany are Chabad shluchim and others trained abroad, and they send their real mekuravim to learn abroad as well. However, Germany should cut ALL funding if they really cannot afford same, and not fund the assimilationists who are doing Hitler's work.
Charliehall, thanks once again for the laughs. You made my day.
11
Nov 01, 2010 at 10:02 AM ymtheman Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ They are modern orthodox, not real normal orthodox, that's why we never heard of them and that's why they never have any chidushei Torah. ”
who r u 2 decide that? and number 2 get ur facts straight be4 u start showing every1 what u dont no!
12
Nov 01, 2010 at 10:04 AM sane Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ They are modern orthodox, not real normal orthodox, that's why we never heard of them and that's why they never have any chidushei Torah. ”
Fool! It is this very sort of sinas Yisroel that caused the churban in the first place. When was the last time you were mechadesh something? Better yet, what exactly have you contributed to Klal Yisroel? Instead of seeing the gadlus in Klal Yisroel in its ability to re-build, your only contribution is negativity.
13
Nov 01, 2010 at 10:16 AM Tzaddik misnaged Says:Report as Inappropriate
They should pay for all of them to move to EY and enroll in real yeshivos and pay the kolel costs and tuition for all
14
Nov 01, 2010 at 10:31 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
What I cannot figure out is why they would fund the training of ANY rabbi, regardless of the denomination. Do they fund the training of any other clergy? Do they fund the training of lawyers or engineers? If they are going to continue this practice then they should fund all denomination's rabbis, otherwise, none at all.
15
Nov 01, 2010 at 10:43 AM kollelfaker Says:Report as Inappropriate
#10 you out of reality there have been chassidic rebbas as well as yeshivisha rabbis there for somec time before chabad fund they couold make moneyb there so check your sources before you spout ignorance in the 60's and until awhile a go there was the berliner rebbe i believe he went to israle in the late 90's there are large shules as well
as per charlie climb under the rock that gave birth to you asking jews to defend moslems is tantamount to defending nazism your self hate and liberal agenda is sticking out again
16
Nov 01, 2010 at 11:45 AM cowfy Says:Report as Inappropriate
in referance to the byline.i'm orthodox and i'm not angry in the least.
17
Nov 01, 2010 at 12:24 PM clear-thinker Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ They are modern orthodox, not real normal orthodox, that's why we never heard of them and that's why they never have any chidushei Torah. ”
Perhaps you could tell me who your Rebbe is. Then we would know who you consider "real normal orthodox". There is a saying that some people should keep their mouths shut and let others believe they are fools rather than speaking and proving it. Something for you to consider
18
Nov 01, 2010 at 12:26 PM harvey Says:Report as Inappropriate
wow what a surprise! the germans are known to be so nice to the jews!!
(sarcasm)
19
Nov 01, 2010 at 01:54 PM Paskunyak Says:Report as Inappropriate
Nazi Bastards.
Deviant forms of religious practice known as "Reform" began in Germany in the late 1800's. It then crawled to the U.S. where it flourished within the assimilated/liberalized Jewish communities and now resides with them as well as within perverted communities such as the homo, feminist, etc.
The Nazis couldn't kill us off physically so they will try to do it spiritually by supporting these deviations and reformulations that will oppose and try to destroy Torah Judaism.
20
Nov 01, 2010 at 03:42 PM MONTREALYID Says:Report as Inappropriate
To any Jew who simply doesnt have a clue..Living in a Germany is like sleeping with an enemy..
Are you such losers that you will lay with the murderers of our grandparents?
Have the Jews in Germany no self respect at all?
I couldn't care less for the Jews in Germany who have decided to live there...
21
Nov 01, 2010 at 03:45 PM kosher Says:Report as Inappropriate
To clarify some points here. European countries fund religiouos institutions, their constitutions do not have the separation of church and state. (Canada, same thing) Hungarian Jewry is mainly funded by the government and it has always been a fight between the Orthodox and the Neolog, since the Neolog (conservative-reform) outnumbers the Orthodox. Without the government support, the Jewish institutions would instantly fail, especially since the JOINT does not provide much support today, as it has no funds (since the children of the supporters intermarried, don't care, etc.)
This whole thing is not surprising, nor can you expect the German government to understand the difference between Ortodox and non-orthodox.
You are all welcome to check out on Yutube the Smicha ceremony that took place in the Yeshiva in Germany not long ago.
Btw, Reform movement did not start in the late 1800s, but the late 18th century, which is the late 1700s.
22
Nov 01, 2010 at 05:56 PM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Nazi Bastards.
Deviant forms of religious practice known as "Reform" began in Germany in the late 1800's. It then crawled to the U.S. where it flourished within the assimilated/liberalized Jewish communities and now resides with them as well as within perverted communities such as the homo, feminist, etc.
The Nazis couldn't kill us off physically so they will try to do it spiritually by supporting these deviations and reformulations that will oppose and try to destroy Torah Judaism. ”
It seems that the only time you open your mouth is to change feet. You are probably the only person left alive who still refers to GLT community as "homos". What an ignoramus. You are the deviant.
23
Nov 01, 2010 at 08:49 PM formally Says:Report as Inappropriate
“They like Liberal Jews because they are seen as easygoing, not reminding them all the time about anti-Semitism and the Shoah [Holocaust],” Stephan Kramer, the secretary-general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the paper.
when will some get over the fact Jews got killed because they where jews not because they where frum or wore a stremeil etc.. As a matter of fact in Germany there was mostly liberal Jews and not the orthodox ghetto.