The Jewish Community of Berlin caters to the religious diversity of the city’s Jewish population. All forms of Judaism are represented here – from orthodox to egalitarian. And each has a home at one of the six community synagogues and handful of private congregations that can be found throughout the city. On this website, you will find currently an array of information and photographs regarding the synagogues, cemeteries and other religious institutions managed by the Jewish community.

A positive trend has been the significant growth of the Jewish community’s membership base primarily through the immigration of Jews from all over the world, but particularly from the former Soviet Union. With 11,000 registered members, Berlin boasts the largest Jewish community in Germany today.

The community aims to make all Jews feel at home here. One way to achieve this  in a longer term is throug a four-lingual website – currently in German, English, Hebrew and Russian. This will allow many community members and readers from abroad to access our most important information in their mother tongue. Shortly shell all the translations go online, russian already from November 2008.

 The Jewish Community of Berlin has a structural base that can meet the needs of all of Berlin’s Jews in the areas of social welfare, integration and education. Three schools – primary, middle and secondary – a kindergarten, a youth centre, a senior citizen’s centre as well as a welfare and integration office for immigrants form the basis of this structure. The community employs approximately 400 people to maintain these structures. Furthermore, the community is managed by a board of 21 elected members who serve for four years on an honorary basis. Five of these representatives along with three deputies make up the board of directors. The board, working closely with the managing director, strives to adapt to the ever-changing needs of this structural base and keep it running smoothly (see “Organisational structure” for more details).

Operating such a structure is not easy, considering the community’s financial constraints. However, the new board of directors, elected in February 2009, has made it its goal to find solutions. It began by putting austerity measures into place. Many of the community’s departments are undergoing major restructuring. Another goal of the board is to win back members who left the community in recent years. The board hopes to achieve its goals with the support of its major funder, the Berlin State Senate, with whom it shares a transparent and trusting relationship.

We are proud of the re-emergence of Jewish life in Berlin today, which has occurred in large part thanks to immigration. The community’s largest cultural event of 2008 was the 22^nd annual Jüdische Kulturtage (Jewish Culture Days). That year’s focus was the 60^th anniversary of Israel’s founding. However, there were also many smaller events complementing the community’s full programme calendar, which we helped to organise. Many of these events took place at cultural associations for new immigrants; several of them revolved around Jewish holiday celebrations such as Purim and Chanukah; a few of them were only for children or youths and others were geared towards families or senior citizens.

The general public is welcome to most events and to all commemorative ceremonies. Even the library and courses at the Jewish Adult Education Centre (Volkshochschule) are open to the public-at-large. All events, even those presented by other organisations, can be found on our online calendar.

Jews in Berlin are no longer sitting on packed suitcases as many did until recently. However, we are very much aware of the anti-Semitism that still prevails today – whether coming from the far right, the radical left or from Islamist groups. In our efforts to counter this phenomenon, we have appointed an honorary commissioner to compile data and to react to anti-Semitic threats. Furthermore, we have established the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism (Jüdisches Forum für Demokratie und gegen Antisemitismus).

If you have any comments, recommendations or criticism to share with us, please contact us. We would be glad to hear from you.

Sincerely yours,

Lala Süsskind