The East Berlin Jewish Community, which split off from the city-wide Gemeinde several years ago due to East-West tension, has revealed that its own membership now is 1,279, while that of all the other Jewish communities in East Germany totals approximately 1,000.
The cities that have functioning Jewish congregations are Liepzig, Dresden, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Halle, Plauen, Schwerin and Chemnitz, which has been renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt. They, but not the East Berlin Community, are affiliated to the “Association of Jewish Communities in the German Democratic Republic,” with its seat at Halls.
Membership in the nearest Jewish congregation is mandatory under German law for all professing Jews. It is estimated, however, that there are some 3,000 Jewish-born residents of East Berlin and East Germany who are not registered with the Jewish communities and who list themselves as atheists or Christians.
The figures made known by the East Berlin Community show that the Jewish population in the parts of Germany under Communist rule has shrunk by at least one-fifth since 1952. Most of the diminution is accounted for by the flight of some 500 Jews, including almost all the old community leaders, during the high tide of Soviet anti-Semitism in 1952-53, just prior to the death of Stalin. There is also a steady excess of deaths over births.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
