Accusations Made in German Town That Its Jewish Board Isn’t Jewish

The president of the tiny Jewish community in this eastern German city has reportedly resigned after charges were made that he and most or all of the community’s board members are not in fact Jewish.

Accusations were also made that the Jewish community head, Ulrich Levy, had used the community’s offices as a headquarters for a nationalist political party that harkens to the former East Germany.

Levy in fact acknowledged that he is a member of the East German Unity Party. But he denied charges that he was using the Jewish community offices as a party bureau.

The uproar reflects what happened to the decimated Jewish communities in formerly Communist Eastern Europe and the legacy from those times that still intrudes today.

The fact that this controversy has arisen in Magdeburg is ironic, as this city’s 100-member Jewish community, which dates to at least 965 C.E., is the oldest in eastern Germany and one of the oldest in the entire country.

Levy has denied charges he himself is not halachically Jewish and produced a rabbi’s claim to support his word.

But in face of this onslaught of accusations, Levy reportedly resigned from the board Monday and would not speak to reporters.

The strange story came to light after Levy asked board member Peter Ledermann for personal information on the other board members, for reasons that are not clear.

But Ledermann refused the request, saying personal files must remain personal under Germany law.

He then said the information in the files provided evidence that the board members, including Levy, are not Jews and said he feared the information would be manipulated or destroyed.

Ledermann was expelled from the board at the end of December but has now been reinstated.

Last week, in a three-hour interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Levy acknowledged that he and three other board members kicked Ledermann off the board for not complying with the request for the files.

As the fur flew between the two men, Ledermann also provided information that Levy had spent four years in prison for a criminal offense about 20 years ago.

Levy admitted he spent time in prison but said it was only two years and declined to say for what crime he was incarcerated.

The incident is an embarrassment for Germany’s tiny Jewish community, which numbers about 40,000.

Ledermann and his wife, Claudia Oppenheimer, initiated the claims that Levy and other board members are not Jewish.

As proof, they said Levy’s mother was not listed among the Jews of Magdeburg in a list compiled in 1946.

Jews in Europe register as official members with the Jewish communities. There are, however, Jews who have refrained from doing so because it reminds them of how the Nazis used Jewish community lists to find and deport Jews to their deaths.

The claimed that during the Communist regime of the German Democratic Republic, Levy’s father, then a board member, knowingly allowed non-Jews to become members not only of Magdeburg’s Jewish community but also of its board of directors.

While such a practice might seem odd in the West, it makes more sense when one takes into consideration the situation for Jews here following World War II.

In decimated post-Holocaust Eastern European Jewish communities, particularly where the Communists ruled and religion was almost obliterated, intermarriage was a regular occurrence and harassment or fear kept people from publicly identifying as Jews. And with no rabbis, conversion by those who would have chosen it was unavailable.

Levy strongly maintains that he is Jewish, and a rabbi he asked to rule on his case agreed.

Levy, who conducted the interview with JTA with two open-faced ham sandwiches sitting on his desk, admitted that at least one board member has neither a Jewish mother nor a Jewish father.

But he said that board member’s mother. Eva Maria Roth, had been admitted into the Jewish community of the former German Democratic Republic, which numbered only 26 people.

The board member, Patricia Werner, has not been removed, but she will not take part in active meetings until a rabbi can rule on her case.