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BERLIN (JTA) — The struggle over management of Germany’s Reform rabbinical college has taken a brand new twist — one which seems poised to shatter longstanding establishments inside liberal Judaism right here, and reforge them into one thing new.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany introduced Thursday that it’s bringing in an out of doors professional to assist redesign the nation’s Reform and Conservative rabbinical colleges, to finish the affect of a controversial Reform rabbi who stepped apart as rector amid allegations towards him this spring however who stays enmeshed within the colleges’ operations.
Gerhard Robbers, a professor emeritus of legislation and faith on the College of Trier, will seek the advice of with college students and workers as he drafts the proposal, in line with the Central Council, an umbrella group for all organized Jewish communities in Germany.
Robbers’ appointment got here because the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany this week introduced its personal interim director for Abraham Geiger Faculty, in what gave the impression to be a last-ditch effort to protect management by Rabbi Walter Homolka over the seminary he based in 1999.
The Central Council introduced it might now not work with the UPJ after the group’s transfer to put in the brand new interim director, a hanging fracture in an alliance that Homolka himself had pressed to create 20 years in the past.
On the identical time, the UPJ might now splinter, with those that are loyal to Homolka dealing with off towards those that consider change is required.
“Some member communities are actually contemplating leaving the UPJ and reorganizing beneath the Central Council. We really feel we’re not represented any extra by the UPJ,” Rebecca Seidler, head of the liberal Jewish communities of Hanover and chair of the State Affiliation of the Jewish Communities of Decrease Saxony, advised the Jewish Telegraphic Company.
Rebecca Seidler, chairwoman of the Liberal Jewish Neighborhood of Hanover, Germany, sits within the synagogue there, Sept. 8 2020. (Julian Stratenschulte/image alliance through Getty Photos)
In an indication of how deeply the tensions are slicing inside Germany’s small group of liberal Jews, Seidler and her mom have wound up on opposing sides of the divide. Rebecca Seidler is the daughter of Katarina Seidler, the lawyer whom the UPJ named this week as new interim director of the seminary. Rebecca Seidler described the variations inside her household as “very tough.”
Sources inform JTA that there’s discuss of a brand new alliance of liberal, egalitarian communities beneath the Central Council’s aegis. Josef Schuster, the council’s president, confirmed as a lot on Thursday, telling JTA that his group is in talks with representatives from communities throughout Germany.
“People who want to step out of the UPJ can be supported intensively, and likewise we are going to assist them in making a worthy illustration of liberal/progressive Judaism in Germany,“ Schuster mentioned.
The most recent developments mark a dramatic new section in a saga that has been unfolding since Could, when allegations of sexual harassment towards Homolka’s husband and a potential coverup on the seminary hit the information. Ensuing investigations by the College of Potsdam, beneath whose auspices the rabbinical colleges are organized, and by a legislation agency commissioned by the Central Council appeared right into a rising array of accusations of abuse of energy by Homolka.
Rabbi Walter Homolka, rector of the Abraham Geiger Faculty, within the Liberal Jewish group’s synagogue in Hanover, Germany in December 2016. (Julian Stratenschulte/image alliance through Getty Photos)
Each investigations concluded that there was certainly abuse of energy — a discovering that Homolka has vigorously denied, and that the UPJ has contested.
In a put up on its web site, the UPJ had formally introduced that an investigation it had commissioned had concluded that there was no proof of abuse of energy.
Schuster of the Central Council — which represents some 100,000 Jews in Germany, of which the UPJ says 5,000 are members of its congregations, and is chargeable for distributing authorities subsidies and so-called “faith tax” monies to native Jewish communities — advised JTA that the put up had satisfied him that the “the UPJ is to not be taken significantly.”
“There are two research that really present abuse of energy, however this is a company that continues to cowl up,” he mentioned. The put up was eliminated Thursday.
Schuster’s frustration deepened on Tuesday, when the UPJ and seminary put in Katarina Seidler because the interim director of Geiger Faculty, two days after an election during which allies of Homolka assumed management of the group. (Homolka had introduced solely that day that he wouldn’t run.) Simply that morning, the Central Council had been talking with Gabriele Thöne, nonetheless Geiger Faculty’s interim director, a couple of “face-saving answer” that may contain her resignation and substitute by somebody with out ties to Homolka.
Katarina Seidler, then chair of the State Affiliation of Jewish Communities in Decrease Saxony, joined a session of the state parliament targeted on antisemitism, Hanover, Germany, Oct. 23, 2019. (Sina Schuldt/image alliance through Getty Photos)
“Anybody who thinks they will simply keep on offering a rabbinical schooling with the outdated followers of Homolka, with him persevering with within the background of the entity that he — and never the UPJ — based, with all its entanglements and dependencies, has not taken significantly in any approach the outcomes of the unbiased investigations of the College of Potsdam and the legislation agency Gercke Wollschläger,” Schuster mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
Schuster advised JTA that Geiger Faculty is ready up in such a approach that Homolka has retained authority regardless of saying that he had stepped apart.
“It isn’t only a feeling that he’s in management,” Schuster mentioned. “It’s the case on a purely authorized foundation.“
As but, there was no formal response from Abraham Geiger Faculty to the Central Council’s withering condemnation. However Irith Michelsohn, the UPJ’s newly elected chair, advised JTA in an e mail Thursday that her group would “positively attempt to discover a foundation for dialogue” with the Central Council.
“Maybe that is tough in the mean time, however we are going to see what the brand new secular 12 months will convey,” she mentioned.
The UPJ transfer apparently additionally caught the World Union of Progressive Judaism unawares. The identical day, the group had expressed assist for Thöne together with “deep unhappiness and sorrow” following “the latest reviews in regards to the misconduct, and the harm to people and their communities.”
In an open letter, WUPJ Chair Carole Sterling and President Rabbi Sergio Bergman set out a listing of priorities and mentioned they appreciated the continuing dedication of federal and regional German ministries and the Central Council “to proceed to fund Geiger Faculty whereas new buildings and management are put in place.” Additionally they pledged their very own help.
Assist from the Central Council for Geiger Faculty is more likely to proceed, sources say.
Gabriella Thone, interim director of Abraham Geiger Faculty, in Berlin’s Rykestrasse Synagogue on the event of an ordination ceremony, Dec. 1, 2022. (Toby Axelrod)
The entire newest turmoil takes place days after the ordinations of 4 new rabbis and two cantors who studied on the Geiger Faculty, which has grow to be a logo of the rebirth of Reform Judaism within the nation of its founding. Held on the Rykestrasse Synagogue in former East Berlin, full with organ music and a processional, the ceremony — which observers described as joyous — was seemingly the final earlier than main modifications to how the seminary operates.
Schuster mentioned a brand new plan — with enter from college students, educators and rabbis, and in coordination with different main funders and the College of Potsdam — may very well be introduced within the first quarter of 2023.
“Rabbinical coaching as a personal enterprise can now not be another sooner or later,” the assertion concluded.
The announcement was welcomed by the Worldwide Masorti Motion, a associate and supporter of Zacharias Frankel Faculty, the Conservative motion’s seminary, which like Geiger Faculty is located on the College of Potsdam. In an announcement on Thursday, it referred to as on all stakeholders “to take heed to the voices of those that suffered from misconduct and to take the investigations of the College and of the legislation agency Gercke Wollschläger significantly, and work collectively for a brand new starting, each concerning individuals in addition to buildings.”
It’s just about assured that but extra slings and arrows will fly earlier than all is alleged and completed — and that Homolka continues to loom giant within the organizations he constructed.
On the latest UPJ assembly the place Homolka allies received election, “it turned clear that there are two fronts within the UPJ,” Rebecca Seidler advised JTA: “Those that assist Homolka and need to separate from the Central Council, and those that are in favor of taking aside the present buildings, and who stand on the facet of these affected.”
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