Jewish Culture Center
(JCC)
[German]
While the Jewish Culture Center
(Juedischer Kulturverein) was founded after German reunification, it has
its origins in the mid-eighties in GDR. Young people, whose parents had
returned from exile to the GDR to build up a new antifascist Germany, felt
the need to meet and to share what being Jewish meant for them. They
sought out a cultural, rather than a specifically religious, form of
meeting in order to bring together a wider group of Jews and people of
Jewish origin. They founded a group "Jews for Jews: We for Ourselves"
which met under the roof of East Berlin Jewish Community on a regular
basis. There was an active and lively exchange of ideas. Later they also
organized cultural events. From time to time Rabbis, scholars and Jewish
artists and activists mostly from the United States visited and offered
their support.
When the Berlin Wall fell, some of
them started the Jewish Cultural Association which is an independent group
with a concept similar to Jewish cultural centers in the US where
everybody is welcome from orthodox to secular Jewish. After re-unification
in 1990, and the rise of a new German national identity, the question of
Jewish consciousness was reframed for many Jews with a more distant
relationship to their Jewish roots. For many of those living in the former
East Berlin, the opportunities for Jewish outreach and learning provided a
way to deal with the sometimes difficult challenges of the changing
lifestyles.
The Jewish Culture Center is now the
established home of programs and special meetings dedicated to furthering
Jewish identity, community, and history through cultural events, classes,
music, religious education and celebrations, lectures and political
discussions.
An increasing number of members are
immigrants from the former Soviet Union. As a consequence a certain number
of events take place in Russian and refer to their special situation. For
some time it was possible to publish the monthly "Juedische Korrepondenz"
(Jewish correspondence) in German and Russian. From the very beginning the
Jewish Culture Center has been at the forefront in welcoming Soviet Jewish
immigrants to Germany. Russian language and the Soviet system was a part
of the East German educational curriculum, so the language and cultural
differences were less pronounced than in the former West.
The JCC is in contact with the
Lubavitch Chassidic Movement and thus get their support for the holidays
(religious instruction, glatt kosher passover seder ...).
Nach 20 Jahren:
Endgültiges
Aus für den Jüdischen Kulturverein Berlin e.V. (JKV)
Nach 20 erfolgreichen Jahren beschloss die Mitgliederversammlung des
Jüdischen Kulturvereins Berlin e.V. (JKV) am 16. Dezember 2009 mit großem
Bedauern dessen Auflösung zum 31.12. 2009. Als Hauptgründe gelten neben
einer seit Anbeginn verweigerten institutionellen Förderung durch den
Berliner Senat auch die vorwiegend mangelnde Unterstützung durch
etablierte jüdische Institutionen in Deutschland, vor allem aber das
inzwischen sehr hohe Lebensalter vieler Gründungs- und Vereinsmitglieder
sowie der fehlende jüdische Nachwuchs. Der Verein konnte daher nicht mehr
angemessen aus eigener Kraft auf die sich verändernden Anforderungen im
21. Jahrhundert reagieren…
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