Central Council of Jews in Germany

The Central Council of Jews in Germany (German name: Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) is a federation of German Jews organizing many Jewish organisations in Germany. It was founded on July 19, 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish community and increasing interest in Jewish affairs by the (West) German government. Originally based in the Rhenish areas (Düsseldorf and Bonn), it transferred its seat to Berlin after the Reunification of Germany (1990). As of 2015 the Jewish community in Germany has around 100,000 registered members, although far more Jews live in the country without belonging to a synagogue. From its early years, the organization has received strong financial and moral support from the government.

The Zentralrat is the German affiliate of the World Jewish Congress (WJC).

In its early years, its leadership was composed of native German Jews, while most of the Jewish community in Germany was made up of Polish-born Jewish Holocaust survivors who had come to Germany as displaced persons, fleeing from the sporadically anti-zionist communist regime of Poland. Thus, the organization called itself "Central Council of Jews in Germany" rather than "Central Council of German Jews." Over time, the Polish-born Jews or their children acculturated to German society and became leaders of the Jewish community. By the late 1980s, the organization considered changing its name. Since the collapse of the communist regimes of eastern Europe, Germany has experienced a great influx of Russian and other Jews from the former Soviet Union (that collapsed in 1990). Although most of the Jews now living in Germany are recent immigrants, the organization is dominated by the so-called "German" Jews (who themselves are primarily descended from the Eastern European immigrants of the immediate postwar years).

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