What are the specific laws protecting Jews/Jewish rights in Germany today?

Factual Questions
1

Hi
What are the specific laws protecting Jews/Jewish rights in Germany today? I know Germany passed a law protecting the right of circumcision. But I couldn’t find specifics on actual laws protection Jews. I look forward to your feedback.

2

SFAIK the German law on circumcision doesn’t mention Jews specifically. It permits non-therapeutic circumcision of male infants without regard to religion/ethnicity. Obviously Jews are one of the communities that will benefit from this law, but they don’t enjoy different treatment or a higher level of protection than anyone else wishing to circumcise a male infant.

And I think this is generally true. The Basic Law of the Federal Republic contains strong provisions protecting human rights, including guarantees of equality before the law, freedom of faith and conscience, the undisturbed practice of religion, the right of parents to decide whether their children shall receive religious education, a ban on having a state church, an affirmation of the rights of religious societies to operate, etc., but the words “Jew” and “Jewish” do not appear anywhere.

The closest it comes is a clause which confirms the citizenship of those who were deprived of citizenship “on political, racial or religious grounds” between 1933 and 1945.

3

Thanks UDS. I have see German police posted outside Jewish synagogues and bookstores etc while visiting Germany. This seems to be policy in Germany. I’ve seen it in every German city I’ve visited.

4

The relevant statute (section 1631d of the Civil Code (BGB)) does not refer to a specific religion - in fact the section § 1631d (1) BGB on the general case does not mention religion at all but only authorizes parents to ‘consent to the not medically necessary circumcision of a male child who is not capable of judgement and decision’, with the proviso that the circumcision needs to be done by a physician.

The special dispensation of § 1631d (2), however looks like it was meant to specifically accomodate Jewish circumcision: ‘In the first six months after birth of the child also persons assigned by a religious community may do circumcisions, provided that the person is specifically trained for the task and are qualified for it comparably to a physician without being a physician’. This looks like a specific accommodations for mohels - Muslims and Yazidis typically circumcise at kindergarten or primary school age, and also seem not to mind a physician requirement.

Other than that, the protections for the individual rights of Jews are the general protections for human rights in constitutional and statute law, which do not mention a specific religion (in fact are considered to protect irreligion in the same manner as religion).

In practice prosecutors will be more willing to assume a public interest which is necessary to prosecute insult as a criminal rather than a civil matter if the insult is anti-semitic in content, but that also is the case with general racist insults. With cases of Volksverhetzung (incitement to hatred) prosecutors operate under the same law but will be subject to more public scrutiny when the incitement is anti-semitic.

There are provision for corporate rights of Jewish public-law religious communities on the level of the 16 states, by state-community contracts which are analogous to those with other public-law religious communities, notably the main Christian churches (most other religions such as Islam and Hinduism cannot be accomodated that way because they don’t organize in christian-denomination-equivalent public law bodies that fit the German corporatist mould). These agreements cover e.g. representation on the governing bodies of public broadcasters and tithing their members via church tax in the manner of the Christian congregations (informally referred to as synagogue tax, obviously) and public subsidies.

5

There is also the EU Human Rights Act, which would supercede all member states own laws; under which Article 9 provides *a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This includes the freedom to change a religion or belief, and to manifest a religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance, subject to certain restrictions that are “in accordance with law” and “necessary in a democratic society” *.

6

Thanks Mops. Stationing police outside synagogues seems to be a constant in Germany. Is this policy built into the law?

Rund um die Uhr zwei Polizisten, das ist heute Standard vor jüdischen Einrichtungen wie Schulen, Kitas, Museen oder dem Sitz des Zentralrats der Juden. Und zwar permanent, nicht nur nach Anschlägen auf Juden irgendwo auf der Welt, wenn erhöhte Wachsamkeit gilt.

7

According to the article 24/7 security of Jewish establishments has been the practice for 70 years.
"Rund um Uhr gesicherte jüdische Einrichtungen - das ist 70 Jahre nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs Alltag in Deutschland. "

8

That’s a misconception on your part: the quoted sentence means: “24/7 secured Jewish institutions - this is the everyday reality in Germany 70 years AFTER world war II”. That means it’s the reality NOW, but hasn’t been for the last 70 years. And though I’m not a law person, I’m absolutely, definitely positive that there are no special laws protecting Jews, or other ethnic or religious groups for that matter, in Germany. Those matters are all covered in the “Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz” and other laws and several paragraphs in the Grundgesetz (our constitution).

The current inforcement of security for Jewish institutions is not an act of law, but of the executive. Sadly the need for these security matters has increased, as Jewish people are targeted from at least two sides, fascists and radical Islamists, but sadly this is not an exclusive trend for Germany in these crazy days.

9

There is no such thing as the “EU Human Rights Act”.

The quoted text is from the European Convention on Human Rights, a multilateral treaty dating from 1953, several years before the EU was established (which happened in 1957). There are 47 states party to the Convention; all EU member states are included, but they only make up about half of all the parties to the Convention. The Convention is overseen and enforced by the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, neither of which is an institution of the EU.

The provisions of the Convention are not directly effective in the domestic law of the states that are party to it, unless the states themselves amend their law to provide for this.

10

I have seen police protection of synagogues in some other European countries as well.

I doubt that it’s a legal requirement. It’s a policing decision as to what degree of protection is required. The provision of visible static protection at synagogues may depend on the history of incidents at the particular synagogue and/or the current political climate.

11

Thanks EinsteinsHund fpr that correction.

12

Ok, i searched the Federal Law for the term “Juden”(Jews), and here’s what i found:

  1. Financial grants to the Central Council of Jews in Germany
  2. A law setting up a foundation for a memorial for Jews killed in the Holocaust
  3. A law repealing a bunch of laws passed by the Nazis
  4. The establishment of a naturalization test that included questions about the persecution of Jews by the Nazis
  5. A law exempting pension and health insurance funds from corporate tax for various charitable organizations, including the Central Office of Jews in Germany
  6. A law setting up a foundation for a German Historical Museum, proposing that the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Catholic Church, and the Central Council of Jews in Germany all be allowed to name two trustees
    7 As part of a larger budget, half a million Euros for a scholarship program called the “German/Jewish American Encounter Project”
    8 The establishment of a Jewish Museum in Berlin
    9 A law setting up a Radio Council, with the Central Council of Jews in Germany naming one member
  7. A law doing something that i can’t entirely understand to protect savings accounts in Saarland, listing the Central Council of Jews in Germany as one of the social welfare groups included
  8. Another law exempting the Central Council of Jews in Germany as well as other social welfare groups from reimbursement of health insurance fund remittances
  9. A law allowing the government to ban public demonstrations at sites of historic remembrance to the victims of Nazism or the Monument of the Murdered Jews of Europe
  10. A law implementing VAT, including the Central Aliens Office of the Jews in Germany as a social welfare organization under the law
  11. A law regulating claims against the Nazi Party and Nazi organizations, including the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, a Jewish puppet organization set up by the Nazis before WWII to force Jews to emigrate)
    Then I looked up jüdisches (Jewish), but all I came up with were laws related to the Jewish Museum of Berlin.

Finally, I looked up Judentum (Judaism), and I found a law extending insurance to ethnic Germans repatriated to Germany after the war also applies to people who were denied German citizenship because of their Judaism, and one that says that Naturalization classes should include lessons on the role of religion in Germany, including Catholicism, Lutheranism, Judaism, and Islam.

13

It has been constant in NYC for decades. Way before 9/11.

14

So according to your research, there are specific laws enshrined in the Grundgesetz (Basic Law/Federal Law) pertaining to Jews and Jewish life/aspects of Jewish life/dealing with Jewish matters in Germany. Is that correct?

15

None of the specifics listed by Captain Amazing come from the Grundgesetz. They’re particular laws, not Basic Law.

16

Thank you UDS for that clarification.

17

So I suppose they would come under the “Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz”(General Equal Treatment Act (GETA)??, General Law??). Would that be the case?

18

[quote=“davidmich, post:17, topic:772620”]

So I suppose they would come under the “Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz”(General Equal Treatment Act (GETA)??, General Law??). Would that be the case?[/QUOTE

Perhaps this is a better translation of AGG:
Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG)
General Act on Equal Treatment (Law to implement the European Directive on the realization the principle of equal treatment) (AGG).

19

No. They come from a variety of different provisions in the German statute book. For example item 6 in Captain Amazing’s list, a provision allowing the Central Council of Jews in Germany to nominate two of the trustees of the German Historical Museum, is found in the law which provides for the establishement and regulations of the German Historical Museum. Item 13 is found in the tax code. Item 11 will be in the law regulating health insurance systems. And so forth.

I’d expect the AGG to be written in fairly general terms. If you have a rule which says, e.g., that discrimination on the ground of religion is forbidden and that all persons have equal status before the law, then you don’t have to go on to say that discrimination against Jews is forbidden, and that Jews have equal status before the law. That’s already the case, given the general rule. The EU directive which is implemented by the AGG doesn’t mention Jews or Judaism.

20

Thanks UDS. That clarifies things a lot.Thank you all. Very helpful