Tag: Cologne

In 2018, the Simon Wiesenthal Center counted Waters among the ten worst anti-Semitic phenomena of the year – a year which witnessed the Tree Of Life Synagogue massacre.

"I was born on the 6th of May [18]56 in Freiberg / Moravia. My father and mother came from Galicia."

Over its history, the Jewish community of Cologne has suffered persecutions, many expulsions, massacres and destruction.

A German pastor who defended Jews’ rights to ritual circumcision will receive the highest award of the Central Council of Jews in Germany in...

Ritual circumcisions have resumed in the Cologne region of Germany, ending a controversy started in a Cologne court in June, when judges decided ritual circumcision constituted “bodily harm” to boys and religious coercion.

An opinion poll indicates that, despite the political initiative to have the Cologne verdict overruled by a law later this year, a majority of Germans favor a ban of male circumcision. In a Europe that is becoming ever more secular, there is a real danger that religious practices will gradually be pushed aside in order to assure that the impression is not given that little children and -in ritual slaughter- animals are made to suffer.

The Jewish Hospital in Berlin has suspended all religious circumcisions of children following a ruling delivered by a German court banning the practice.

Head of the Religious Community of Islam in Germany Ali Demir predicted that a ban on circumcisions in Germany would lead to the development of "circumcision tourism in neighboring countries in Europe." ADL's Abe Foxman called on Germany's parliament to change the law, lest Jews again feel unwanted in Germany.

A Cologne district court ruled on Tuesday that parents may not have their sons circumcised for religious reasons, essentially criminalizing religious circumcisions.