An Analysis about the Fundamental Questions of the Central Association of German Jews of Jewish Faith, registered Association.
Source: L. Hollaender, Deutsch-Juedische Probleme der Gegenwart, Berlin 1929.
…What had been and was to be abandoned because of emancipation was the national element, that had been transient in Judaism. What is not transient in Judaism: its spiritual core, its moral essence, its religious truth – can definitely be embedded into the German whole. It is therefore possible and even essential that we now define ourselves as a group that has historically become a part of the German people. We are, on the one hand, German Jews in religion and origin. On the other hand, we are Jewish Germans in our political thinking. All the values of Judaism that define us as Jews within the German Nation make us German Jews. On the other hand, we have become Jewish Germans since we sincerely feel that we are an integral part of the German nation, in whose midst we have been living for centuries, and whose language, customs and culture we have adopted.
…The Central Association is the association of Jewish Germans who by preserving, promoting and maintaining the religious and historical assets of the past wish to disseminate a living Judaism that is rooted in the German people and that has a claim to a share in the cultural development of the German people due to the significance of its spiritual, historical and religious contribution. If this is the case, then inevitably the Central Association is an association of a shared state of mind in the sense that it has one explicit goal: to be culturally and otherwise implanted in the German people, while of course preserving Jewish awareness, religiosity and all other Jewish values. …This has given Jewish people two roots: one root is in the realm of spiritual convictions and requires unity; the other is in the realm of real bonds of people to their fatherland and soil. Both values…are cardinal. Thus the Central Association realised that the will for life is directed to both faith and fatherland. These are, of course, crude concepts, but one knows what they signify, what is intended by them. If the Central Association wishes to combat anti-Semitism, it must strengthen its soldiers in their conviction….
