About us

What We Stand For

Our services are easy to understand. Liberal Jews pray and recite numerous texts in the national language - in our case, in German. We read the Torah in the original and with translation. We value not just “reciting” the texts, but understanding them as best as possible, engaging with them, and possibly even challenging them.

Equality in Worship

Liberal Jews are equal, even in worship. Women count towards the Minyan, the count of ten adult Jewish worshippers, who carry the service. These ten worshippers are necessary in Jewish worship so that we can recite central Jewish texts. In Orthodox Judaism, only men count towards the Minyan. In our community, women naturally lead prayers, and men naturally light the Shabbat candles. Liberal communities, like ours, explicitly welcome trans people, lesbians, and gays.

Divine Origin and Historical Emergence

The Jewish texts are very important to us: foremost the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), the Talmud, the Schulchan Aruch. Liberal Judaism stands for the historical-critical exploration of these texts. Precisely because Jewish literature is important to us, we consider how it historically emerged. We live in the tension between what is historically probable and what our sages say. Thus, Jewish tradition teaches that Moses received the Torah (instruction or teaching) at Sinai. However, historians assume that the Israelites did not yet have a script at the time of Moses and that the Five Books of Moses were written down later. For liberal Jews, the statement “Moses received the Torah at Sinai” is an expression of appreciation. One can very well regard the Torah as divine and still consider it in its historical development.