German Jews Honor Pastor Who Backs Circumcision
A German pastor who defended Jews’ rights to ritual circumcision will receive the highest award of the Central Council of Jews in Germany in ceremonies in Berlin.
The awarding of the Leo Baeck Prize on Thursday evening will honor Nikolaus Schneider, 66, president of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany – the country’s main Protestant body – for his support for Jewish life in Germany, his dedication to Israel and his “unconditional solidarity in the circumcision debate” that embroiled the country in 2012.
Thursday’s ceremony kicks off a weekend-long “Community Day” event where some 600 Jewish leaders and community members will mark the Sabbath and network, brainstorm and discuss challenges facing Jewry in Germany and Europe.
One of the biggest recent challenges to German Jewry was last year’s attempt by activists to bar ritual circumcision. Many months of debate – sparked by a May 2012 ruling that criminalized non-medical circumcision in Cologne – closed with the passage of a law in December 2012 affirming the right to religious circumcision of boys and setting medical standards to be met by mohels.
During the debates, Schneider decried the Cologne ruling as criminalization of an age-old religious practice and said that this “attack on Jewish identity” upset him “greatly, given history, and our German history with Jewry.” Bucking popular opinion, Schneider also said he did not find this ritual to be “associated with trauma and physical injury” to a child, as the Cologne ruling stated.
The Central Council has given its Leo Baeck Prize, which comes wth a $14,000 prize, since 1957.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30