Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Celle e.V.

The organization puts together a very varied program. Lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and readings. There are regular exhibitions, a historical synagogue to visit and remembrance days respected.

Aims

The Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Celle eV advocates understanding and cooperation between Christians and Jews with mutual respect for all differences:

• Remembering the origins and connections of Judaism and Christianity, and remembering the Jewish contribution to European culture and history
• Self-reflection in the Christian churches with regard to the theologically based and historically widespread contempt and hostility towards Jews
• Preservation of the diverse testimonies of Jewish history that are still preserved. Development of free, unhindered Jewish life in Germany. Respect for the independence of ethnic minorities
• Solidarity with the State of Israel as a Jewish State

It therefore resolutely opposes all forms of antisemitism:

• Religious anti-Judaism
• Racist and political antisemitism as well as anti-Zionism right-wing extremism and its contempt for human beings
• Discrimination against individuals and groups on religious, ideological, political, social and ethnic grounds
• intolerance and fanaticism

It is ready to cooperate with groups and parties, private and public institutions that have undertaken similar tasks.

The Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Celle eV joins the German Coordination Council, which as a nationwide association represents the societies at national and international level in order to better meet their tasks and goals together.

The company pursues exclusively and directly charitable purposes within the meaning of the section “Tax-privileged purposes” of the tax code. It is selflessly active and does not primarily pursue its own economic purposes.

Funds of the association may only be used for statutory purposes. The members of the association do not receive any grants from the funds of the association. The surpluses remaining after the expenses of the respective financial year have been met may only be used for the charitable purpose of the company.

No person may be favored by expenses that do not correspond to the purpose of the statutes or by disproportionately high remuneration.

Activities

Some examples of events organized:

Truu’s children

Dutch woman Truus Wijsmuller (1896–1978) rescued more than 10,000 people, mostly Jewish children, before and during World War II. Kurt Roberg, born in Celle in 1924, is one of the rescued children, who are now between 85 and 98 years old.

Pamela Sturhooft and Jessica von Tijn made the documentary film “Truus’ Children” about Truus Wijsmuller and her rescue operations. In the months following the film’s premiere, the filmmakers came into contact with two other “Children of Truus” who owe their survival to the courage and ingenuity of Truus Wijsmuller. One of them is Kurt Roberg, who was born in Celle and fled to his uncle in the Netherlands in 1939. He had an accidental contact with Joop Wijsmuller, Truus’ husband. And so, in 1941, Kurt Roberg escaped from occupied Europe with 12 other children.
At the beginning of this year, thanks to the support of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Celle and the city of Celle, a film interview was made in which Kurt Roberg tells the story of his escape. This special story will soon also be part of the Truus Wijsmuller archive, which the filmmakers are working on in collaboration with the Jewish Museum Amsterdam. Pamela Sturhooft and Jessica von Tijn are proud to show you the first part of the interview with Kurt Roberg this evening in Celle and to talk about their important memory work.

The Rabbi Without a Shoe, Oddities from my almost kosher life

Barbara Bišycký -Ehrlich read from her book, which tells of the “normal” everyday life of a Jewish family in Germany. Tongue-in-cheek stories with a good dose of self-mockery for people who finally want to know what it’s like to be a Jew in Germany. In addition to the humorous stories, 25 guests also heard which prejudices sometimes prevail. The picture shows Bernd Horstmann, Sabine Maehnert and Katja Hufschmidt-Bergmann (both board members) with Barbara Bišycký-Ehrlich.

Small summer party with the Stellana Duo

The Stellana Duo provided a lively musical afternoon with a spirited and entertaining concert of a mixture of Yiddish and Israeli music, of klezmer and classical music by Jewish composers. The synagage was filled to the last seat and the spectators enjoyed the lively songs. This was followed by entertaining conversations over cool drinks.

A “Women’s Bible” – also for men: וראינה צאינה – Zenerene
After an introduction to the history of Yiddish, Walter Fiffer MA, M.TH presented the work with text examples. ‘Zéena u-Réena’ was not only read by women without intensive training on the Shabbat, men also studied this “Woman’s Bible”.

Jerusalem – the Gordian knot

Jerushalayim, al-Quds and Jerusalem – three names for a city that is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. But even agnostics and atheists are unlikely to leave the metropolis in the Judean mountains indifferent, which is mainly due to its beauty and historical significance. And in no other city in the world are current politics, age-old traditions and history so entangled and omnipresent. Very impressively, Dr. Ralf Balke, one of the best experts on Israel in German-language journalism, presented the discussion about the status and ownership structure. To date, there have been plenty of proposals and plans to solve the Middle East conflict, but they all mostly failed due to the complex realities.

A nocturnal journey to Jerusalem – Perspectives from the Islamic tradition
Jerusalem, a city that plays a special role for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. There were times when all three religions lived peacefully together and tolerated their traditions. Over time, Jerusalem became the pawn of religious and political claims to power. The importance of Jerusalem for Muslims was presented by Dr. Hamideh Mohagheghi in connection with the night journey of the Prophet Muhammad . The interested audience had questions that were discussed.

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