ZGram - 12/22/2004 - "Cash-strapped Germany to shut door on Russian Jews"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

  December 22, 2004

  Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

No comment needed on this one!

[START]	 

Times On-line, World News 

  December 20, 2004

  Cash-strapped Germany to shut door on Russian Jews

  From Roger Boyes in Berlin 

  GERMANY is to restrict the number of Russian Jews entering the 
country, putting an end to a policy that helped to create one of 
Europe’s fastest-growing and most dynamic Jewish communities.

  The new ruling, expected to come into effect in January 2006, is 
prompted partly by a need to save money but also because of fears 
that the rapidly expanding Jewish community could stir anti-Semitic 
sentiment in Germany.

  Under the new rules, acutely sensitive in the country where the 
Holocaust was planned, Russian Jews over the age of 45 will no longer 
be allowed to settle in Germany. Nor will those living on 
unemployment benefits or social welfare.

  Would-be immigrants will have to provide a certificate confirming 
their Jewish identity issued by their local Russian Jewish community. 
“Only rich, young Jews will be welcome in Germany,” said a report in 
the Berliner Zeitung, quoting a member of the Berlin Jewish community.

  The Jewish religious community, all but destroyed by the Nazis, has 
been rebuilt after unification in 1990. About 200,000 Russian and 
Ukrainian Jews have been allowed to settle over the past decade, 
contributing to a remarkable revival of Jewish culture in Germany. 
The immigrants are taught German, instructed in Jewish religious 
practices and paid a resettlement allowance until they find a job or 
qualify for full German social assistance.

  However, the speed with which the community has grown has unnerved 
the authorities. The number of immigrants and refugees from other 
countries has stayed constant at about 400,000 over the past few 
years; it is Jewish immigration alone that has grown by leaps and 
bounds.

  This and their seemingly privileged existence (compared with other 
refugees or asylum-seekers) has contributed to some anti-Semitic 
stirrings. Four years ago an unknown group exploded nail bombs aimed 
at Russian Jews returning from German language classes in Düsseldorf.

   [END]