Liberal Reform Judaism stands at the opposite end. Though not intending to change the contents of faith, it holds that form and interpretation should be developed; laws, customs, and institutions are adapted to changed situations. In synagogue services, for instance, Hebrew is used as well as the vernacular; ethical commandments are rated higher than e.g. food, fasting, cleanliness laws. Ethics and social justice are strongly emphasized.

Conservative Judaism stands between the two other groups. It holds more closely to old rituals and contents than Reform Judaism but admits historical change of religious customs and tradition. Since the Enlightenment, some Jews no longer conceive of Judaism as a religion, a view that was reinforced for many by the experience of Auschwitz.

In recent times, more emphasis has been placed on that which is Common to all Jews. Despite differences and contradictions, they consider themselves more and more as one people, united by history. The Zionist movement which began in the 19th century greatly influenced the situation.

Diversity within Christianity is just as great but expressed in different ways by the great Christian denominations. The self-understanding of individual Churches is determined by varying intellectual traditions and historical developments, while often originating in a delimitation from Christians of other beliefs. In our century, though, the ecumenical movement has set the Churches on the path to mutual recognition and a realization of the unity of Christians.

In developing an ecumenical community, the Christian Churches cannot evade the question of whether and in what way they are linked to the Jews. Certain statements on the relationship between the Churches and the Jews prove that the former have become aware of this problem. The unique position of Israel as people of the covenant was strongly emphasized already at the First World Conference of Churches in Amsterdam. Many Christians see the continued existence of the Jewish people after the coming of Jesus Christ as an inscrutable mystery which they understand as a sign of the immutable fidelity of God.

2. The two modes of Jewish existence

Since earliest times, Jews have been living in the land of Israel as well as outside of it. Only a part of those deported into Babylonian exile, for instance, returned to the country. Later on, a Jewish diaspora developed in Syria, Egypt, and the whole Mediterranean area, by emigration and missionary work. At the time of Jesus, the diaspora was culturally important and numerically stronger than the Jewry within the country of Israel. In our time, too, the majority of Jews live outside the country.

Jewish faith, nevertheless, inseparably links the election of the people to the election of the land. The Book of Deuteronomy clearly says that only within the country can Israel be fully obedient to God. Her prophets promise the return of the people to the land, where the Torah can be fulfilled and God will establish his kingdom. Jews have always held fast to this bond between people and land. After the failure of the Jewish wars of liberation in the first and second century AD, Jewish life was at times very precarious and existed in certain parts of the country only, mainly in Galilee. At that time Jewish teachers demanded that the people remain in the country or return there. In their prayers Jews ask every day: "Unite us from the four comers of the earth." The liturgy of the first Passover night culminates in the exclamation: "Next year in Jerusalem." Many details of the Law as welt as all festivals of the Jewish year are based on this link between people and land, so that in the traditional view Jewish existence can be fully lived only in the country of Israel.

That makes diaspora life a temporary situation which must be overcome and that is why diaspora Jews since the times of antiquity have again and again been trying to maintain contact with the land. An individual could achieve such contact by donations for those living in the country, by pilgrimages, or by return -- if only to be buried there. Again and again, immigration by sizeable groups took place, often impelled by messianic movements. The Zionist settlement movement of the last one hundred years is but a link in this long chain of attempts to restore the unity of people and land.

Yet, diaspora life was not merely considered a fate to be endured, an inscrutable divine path, or a temptation to surrender through assimilation. There always existed individual Jews and Jewish groups who saw in the diaspora a chance for the Jewish people to make known among the nations the message of the One God. Religiously, ethically, and culturally, the Jewish diaspora made considerable contributions to many nations. The origin and development of Christianity and Islam were largely stamped by continuous contact with the Jewish diaspora, just as Jews received impulses by living among other nations and religions.

Jewish settlement in the country and the situation after Auschwitz were the two decisive factors leading to the founding of the State.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, traditional anti-Judaism among Christians developed into a new form of racist anti-semitism. In its final consequence, it culminated in the mass murder of European Jewry by the National Socialist state. Following this indescribable catastrophe, the major powers finally gave support and recognition to the demand for an independent state in Palestine. The founding of the state brought to a close the development that since the end of the nineteenth century had made the old land of Israel to an ever-increasing degree a place of refuge for persecuted Jews.

It was not only the pressure of an inimical environment, though, that caused Jews to return to their land but the realization of a longing for Zion, sustained for millennia. Beyond its political function, then, the State of Israel has religious meaning for many Jews. They perceive of the Bible and post-biblical tradition in a completely new manner. More and more, Israel is becoming an intellectual center that influences the diaspora. A basic Israeli law grants all Jews the privilege to live in the country and obtain citizens' rights, thereby endeavoring to guarantee the survival of diaspora Jews in case of renewed persecutions or threats to their identity.

Politically speaking Israel is a modem secular state, organized as a parliamentary democracy, just as in antiquity the Jewish people fashioned their state on contemporary models. Yet, such a characterization does not fully describe the modem State: its name and founding document expressly place it within the tradition of Judaism and, thereby, within the context of the chosen people's history. It is the task of the State of Israel to guarantee the existence of this people in the country of their forefathers. This implication has meaning for Christians as well. After all the injustice inflicted upon the Jews -- particularly by Germans – Christians are obliged to recognize and support the internationally valid United Nations Resolution of 1948 which is intended to enable Jews to live a secure life in a state of their own.

At the same time, Christians must energetically work toward the proper settlement of justified claims by both sides, Arabs and Jews. Neither should the Palestinian Arabs alone have to bear the consequences of the conflict, nor should only Israel be held responsible for the situation. For that reason, even those not directly involved must participate in efforts to procure a durable peace in the Middle East. German Christians in particular must not evade their part in this task. They will also have to strengthen their bond with Arab Christians who by the conflict were placed in a very difficult situation.

4. Jews – Christians – Germans

We Christians pay heed to the particular difficulties arising out of the relationship between Germans and Jews. A long common history of Jews and Christians in Germany has frequently resulted in mutual stimulation as well as antagonism. Ever recurring enmity against Jews is due not only to religious causes but to economic, political, and cultural ones as well. Based on Christian-Germanic and racist ideologies, Jew-hatred in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries became especially virulent. In its ultimate consequence, it led to the persecutions of Jews after 1933 and, finally, to the murder of about six million Jews in Europe.

Up to the beginning of the Second World War, many German Jews were able to escape, especially through emigration, the fate that threatened them. During the War, however, men, women, and children in Germany and all the occupied countries were deported to extermination camps and murdered. Only a few Jews during that time were still able to emigrate or go into hiding. Together with the Jews, millions of non-Jews became the victims of persecution.

Only a few Germans had full knowledge of the entire plan of destruction but most of them knew of the legislation and public Jew-baiting in 1933, the burning of synagogues and plundering of stores in November 1938, and the sudden disappearance of Jewish neighbors and school fellows. Rumors and foreign news broadcasts also added to the available information. Yet, most Germans did not believe or did not want to believe the planned destruction of European Jewry, the so-called "final solution".They set their mind at rest with the news of a resettlement of Jews in Eastern Europe; the Christian Churches were largely silent. Only a few people who thereby endangered their own life, helped Jews to flee or kept them in hiding.

The extermination of six million Jews and the almost complete destruction of Jewish culture in Europe caused a profound trauma in the mind of the Jewish people all over the world. Its effects, which will make themselves felt for generations to come, often find expression in insecurity and anxiety as well as over-sensitivity toward any endangerment of Jewish existence.

Jews in Israel and the diaspora identify the catastrophe of the holocaust by the name of Auschwitz in Poland, the largest of all the extermination camps. Similar to Hiroshima, Auschwitz became the symbol for the experienced horrors of extermination. It also was a turning point in historical and theological thinking, especially in Judaism.

Out of these culpable omissions of the past, special obligations arise for us Christians in Germany, namely to fight newly developing antisemitism, even under the guise of politically and socially motivated anti-Zionism. We must cooperate in a new relationship with Jews.

5. Common tasks

Today's efforts to re-fashion the relationship between Christians and Jews have made both of them aware again that, despite all contrasts, they hold much in common. It follows that this common ground must be concretely developed in the present and for the future. After all that has happened it behooves us to proceed with great care. Only tentative beginnings can be indicated. The belief that man as the image of God bears responsibility for the whole earth, including the shape of human life, could serve as a point of departure.

People of various religions and beliefs in all continents are fighting for a more humane world and Christians and Jews must take part. Their faith in the One God who created one humanity, challenges them – as well as the Muslims – to stand up for solidarity with all men. Without the conviction that every human being is of equal worth before God, the development of human rights is unthinkable in our time.

In their "General Declaration of Human Rights" of December 10,1948, the United Nations proclaimed the rights of all men. It is all the more frightening to see how much the reality remains in arrear of this program. That applies to lack of social justice, to discrimination, persecution, and maltreatment for racist, religious, and political reasons.

Holy Scripture, to which Jews and Christians refer their life, emphasizes the love of God for the disadvantaged and deprived. It is a task, then, for Christians and Jews to fight against the power of those who succeed and enrich themselves at the expense of the weak. Another important task, despite all evident difficulties, must be the joint effort of Christians, Jews, and Muslims on behalf of justice and peace in the Middle East.

The ever more apparent threat by technology to human existence makes it imperative to comprehend the world once more as a creation of God, to deal with it appropriately and according to the mandate received from God. That means that we turn away from a position in which man makes himself the measure of all things, exploits the world for his own good exclusively, and thereby becomes dependent on what he himself has produced. It is primarily a question of Christians and Jews becoming aware of their common responsibility for the development of society and its realization, which will result in further areas of joint action.

6. Encounter and witness

Christians and Jews interpret and confess in different ways their faith in the One God who reveals himself in history. The Torah, as the centre of Jewish faith, is a divine plan and tool for the development and fulfillment of the world. Jesus Christ takes that place in Christianity, as salvation for all men. In the face of such common ground as well as differences, the encounter between Christians and Jews must not be confined to a mere social meeting. Joint listening to Holy Scripture may lead to an enrichment and clarification of one's own faith. The more open and intensive such an encounter will be, the more candid can we discuss that which separates the two groups.

Yet, both must witness to their own faith: The divine charge makes the believer a witness who by word and deed must realize his identity as Christian or Jew. An encounter on this basis can hope to be fruitful only if the long and painful history of mutual relations is conscientiously taken into account.

To spread the faith among the nations, was a characteristic of Judaism at the time of Jesus. The early Christian community followed along the same path, to fulfil the mission received from its Risen Lord. It resulted in widespread Christian missionary activity among Jews and Gentiles and brought about the formation of communities composed partly of Jews and partly of Gentiles.

At the beginning of the Church, Jews could be baptized in the name of Jesus and continue to belong to the Jewish people. In the course of a divergent development, conversion to Christianity gradually implied a loss of Jewish identity.

With the growing expansion of Christianity, the Jews became a minority. In the end, Judaism became the only religious minority tolerated under the aegis of a state church that defined all areas of community life. Under this unequal distribution of power, a great deal of pressure was put on the Jews in the course of centuries. Apart from persecutions and expulsions, forced conversions took place as well as religious discussions which were to prove the superiority of Christianity. The proper meaning of a Christian witness toward Jews was thereby often obscured and turned into its opposite.

Changed intellectual and social conditions in the modern world generated serious attempts among Protestants to regain the original meaning of a Christian witness toward Jews. That applies particularly to the era of a developing Pietism which, by referring back to the Reformation, re-emphasized the freedom of the Gospels. The effects of Christian social superiority were somewhat softened by the personal witness of individual Christians who turned toward the Jews. From such religious motifs developed the mission to the Jews which led to fruitful encounters between Christians and Jews. A renewed Christian interest in Judaism, particularly from a scholarly point of view, was thereby awakened. Since the Enlightenment and due in part only to the mission to the Jews, more and more Jews converted to Christianity for social reasons.

After a period of growing antisemitism during the 19th and 20th centuries during which some Christians protected individual Jews and after the terrible events of National Socialist persecution of the Jews, the situation has changed in many ways. The Church has lost much of her former importance in public life and her extensive failure during the Jewish persecutions has again and to a very serious degree shaken her unprejudiced witness toward the Jews.

The witness to our own faith, necessary for a fruitful encounter, has become severely encumbered by shortcomings and faulty elements of Christian customs in the past. Missionary practices exist even today which give Jews justified cause for suspicion. Such practices, however, are decidedly rejected by the Church and even by those individuals who favor a missionary witness toward the Jews. Such misuse, however, does not release Christians from an authentic endeavor to render account according to the Gospels, "for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3:15). Faith must not remain silent.

After all that has happened, there are many different opinions on the proper way of Christian witness. The discussion during the last few years has centered mainly on the terms "mission" and "dialogue"; these were often interpreted as mutually exclusive. We have now come to understand mission and dialogue as two dimensions of one Christian witness and this insight corresponds to the more recent view of Christian mission generally.

Mission and dialogue as descriptions of Christian witness have an ominous sound to Jewish ears. Christians must, therefore, re-assess the meaning with regard to the Jews, of their witness to Jesus Christ as salvation for all mankind, the terms by which to identify their witness, and the methods of procedure.

The Church must not fail to admit and candidly state that she stands in need of talking to the Jews. Such dialogue will transmit experiences with the God of the Bible which could help every Christian to a more profound insight into his own identity. This aspect is of fundamental importance for the continuing encounter between Christians and Jews.