BERLIN, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Germany's Jewish community is growing rapidly as a new generation seeks to reclaim its heritage.
The Boston Globe says the rapid expansion, however, has brought new tensions -- with animosity festering between longtime German-speaking Jews and recent immigrants from the eastern fringes of Europe.
"This is a time of difficult transition for a community that was once tiny and insular, but has suddenly grown large," said Stephan J. Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the nation's umbrella organization for Jewish groups.
Before the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall, Germany's Jewish population stood at barely 25,000. Since then, encouraged by liberal immigration laws, the number has swelled to more than 200,000, according to estimates by the government and Jewish groups, the newspaper said.
Last year, twice as many Jews settled in Germany as in Israel, according to Jewish groups.
"For decades, the remaining Jews in Germany were seen as slightly cuckoo, people who 'lived sitting on a packed suitcase,'" said Kramer. "Jews have finally unpacked their suitcases. If we haven't fully found our place in Germany, we do feel it offers a place for us."
