Jewish life has been an inseparable part of Germany for centuries. Protecting and promoting it is a genuine task of the state – and it is more urgent than ever: antisemitic incidents are on the rise, Jewish institutions are under permanent protection, and Jewish people regularly report hostility in everyday life. To date the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) protects against discrimination on grounds of descent, but expressly names neither the promotion of Jewish life nor the fight against antisemitism as a task of the state.
WerteInitiative proposes adding a paragraph 4 to Article 3 of the Grundgesetz: “The state shall promote Jewish life and Jewish culture. It shall counter antisemitism.” The proposal supplements and gives concrete form to Article 3(3), first sentence: since the fight against racism is already safeguarded there in constitutional law, the new paragraph makes clear that no one may be disadvantaged on antisemitic grounds. For those Länder whose state constitution does not yet name the promotion and protection of Jewish life as a task of the state, the paper recommends including a corresponding provision – where appropriate extended by the word “racism”.
The draft was prepared by RA Dr Fiete Kalscheuer of the Arbeitskreis Jura (legal working group) of WerteInitiative e.V., with the participation of Prof. Dr Jan von Hein (Universität Freiburg), Prof. Dr Marietta Auer (Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie), Prof. Dr Martin Heger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Prof. Dr Christian von Coelln (Universität zu Köln).
