Germany's Jewish Population Soars

Germany's Jewish population, already the fastest-growing in the world, is expected to soar by a third in the next two years, reaching around 130,000-strong by 2005, Paul Spiegel, leader of the German Central Council of Jews, said on Monday. Germany currently has 83 Jewish communities with 100,000 members, and is now the third-largest Jewish community in Europe after France and Britain. The immigrants mostly come from countries in the former Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where anti-Semitism is rife. Since 1990, Jews from the former Soviet Union have been invited to live and work in Germany where they are offered generous benefits and the opportunity to get a higher education. Spiegel told reporters that the expected increase was a sign that German was "on the way to normality."