Walter Homolka

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Rabbi Walter Homolka in 2007

Walter Homolka (born 21 May 1964, Landau an der Isar) is a German rabbi.[1]

A convert to Judaism,[2] Homolka studied in Munich, London, Lampeter and Leipzig and has a PhD from King's College London. He is an adjunct full professor at the University of Potsdam and rector at its Abraham Geiger College, which was founded in 1999.

On 14 September 2006, Homolka ordained the first three[citation needed] rabbis in Germany since the Holocaust at the New Synagogue of Dresden. Homolka is chairman of the Leo Baeck Foundation and an executive board member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 2007, he established the Jewish Institute of Cantorial Arts, of which he is the president. A member of the French Legion of Honour, he is widely published internationally and holds a variety of distinctions. The Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion conferred upon him a "Doctor Humanarum Litterarum" honoris causa.

Homolka is active in Jewish-Christian dialogue as a guest at the Central Committee of German Catholics. In 2008, he condemned the new Good Friday Prayer instituted by Pope Benedict XVI.[3]

  1. ^ Official website, whomolka.de. Accessed 7 March 2024.
  2. ^ Axelrod, Toby (14 September 2022). "Is there such a thing as too many converts to Judaism? The debate roils German Jewry". Times of Israel. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Leading German Rabbi Condemns Pope's Good Friday Prayer", spiegel.de. Accessed 7 March 2024.