Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life

The Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life (German: Institut zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben) was a cross-church establishment by eleven German Protestant churches in Nazi Germany, founded at the instigation of the German Christian movement. It was set up in Eisenach under Siegfried Leffler and Walter Grundmann. Georg Bertram, professor of New Testament at the University of Giessen, who led the Institute from 1943 until the Institute's dissolution in May 1945, wrote about its goals in March 1944: "'This war is Jewry's war against Europe.' This sentence contains a truth which is again and again confirmed by the research of the Institute. This research work is not only adjusted to the frontal attack, but also to the strengthening of the inner front for attack and defence against all the covert Jewry and Jewish being, which has oozed into the Occidental Culture in the course of centuries, ... thus the Institute, in addition to the study and elimination of the Jewish influence, also has the positive task of understanding the own Christian German being and the organisation of a pious German life based on this knowledge."

The Institute produced a Bible without the Old Testament and remade the New Testament, removing the genealogies of Jesus that showed his Davidic descent. It removed Jewish names and places, quotations from the Old Testament (unless they showed Jews in a bad light), and any mentions of fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. It remade Jesus into a militaristic, heroic figure fighting the Jews using Nazified language.

In 1942, the Institute produced a hymn book, Grosser Gott wir loben Dich, which likewise removed any references to Zion, Jehovah, Jerusalem, Temple and Psalm. Words were substantially rewritten and many 19th- and 20th-century authors were represented who were previously not. It was about half the size of previous hymn books.

The Lutherhaus Eisenach displayed the exhibition ''Study and Eradication. The Church’s ‘Dejudaization Institute’, 1939–1945'', which examines the institute’s historical background, origins, work and impact, from 2019 to 2022.

Founding churches
The Evangelical Church in Central Germany, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Saxony, Evangelical Regional Church of Anhalt, Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg, Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Protestant Regional Church) and Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria and Helvetic Confessions in Austria. The Union of Evangelical Churches was composed of individual member churches.