The first privately funded Jewish educational centre in Germany since World War II opened in Berlin Sunday in another new sign of a Jewish renaissance in the country.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier joined the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and Russia and some 30 rabbis from around the world at the launch of the five-million-euro (6.8-million-dollar) Rohr Chabad Centre.
The complex on a quiet side street in west Berlin includes a rabbinical school or yeshiva, a synagogue, a library, a youth recreation centre, a kosher restaurant, a tourist information centre and a lecture hall. "If we want to remember the six million Jews, it is not enough to hold memorial ceremonies," said the director of the centre, Yehuda Teichtal, referring to the victims of the Holocaust.
"We have to keep building together-Jewish education, raising children in the Jewish tradition, Jewish consciousness and Jewish identity. We are here, we are proud and we say here today, Jewish life will grow in Germany."
Steinmeier said Germany was grateful for the trust Jews were now vesting in the country six decades after the Holocaust. "The memory of the victims of this catastrophe is burned in the memory of our country," he said. "Soon the laughter of children and teenagers will be heard here-I hope that generations of Jewish families will find a spiritual and communal home here."
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