Germany inaugurates the largest educational complex for Jews since the Holocaust

The rabbi of Berlin, Yehuda Teichtal had a dream, build the largest Jewish educational and cultural complex in Germany since World War II, and when he told his relatives and the German media more than five years ago, they treated him with skepticism. But five years later, there it is.

Teichtal, leader of the local community of the Chabad orthodox Jewish Hasidic movement, enjoys his great work for the community in the corridors, “we are changing the narrative about Jews in Germany”the rabbi told the news agency Associated Press. And what if they have changed it, from the seventh and last floor of this Pears Jewish Campus, covered with blue tiles as a “reminder of heaven, God and his commandments” you can see a large amphitheater, a garden, the patio recess and a plot that is yet to be defined.

At the inauguration, the rabbi reflected on the role of the Jewish community in Germany, expressing his happiness because “Whoever thought that the Holocaust succeeded in uprooting Judaism in Germany is wrong. This is the Jewish response, light will always win”. And he conveyed, to those present, the words that the German President, Frank Walter Steinmeier, conveyed to him when he presented his idea of ​​creating this space: “whoever builds, remains”.

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“Our Jewish campus is about the futureit’s about joy, studying and living together,” Teichtal said along with the more than 10 Chabad families who go all over Berlin working in fields related to Jewish life.

The Pears Jewish Campus, in the Wilmersdorf neighborhood of the German capital, officially opened its doors this Sunday. This campus will group for the start of the course –end of August– to the 550 students of nursery, primary and secondary schools of the Chabad community that are scattered throughout the city.

But this complex is not only for schools, it will also have leisure activities and will have a movie theater and a music studio, a library, an indoor basketball court, a gym which can be converted into a multipurpose room for up to 600 people or even into a celebration room for weddings and bar mitzvahs. In addition, it will also have a restaurant with a kosher delicatessen.

The new campus is spread over 8,000 square meters and has cost 40 million euros, which were paid for by federal and state governments, private companies, foundations, and donations.

New life

When Teichtal, who grew up in Brooklyn, was asked to come to Germany 27 years ago, he did not take it well because his great-grandfather, along with several family members, was murdered in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. But in the end, with the help of his wife Leah, he set out to “bring light into darkness.”

Furthermore, the rabbi’s maxim is that the Pears Jewish Campus not “feel like a ghetto. We want this to be a happy place, an open houseHe says so because most Jewish institutions in Germany are still hidden behind walls for fear of possible anti-Semitic attacks. But this new complex is wide open. Built near the large community center that was built almost twenty years agowhich houses a large synagogue –nominated for the 2006 German Architecture Award–, a mikveh –space where purification baths are carried out–, a visitor center or an assembly hall.

Jessica Kalmanovich, mother of a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy who attend Chabad elementary school and nursery school in different neighborhoods of the city, said her family is looking forward to the opening of the campus. “Every morning when we walk through campus, my son asks me, ‘When will my school be in the blue building? for me to start going there?'” he said.

“Our children will receive a good Jewish education there, we will be in the center of the city and already we will have no problem finding kosher food“, he stressed. “We will be very visible as Jews in Berlin, but at the same time we will feel protected.”

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Nazi extermination

Berlin was home to the largest Jewish community in Germany before the Holocaust. In 1933, the year the Nazis came to power, about 160,500 Jews lived in Berlin. By the end of World War II in 1945, their number had dwindled to about 7,000, due to emigration and extermination by the Nazis.

Now, nearly 80 years after the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews, Berlin’s Jewish community is still a long way from what it once was, but it is estimated that there are between 30,000 to 50,000 Jews and in this boom, Teichtal has played a very important role.