| |
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
The Week in Germany: Current Affairs September 15, 2006 First Rabbis Ordained in Germany in 64 Years The first rabbis to be ordained in Germany since the Nazi era took their vows at a synagogue in Dresden on September 14. Three men made the historic vows after completing a five-year course of study at the Abraham Geiger College, which was founded in Berlin in 1999 amid reservations from many Jews, according to German news agency dpa. "We are the only university-level training institute on continental Europe," said its rector, Walter Homolka. "There is an enormous demand for rabbis in Europe and the rest of the world."
The ceremony, attended by some 300 guests and several high-ranking German politicians, including Education Minister Annette Schavan and Saxony State Premier Georg Milbradt, was held at the New Synagogue Dresden in lieu of another synagogue still undergoing renovation work in Berlin. The three rabbis are due to take up different posts: Tomás Kucera, of the Czech Republic, will be based in Munich, German Daniel Alter in Oldenburg and South African Malcolm Mattitiani in Cape Town. All three are moreover members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the world's largest association of rabbis. An important step on the right path This first ordination in (over) 60 years is a very special occasion because so few people believed that Jewish life would flourish in Germany after the Holocaust, Federal President Horst Köhler wrote in a letter of greeting and congratulations to the new rabbis. Köhler said he dreams of a day when such ordinations are as commonplace in Germany as ordinations of priests or a new imam taking up his duties. Recalling the words of the late Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who set a high goal of gradual normalization and greater unselfconsciousness, Köhler said, "we all" have to work together for this, open for the new and at the same time always aware of the bitter past. He called this ordination an important step on this path. Students no longer must go abroad to become a rabbi The Abraham Geiger College, which is attached to the University of Potsdam outside the German capital, means that students no longer need to travel abroad to become a rabbi, said Homolka. Many of those who went to London or the United States never returned. For a person who spent $150,000 on his studies, a well-paying job in a U.S. Jewish community was the only alternative, according to Homolka. There are currently 12 students at the Berlin college, where they learn the practical work of a rabbi's duties. The academic aspects of their education take place at Potsdam's university, where there is a chair of rabbinical studies and liturgy. Graduates can obtain a master's degree in Jewish studies - a course which takes in Jewish texts from the Bible, Talmud and Midrash, religious philosophy and history, sociology, liturgy, synagogue music and counseling. Language lessons are provided in Hebrew, Aramaic and, on request, Yiddish. Students spend one year of the program studying at an Israeli university and also work with Jewish communities at least two weekends a month. Initial funding has come from the United States Homolka said the training program will enable the college to look after about half of the 100 Jewish communities that exist in Germany. The college needs at least 550,000 euros ($690,000) annually to operate, with most funding coming from donations, mainly from the United States, according to dpa. In future, financing will be jointly provided by the German government, the Central Council of Jews and the Leo Baeck Foundation. Rabbis have not been ordained in Germany since 1942, when the Nazis shut
down a national Jewish academy, the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft
des Judentums, in Berlin. Abraham Geiger, whom the new college which serves
as the lost Berlin academy's successor is named after, was an important
thinker in liberal Judaism who was himself a rabbi in Berlin from 1870
to 1875. Links:
|
|
More from Germany.info  Newsletters
 Printer-Friendly
Page
Email This Article |
||
|
|||||
|
|||||
