Germany Opens Biggest Jewish Cultural Centre Since Holocaust

Berlin was once home to Germany’s biggest Jewish community.

When Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal first talked about his dream of building Germany’s biggest Jewish educational and cultural complex since the Holocaust, most people who heard about the plan were sceptical.

Five years after the groundbreaking, Teichtal’s dream comes true on Sunday, as the Pears Jewish Campus opens its doors in the German capital’s Wilmersdorf neighbourhood.

A Berlin rabbi and head of the local Chabad community, he beams as he steps onto the seventh-floor balcony of the new curved, blue-tiled building, overlooking a campus amphitheatre, garden, playground and a plot that will eventually become a sports field.

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“We’re changing the narrative about Jews in Germany,” Teichtal said earlier this week.

“Too often people only think about the Holocaust and antisemitism when it comes to Jews in Germany,” the 51-year-old rabbi said. “Our Jewish campus is about the future, it’s about joy, about studying and living together.”

The campus’ construction was paid for by the federal and state governments, private companies, foundations and donations.

The Chabad community’s 550 kindergarten, elementary and high school students who are currently spread out in different buildings across the city, will all move to the campus when the new school year begins.

Jessica Kalmanovich, a mother of a 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son who attend Chabad’s elementary school and kindergarten in different neighbourhoods of the city, said her family can’t wait for the campus to open.

“Every morning, when we drive by the campus, my son asks me, ’When is my kindergarten in the blue building finally ready for me to start going there?’” she said.

The 31-year-old, born in Kazakhstan before arriving in Germany as an infant, called the new campus “a milestone” for Jews in Berlin.

“We will be very visible as Jews in Berlin but at the same time feel protected,” she added.