Today Berlin is the fastest growing
Jewish community in the
world and it has the widest
range of Jewish
activities in Germany.
Since 1993 more than 8000 visitors
have participated in "unterwegs"-tours.
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FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO PRESENT-DAY JEWISH LIFE
Around the New Synagogue in Oranienburger Street we find
different Jewish institutions from the past such as the first cemetery, an
old-age people’s home which became a deportation center, the Jewish boys’
school, an orphanage, a hospital, an orthodox rabbinical seminary, the
liberal academy for Judaism, all of which represent the variety of Jewish
life before the Nazi Period. New beginnings such as a Jewish community
center , a Jewish high school, egalitarian groups and plans by the
orthodox community Adass Jisroel for a new synagogue show present Jewish
life.
EAST EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS ON THEIR WAY TO AMERICA
From 1885 - 1925 many Jews from Eastern Europe flew from
pogroms, discrimination and hunger to Berlin in search of a better life.
Most of them wanted to emigrate to the US. (Many failed because of the
quota introduced in the twenties.) Most of them started a new life in the
Barn Quarter, where the poor lived. There, they had their own institutions
(stiblech, mikva, political groups ...) and maintained a lifestyle which
was rooted in their orthodox background and different from that of
assimilated Jews who lived in the west of Berlin.
JEWISH LIFE IN SCHOENEBERG
At the turn of the century many upper middle-class Jews moved to
Schoeneberg which was called "Jewish Switzerland": Scientists (Einstein),
artists (Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, the Comedian Harmonists), poets and
journalists (Gertrud Kolmar, Else Lasker-Schüler, Kurt Tucholsky, Alfred
Kerr) and Rabbis (Naphtali Carlebach, Alexander Altmann, Leo Baeck,
Naphtali Herz Tur-Sinai). Some years ago a memorial was set up, which
consists of 80 plaques: the front shows a symbol (bread, musical
instrument) and on the back is printed one of the Nazi laws. The plaques
depict the discrimination and persecution of the Jewish population.
JEWISH LIFE IN CHARLOTTENBURG
From 1895 to 1910 the Jewish population of Charlottenburg
increased from 4600 to 22,500. New institutions were set up (synagogues,
schools, mikvah, social services). The Kurfuerstendamm with its famous
cafés became the center of the avant-garde (writers, painters, musicians,
critics...). After the Shoah many displaced persons came from Eastern
Europe and started a Jewish life which was intended to be temporary. In
1959 the Jewish community center was inaugurated in West Berlin and so
Charlottenburg became the center of the post war Jewish community in West
Berlin. Today Berlin is - because of the Russian Jewish Immigration - the
fastest growing Jewish community of the world.
WOMEN’S HISTORY
- JEWISH WOMEN BETWEEN PERSECUTION AND RESISTANCE
- JEWISH WOMEN AROUND THE FIRST WOMEN`S MOVEMENT
- JEWISH SOCIAL WORK AND HEALTH SERVICES
- REGINA JONAS - THE FIRST WOMAN RABBI OF THE WORLD
OTHER TOPICS
- Sephardic Jews in Berlin
- Changing Concepts of Jewish Teaching and Learning: Beth
haMidrasch, Torah-Talmud-Classes, Rabbinic Seminary, Schools, Adult
Education, Liberal Academy for Judaism and important teachers such as
Moses Mendelssohn, Esriel Hildesheimer, Abraham Geiger, Leo Baeck
- How Jews lived behind the Iron Curtain: The Jewish Community in
the East of Berlin
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