Last week the Standing Committee of the CER visited Berlin.
In addition to the business that was taken care of, a
ma'ariv service was arranged to take place in the
shell of the burnt out Brunnenstrasse Synagogue that had been
gutted on the 9th November — Kristallnacht
— in 1938. The synagogue complex has been acquired by
Dr. Skoblow, a local philanthropist who intends to rebuild it
to be used by the Berlin Lauder Yeshiva, currently situated
some blocks away.
The entire yeshiva student body, plus 23 Rabbis from all over
Europe headed by Chief Rabbi J Sitruk of France, local
rabbis, and communal personalities gathered to daven
ma'ariv for the first time there and to inaugurate what
is now merely a burnt out shell but is clearly recognizable
as once having been a synagogue.
Chief Rabbi P Goldschmidt of Moscow lead a very moving
ma'ariv and the crowd was addressed by the Rosh
Yeshiva Rabbi J Spinner, Dr. Skoblow, and Dayan Ch. Ehrentreu
who gave a very emotional address.
The Standing Committee held a series of meetings with leading
political figures including the Minister of the Interior Mr.
Otto Schilli and the leader of the opposition Mrs. A Merkel.
Concern was expressed by both of them at the rise of the
antisemitic party that gained 9 percent of the vote in the
Saxony region.
The rabbis also met with the Zentralrat, The Central Board of
German Jewry.
Other visits included the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
site where a Yizkor was recited.
"Our visit to Berlin was in order to stress our interest in
the spiritual welfare of the fastest growing Jewish community
in Europe due to the influx of tens of thousands of Jews
arriving from the former Soviet Union," declared the
executive director Aba Dunner.
