BERLIN - Largest Synagogue Reopens in Berlin, is the mystical center of the organization opened a Chabad Lubavitch. Meanwhile, the Jewish Museum and Holocaust Memorial attract more visitors. In the capital, where Hitler established the Third Reich, in the city where the Fuehrer and his Fascist persecution and then planned the 'Final Solution', the Holocaust, Jewish life to flourish again. Increasingly active and lively, takes root in the city that before the Nazis, was the most important center of European Jewry.
"It's a blessing to the idea that Germany has of itself," says the historian Professor Michael Stuermer, a former adviser Helmut Kohl. "It does not mean forgetting, but it has begun a process of healing the spirit." The great solemn moment will come tomorrow, the Rykestrasse in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, the chic alternative-East. There is to reopen the city's largest synagogue. It was built in 1904, when Jews were the elite of business, art and science of Berlin of the Kaiser. The architect Johann
Hoeniger wanted it as a "temple for a thousand men, a thousand women, thousands of lights." In classic style, has been lovingly restored by the architects Ruth Golan and Kay Zareh. "In Berlin, fortunately, the Jews no longer live with the feeling of having to live with their suitcases ready, "says Stuermer. The city that suffered Hitler, the Holocaust, the war, then the Wall, it became the capital of the country where the Jewish community recorded the fastest growth in the world. Already ten synagogues, 12 thousand members, an active presence in the cultural, economic and media. Take it back to the roots, and it feels strong and safe enough even to divide: comparisons and controversy between liberal and Orthodox Jews in Berlin are very bright. A new stronghold of mystical Orthodox Lubavitch is the center. With a synagogue, a Mikve (the place of the ritual bath), a library and a restaurant. And a replica of the Wailing Wall, thirty meters long. "We want to live here according to our traditions, "says Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, who moved from Brooklyn. The
Rykestrasse synagogue was the only one that the Nazis gave to the flames: they did not want to endanger the buildings 'Aryans' around. But the devastated, destroyed the sacred books, the military turned into an administrative center. Before Hitler, there were 170 synagogues, Jewish genes were known to the world, from Einstein to Rathenau. Were swept away by the ferocity of the regime: the first was, in April 1933, the expropriation of all their goods. The Aryan Germans were watching, the richest among them grew rich. Then in 1938, the pogrom of Kristallnacht. Then the Wannsee Conference, the "Final solution", the genocide with the industrial perfection made in Germany. Now, with the new Eastern diaspora, Jewish culture back to enrich Berlin. Reports in the city, according Stuermer, the enlightened bourgeois spirit, that culture, the city had lost its Jews. "But the wound needs a long time to heal: il faut donner du temps au temps."
