Addressing schoolchildren at the first religious Jewish school established in Germany since World War II, Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau began a series of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht by emphasizing the importance of the renewal of Jewish education there.
Accompanied by Rabbi Yehuda Teichtel, director of Chabad-Lubavitch and rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin, Lau lit six candles in memory of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. He also recited the Shema with the children in the memory of the victims.
He emphasized to the kids the importance of Jewish education in Germany: “Man is compared to a tree. Just as a tree needs roots that are deep within the soil, so does a person need deep roots. We, the Jews, have deep roots. You should be very happy that you have somewhere to learn about your heritage.”
The school, founded by Chabad in 2005, currently has an enrollment of 160 students. During the war, the same building served as offices of the Nazi regime.
At the end of the official ceremony, Lau gave a talk on the weekly Torah portion in one of the classrooms.
In an interview with the German media, the rabbi added: “The connection of the Jews in Germany to their heritage is the appropriate response to the darkness that prevailed here 75 years ago.”
A Visit to 'Platform 17'
From there, the visitors went on to the monument on Platform 17 of the Grunwald railway station in Berlin. They were joined by a delegation that included chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.
.There, Lau and community rabbis Teichtel and Yitzhak Ehrenberg recited prayers for the six million victims of the Holocaust. Gantz gave a speech in their honor.
Platform 17 at Grunwald station was one of the main points where the Nazis deported the Jews of Berlin to ghettos in Lodz, Warsaw and Riga, and later on, directly to the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps. Today, the platform is a memorial site.
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