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Jewish Community Center
Fasanenstrasse 79 / 80, Charlottenburg;
Public Transport: U 15 or U 9 to Kurfürstendamm, S-Bahn Zoologischer Garten
Tel: 0049 30 - 880 28 - 0
 The
Community Centre of the Jewish Community of Berlin was inaugurated in 1959.
The Jewish "Volkshochschule" (JVHS), an institution dedicated to adult
education, is on the premises. It organizes lectures, presentation of book
releases, workshops, language courses (Hebrew, Yiddish, German for
Immigrants), as well as a range of cultural activities, such as the Jewish
Film Festival once a year in June. Three program leaflets are published each
year. The JVHS is a fixture in Berlin’s cultural life.
The
Library of the Jewish Community is located within the Community Center.
Not only is there a vast collection of books and media of Jewish interest
available, but also a wide range of German language, as well as
international, Jewish Newspapers and Magazines. People residing in Berlin
may borrow books to take home, everyone else can study material on the
premises. The library has a side branch on Oranienburger Strasse.
The kosher restaurant
Arche Noah is located on the first floor. They serve also meat dishes.
On Tuesday evenings, they offer a several course buffet for a fixed prize.
The meat served originates from a biological farm in Brandenburg. An
Internet cafe is located in the lobby.
On the right side of the courtyard a memorial wall has
been erected with the names of all the concentration camps and ghettos, into
which more than 58.000 Jews from Berlin were deported. Memorial services are
being held in that courtyard. And for some years now, a 3 m tall Chanukia is
being illuminated during nights. The courtyard spots a sculpture showing a
Torah scroll, on which a verse from the 4th book of Moses is engraved.
"One Law and one ordinance shall be
both for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you"
(Numbers XV,16)
A memorial plaque remembers Recha
Freier, the founder of the Youth Aliyah Mouvement in 1933. She saved
more than 7.000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany.
Formerly, Fasanenstr. 79 was the location of a magnificent
synagogue in the moorish style. The synagogue had been inaugurated in 1912.
The Jewish population of Charlottenburg had grown between 1885 and 1910 from
4.678 to 22.580. It had become fashionable to move to the "New West" at the
turn of the century...
When
Rabbi
Leo Baeck came to Berlin in 1912, he used to officiate in this same
synagogue. The synagogue became a victim of arson and destruction during the
Pogrom of 9th November 1938 (Kristallnacht). The ruins were blown up in
the 1950s.
Fasanenstraße 1912 |
Innenraum der Synagoge |
Innenraum der Synagoge nach der Zerstörung
After 1945, most of the surviving Jews wanted to leave
Germany as quickly as possible. Jewish Communities were thus seen as
"temporary communities". During the first years following the liberation, a
number of Jews came from Eastern Europe, following continuing progroms in
their home towns. Most of them only passed through Germany and left it later
on. But some stayed and together with surviving Jews, who had lived in
Germany prior to Nazi period, started to hold religious services, built up a
Kindergarten, and constructed social, cultural and educational institutions.
After the break down of the wall, a magnitude of Jews arrived from the
states of the former Soviet Union. They now form the majority of the 13.000
member counting Jewish community. (december 2002)
hagalil.com
16-12-02
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