By COLlive reporter
Photos: Shneur Haviv/COLlive
Germany’s Consul General David Gill visited Crown Heights on Wednesday, meeting with community leaders and touring local landmarks.
In attendance at the meeting were Rabbi Efraim Mintz – Director of JLI, Rabbi Zalman Abraham, director of The Wellness Institute, Rabbi Dubi Rabinowitz, Director of Sinai Scholars and Campus education, Mrs. Shaindy Jacobson, Director of JLI’s Rosh Chodesh Society, Liba Leah Gutnick, JLI administration, Rabbi Yosef Vogel, JLI Administration, and community activists Rabbi Yaacov Behrman and Shaya Gordon. The Consul General was accompanied by Anton Klix, Consul for Political Affairs at the German Consulate.
The group met at the Offices of JLI – Jewish Learning Institute in Crown Heights, and discussed various topics of concern to the Jewish community.
The group discussed the recent antisemitic incident at Lufthansa when a group of visibly Jewish people were denied boarding a flight. The incident raised worldwide condemnation, and the CEO of Lufthansa recently apologized in a conversation with Berlin Shliach Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal.
The Consul General denounced the incident at Lufthansa, noting that this behavior “is not the policy of Lufthansa.”
“Lufthansa currently has cultural training to prevent antisemitism and discrimination. They also have given consequences to the staff who were involved in the incident, and have said that something like that will never happen again,” he said.
The Consul General stated that the German government stands against antisemitism and that Holocaust education is taught in German schools.
He also spoke highly of Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, Chief Rabbi of Berlin, who is currently proving housing and care to hundreds of orphan refugees from Ukraine.
Rabbi Efraim Mintz thanked the Consul General for the great assistance the government of Germany provided after the passing of the Hanover Shliach, Rabbi Benny Wolf obm. They discussed various JLI courses which have been translated into German, and Rabbi Mintz presented the Consul General with a feature copy of a new book that’s about to be launched, “The Book of Jewish Knowledge.”
They later toured the Central Chabad Library, where they received a tour from Rabbi Berel Levin, the chief Librarian, who related the history of the library and showed the historic Chabad artifacts.
Yaacov Behrman, who organized the meeting, said he appreciated the Consul General coming out to Crown Heights and giving our community the chance for this important discussion.
Behrman also said that “regarding Lufthansa, we need to have full transparency about the incident – who was responsible, at what level was this decision to discriminate against the passengers made, and what are the consequences – before we can put the incident behind us.”
The Rebbe lived in Germany for years. We have to bring Germany closer to the Lubavitch, and have them support the Rebbe as Nosi Hador.
Nice to see you. Keep up the good work at JLI !
Great job Yaacov!
Nice to see that JLI is an accessible building.
A rare gem