By COLlive reporter
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier participated in this year’s public Menorah lighting at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s most famous landmark and in which the Nazis once marched.
The annual event held on Chanukah brings together thousands of Jewish people and bystanders each year.
Rabbi Yehuda Teichel, Director of Chabad of Berlin, noted that the president’s participation marks the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, arguably the beginning of the destruction of European Jewry.
Kristallnacht was when Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews on November 9 to November 10, 1938. Later, 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps, followed by the Holocaust.
“The participation of the president of Germany for a ceremony that is all about Jewish pride speaks for itself,” Rabbi Teichtel said. “The revival of Judaism in Berlin is supported continuously by the German government.”
The Chanukah event, organized by Shliach Rabbi Shmuel Segal, is said to be the most prominent Jewish event in the country in recent years.
VIDEO:
https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/6085
He spoke about it also at the yud red kislev farbrengen in London
Wow this is so amazing beautiful I would like to wish the community of Berlin a happy and a wonderful Chanukah
There’s a beautiful video on yeshiva.net of Rabbi YY Jackobson explaining the background of the story
COL, please have a full article, pics and video recording the event.
Berlin Shluchim, Please provide all this.
Major history, as is self-understood.
The story behind the story would be greatly appreciated too.
this to my family tonite my kids are in school ? is there a link later to replay