By COLlive reporter
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has notified this week that he plans to participate in this year’s public Menorah lighting at the Brandenburg Gate.
The annual event held on Chanukah brings together thousands of Jewish people and bystanders each year.
Rabbi Yehuda Teichel, Director of Chabad of Berlin, said he was moved to receive the notice on the 16th of Cheshvan, the Hebrew 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 expected 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.
Just amazing