Rabbis Ordained in Germany

August 3, 2009

The nine students, graduates of the Rabbinic School in Berlin, were ordained in a festive and moving ceremony that was widely covered by the German media. The event was held by the Central Council of Jews in the country and attended by the German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, President of the Conference of European Rabbis Joseph Sitruk, rabbis from all over the continent,Munich municipality officials, and other dignitaries.

The Rabbinic School's President, Rabbi Chanoch HaKohen Ehrentreu, said at the ceremony: “I'm thrilled and elated by the importance of this event. Sixty years after the destruction, we ordain as rabbis, here on German soil, nine young yeshiva [religious school] students who grew up and were educated in German Torah [Gen.–Deut.] schools, and who will serve at communities in western and eastern Germany and the former Soviet republics.

“We, the rabbis of Europe, have endured the horror and lost our entire families at the hands of the murderers,” he added. “And today, we return here to Germany and proudly praise in the streets ofMunich the soul of our nation—the Torah and its bearers, the scholarly students—who will bequeath it to the next generations.”

By Kobi Nahshoni, Ynetnews.com

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