The 25 Jewish college students who took part in a historic Spring Break trip to Berlin overcame financial difficulties and personal fears to make the journey. According to organizers, the city's Jewish community is better off for it.
Students Witness the Rebirth of Jewish Life in Germany
The 25 Jewish college students who took part in a historic Spring Break trip to Berlin overcame financial difficulties and personal fears to make the journey. According to organizers, the city’s Jewish community is better off for it.
“This trip demonstrated that yes, there is a future for Jewish life in Germany,” proclaimed Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel, co-director of the Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life serving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who coordinated the delegation.
The university-based rabbi came up with the idea for the trip after returning from last year’s dedication ceremony of the new Rohr Chabad Center, which serves as the headquarters for Chabad-Lubavitch of Berlin, co-directed by Tiechtel’s brother and sister-in-law Rabbi Yehuda and Leah Tiechtel.
During their week-long trip, the students cleaned up a Jewish cemetery, visited with residents of a Jewish home for the elderly, celebrated the dedication of a Torah scroll in Frankfurt, helped with Purim preparations and toured the remains of the Saschenhausen concentration camp. They also met with local political leaders, including Berlin’s Senator of Interior Erhart Koerting and Monika Thiemen, mayor of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.
A friend
Dovid, Amazing!!!