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March 18, 2005
Life continues in Berlin
Influx from east doubles Jewish population in city.
PAT JOHNSON
Dr. Hermann Simon is a "true blue Berliner," a German
Jew whose roots in the once-divided capital go back 12 generations.
His wife, Deborah Simon, was a Toronto girl, a daughter of Canadian
communists who moved to what was then East Germany out of ideological
conviction.
"They wanted to go to a socialist country, a communist country,
for a better life," Deborah Simon says of her parents. The
reality of life in communist East Berlin turned out to be "not
quite what the dream had been, what our hope had been," she
said.
The couple were in Vancouver Sunday speaking on the growing Jewish
life of Berlin. A travelling exhibit, titled New Jewish Life in
Berlin: Phoenix from the Ashes, is on display now at Beth Israel.
Their stories are two of a raft of personal tales that help explain
the somewhat surprising revival of Jewish life in the land that,
60 years ago, seemed a graveyard of Jewish civilization. The deep-rooted
native and the daughter of idealistic immigrants spoke Sunday night
at Beth Israel Synagogue during the official opening of the exhibit.
Deborah Simon is a translator and interpreter, her husband is the
director of the Neue Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum, a
multipurpose Jewish community centre created from the remnants of
Europe's largest and most opulent synagogue. Originally built over
a seven-year period from 1859 to 1866, the Neue Synagogue once accommodated
more than 3,000 worshippers. The synagogue survived Kristallnacht
– the 1938 cataclysm of anti-Semitic terror that destroyed
most of Germany's synagogues and other Jewish-identified property
– and continued as a house of worship as late as 1940. But
it was massively damaged by Allied bombing in 1943 and much of what
was left was torn down in 1958. All that remained was the impressive
Moorish facade topped by dramatic onion domes.
Reconstruction began in 1988 and the Neue Synagogue complex reopened
in 1995 as a community centre. It has been joined by several other
significant Jewish institutions, including the Jewish Museum Berlin,
which opened in 2001, and a still-under-construction, esthetically
controversial memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.
The synagogue's vast sanctuary, Hermann Simon said, was razed in
1958 because nobody at the time saw any future for Jewish life in
Germany. From a pre-war high of close to 200,000, Berlin's postwar
Jewish population, he said, was "perhaps 5,000, not more."
When the eastern and western sectors of the city were almost hermetically
divided, the West Berlin Jewish community counted about 3,000 members.
East Berlin had 203 people, Simon said, including his family and
his wife's. Since reunification, in 1991, and the dissolution of
the former Soviet Union, the Jewish population of Berlin has swelled
to about 12,000. Of these, an estimated 70 to 75 per cent are immigrants
from the former Soviet Union.
There is a curiosity about the German Jewish community, the Simons
acknowledged, both from other Germans and from those they meet abroad.
To the simple question – why Germany? – Hermann Simon
responds with dry wit.
"Typical Jewish answer," he said. "Another question:
Why not?"
Though the historical weight of German Jewry may seem a heavy burden
to carry, both Simons said stereotypical assumptions about Germany
may be misguided. There is anti-Semitism in Germany, said Deborah
Simon, but there are anti-Semites everywhere in the world. In reality,
she said, German Jews have been the subject of intense interest
from fellow Germans, who have adopted a keen interest in klezmer
music and other aspects of Jewish culture.
"I think there's a tremendous interest in Jewish matters,"
she said.
Internally, the Jewish community has faced difficulties with integrating
the rapid increase in members, most of whom speak Russian.
"It's difficult to integrate people," Deborah Simon said.
"Is there a conflict? Sometimes there is."
The magazine of Jewish life in Berlin is published in German and
Russian. While young immigrants quickly learn German, their parents
and grandparents do not, adding to the difficulty of creating a
cohesive community made up mostly of newcomers.
The Neue Synagogue facility, while now primarily home to community
organizations and services, does have a small sanctuary that is
home to a Reform congregation. Asked by an audience member about
the possibility of rebuilding the once-great sanctuary, Hermann
Simon acknowledged that money is a problem, but not the only problem.
The potential for conflict among Jewish religious factions is an
additional stress. Would it be an Orthodox synagogue, he asked,
or liberal?
Phoenix from the Ashes continues until March 23 at Beth Israel,
4350 Oak St., Vancouver. For more information, call 604-731-4161
or e-mail info@bethisrael.ca.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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