World

New Rabbis

Postwar Germany sees a first with rabbinic ordinations.

Toby Axelrod
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Berlin

F

or the first time in the
postwar era, rabbis were
ordained in Germany.
In a ceremony in Dresden on
Sept. 14, Daniel Alter, Tomas
Kucera and Malcolm Matitiani
received ordination from the
Abraham Geiger College for the
Training of Rabbis for Europe.
Many see the ordinations as
part of a postwar resurgence
of Judaism in Germany. The
country's Jewish population has
more than quadrupled since
1990 thanks to the influx of for-
mer Soviet Jews. That led to the
building of new synagogues and

Jewish schools.
This fall, a new Jewish com-
munity center will open in
Munich, symbolizing what many
see as a new willingness of Jews
in postwar Germany to come out
of hiding. Meanwhile, the need
for a seminary is urgent, with
about 20 rabbis spread over more
than 80 congregations.
In 2005, the Central Council
of Jews in Germany lent its sup-
port to the Geiger College. "We
urgently need rabbinical leader-
ship," said Jan Muehlstein, chair
of the Union of Progressive Jews
in Germany. The new rabbis will
help "close the gap created by
the Shoah, a gap that is painfully
evident, even more so today as
we lose the last generation of
rabbis who personally were con-

nected with prewar Jewish life in
Germany."
In 1836, Abraham Geiger, a
founder of Reform Judaism,
called for the establishment of a
Jewish theological department
at a German university. This
inspired the founding of the
Jewish Theological Seminary in
Breslau in 1854 and the Higher
Institute for Jewish Studies in
Berlin in 1870. The Nazis shut
down both institutions.
The Abraham Geiger College
for the Training of Rabbis
for Europe, which opened six
years ago, is affiliated with the
World Union for Progressive
Judaism and is an institute at the
University of Potsdam, just out-
side Berlin.
The ordination was hosted
by the central council and the
Jewish Community of Dresden.
Guests at the New Synagogue
in Dresden included Jewish,
Christian and Muslim lead-
ers. German Chancellor Angela
Merkel has called the event a
"day of recognition and joy" as
well as "a moment of hope that
these first rabbis" will be "fol-
lowed by many more."
The three graduates expressed
excitement. "I am always sur-
prised when people say I am
going to be one of the first three,'
Rabbi Kucera said in an inter-
view earlier this summer. The
public event pales in comparison
to "the new life that is coming for
me',' said Rabbi Kucera, 36, who
will serve Beth Shalom, a liberal
Jewish congregation in Munich.
Rabbi Kucera left his native
Czech Republic in 1989 and
earned a doctorate in biochem-
istry in Germany, followed by a
research residency in Nashville.
There he "saw the spectrum of
Jewish life" and was drawn to
it. He entered Abraham Geiger
College in 2002.
Rabbi Kucera's rabbinical dis-
sertation focuses on abortion
and the Jewish concept of the
soul. Science and religion go

intermarriage.
together, he says. "When I was
Rabbi Alter, 47, was born in
younger, I tried to separate the
Germany
— his parents met at
two."
a displaced persons camp near
His greatest immediate chal-
lenge will be "just to know all the Nuremberg. He will move from
Berlin to Oldenburg, where
people" in his congregation, "to
he will serve some 330 mem-
listen to their needs. They never
had a full-time rabbi." In the long bers. He also will continue to
serve a small congregation at
term, he hopes to learn "how to
Delmenhorst, with about 250
attract people to the synagogue
members. In both towns, he has
who somehow identify as Jews
been serving as a student rabbi.
but don't come to services': and
Rabbi Alter's interest in
eventually even to help with
Judaism
was sparked by a ser-
matchmaking.
mon of Rabbi Eli Seidmann, a
Rabbi Ivlatitiani, 38, left the
kitchen to become a rabbi. Living former U.S. Army chaplain in
in Pretoria, South
Africa, he had a
successful catering
business, but he
also was teach-
ing bar mitzvah
students and lead-
ing services at his
synagogue. When
the congregants
needed a rabbi,
they asked him
to fill in. Now he
will become one
of two rabbis at
Germany. The theme was "Keep
South Africa's largest progressive
your
eye on the ball!" Rabbi Alter
congregation, Temple Israel of
recalled.
"The whole sermon was
Cape Town, serving some 1,000
built
on
this
baseball term. And
families.
I
was
a
huge
sports fan': he said.
"It has been a long road, and
The
sermon
"made
it clear to me
it will be nice when I have that
what
was
missing
from
my life
piece of paper, that title he said
said
Rabbi
Alter,
whose
family
in an interview at the college this
was "not very religious!'
summer. "I was always referred
His wife, Hannah, encouraged
to as a 'student rabbi'
him
to pursue the rabbinate, to
"And the congregants will also
make
something of his "love for
be happy," added Rabbi Matitiani,
people,
for my religion and my
who has shuttled between South
belief
in
God. It gives me the
Africa and Germany. "They
chance to give to other people
have gone through the process
some of what religion gives me."
with me. In a sense, I've got an
Rabbi Alter, who wrote his
extended family."
rabbinic dissertation on the ban
The congregation reflects "the
on committing offenses to ani-
rainbow nature of South Africa':
mals, said he knows he's part of
he added. "With apartheid
a
historic event, but would have
over, it's not illegal to cross race
preferred
it otherwise. He wishes
boundaries, so we have many
"there could have been hundreds
conversions and marriages. It's
of rabbis ordained in Germany
wonderful."
over the past 70 years." E
Rabbi Matitiani's dissertation
dealt with midrashic views on

September 21 ® 2006

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