A German-Trained American Rabbi in Yorkshire

In conjunction with His Royal Highness Prince el Hassan bin Talal of Jordan ( recent winner of the Abraham Geiger Award ) and Dr. Hans Küng , President of the Global Ethic Foundation, Switzerland, the Director of my school in Germany, Dr. Rabbi Walter Homolka ( hier auf Deutsch ), issued the following statement that I wished to pass on to all. We—Muslim, Jewish, and Christian—decry the violent attack targeting the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem this week. The murder of eight students is a tragedy for all people of faith. We strongly condemn this act of violence at a Jewish religious seminary. Such aggression contributes to the vicious cycle of violence that has tormented Israel-Palestine and the region. Gaza has been under Israeli military attack for a week. Dozens of Palestinians have died on Israel’s southern border with the territory, where militants have launched Qassam rocket attacks into Israeli southern towns for more than a month. Just this week, international huma...

(Photo note: I thought a photo of building in the New City would be an apt metaphore for the rest of the post.) Folks, this is a monumental moment. The Abraham Geiger Kolleg at the University of Potsdam , the rabbinical school that I will be attending beginning October 2007, will be ordaining three rabbis at the newly rebuilt synagogue in Dresden on Thursday (September 14, 2006). This is the first rabbinical ordination in Germany since the Holocaust. I want everyone to take a minute (really, please do this) and think about this. Raise your hands if you would have predicted this 20 years ago. Right—me neither. Let there be no confusion about this – this is a testament both to Jews and to Germans. This is a pure and tangible example of healing through all the things that lead to healing—hard work, sweat, necessity, opportunity, and dare I say, a universal and spiritual imperative to heal . I knew this was coming and knew it was a big deal, but the article that one...