Jewish life in Prenzlauer Berg, Weißensee,and Pankow

Jewish life in Berlin has a tradition that dates back to the 13th century. The expulsion and extermination of European Jews in National Socialism destroyed a flourishing Jewish culture in the city.Numerous places in the district of Pankow prove how important Berlin was as a center of modern Judaism.Germany's biggest synagogue in Prenzlauer Berg, Rykestraße 53, is amongst one of the most important places of Jewish life.Inaugurated in 1904, it maintained largely its original condition, because due to its backyard position it survived the November Pogromin 1938 relativelywithout damage.2007 ended an extensive renovation.For the Jewish community in East Berlin, it was for many years the only synagogue.An exhibition in the nearby subdistrict museum in the Prenzlauer Allee 227 relates the school history in the front part of the neo-Romanesque building complex.Also, not far away you can findthe graves of famous personalities likeMax Liebermann or Leopold Ullstein in a Jewish cemetery in theSchönhauser Allee. From the Kollwitzplatzyou can overlook the so-called Judengang (Jewish passage) on the back of the cemetery.
 
Fragments of anEpoch
 
One of the mostfrequented places inWeißensee isthe Jewish cemetery in the Herbert-Baum-Straße that was inaugurated in 1880. You can find on numerous tombstones famous names that impressively demonstrate how the Berlin Jewish community was firmly rooted in the social life of Berlin.Here, important trade or industrial families maintained their burial places just as the Jewish workers found here their last resting place.In Pankow, in the Berliner Straße 120-121,next to the end station of the U2, you can find the Jewish orphanage built in 1912, where until its closure in 1940, more than 100 children lived and studied.The owner of the famous cigarette factory next to the orphanage, the Jewish industrialist, Josef Garbáty donated the prayer hall of the House.
 
New life: The Jewish community of Berlin flourishes
 
Meanwhile, the international status of Berlin as capital and the immigration of many Jews from the CIS countries ensure a revival of Jewish life in the city. Thus, the front part of the house in the Rykestraße 53 is again today a primary school, financed by the RolandS.Lauder Foundation.The new Jewish life can be experienced in numerous cultural events, in the hospitality industry and in a very active cohesive Jewish community as well as in the revived community Assad Jisroel.