Berlin Jews in the News

Bambinim, the Jewish family center where I’m interning, took an active role in the Lag B’Omer festivities at Chabad in Berlin last Sunday. We marched in the Jewish parade through a main street in west Berlin. Children participants wore hats and t-shirts with the logos representing different local Jewish organizations. Marchers carried German signs with different mitzvot (or commandments) such as “Learn Torah,” “Live Peacefully Together” and so on. I was a little puzzled that both a Scottish bagpipe band and a llama also marched in the parade, but I enjoyed it none-the-less! The parade ended in a street festival in front of Chabad Berlin.

Bambinim had an arts and crafts booth set up. Ludmila, an artist originally from Moscow, decorated candles with children. Later, Razia, an artist/performer from Israel, led a puppet workshop where kids could create their own puppets. It was a great atmosphere. Hundreds of people playing, dancing, listening to music and of course, eating and shmoozing for hours.

Since Sunday, national and international press have written about the event (The Jewish Week , Berliner Morgenpost, Jüdische Allgemeine), the first Jewish parade in Germany since the end of the war, according to Die Zeit. The event’s timing made it even more significant, in light of the Neo-Nazi rallies that took place in Berlin the same weekend. Some articles discussed the evident security at the event, but most focused on the renewal of Jewish life that the event represented.