Berlin gets Jewish student house

Jewish students in Berlin this week established what is being described as the first Jewish student house in the German capital. According to the founders, the center “will serve as a venue for pro-Israel lectures and activities in response to anti-Israel tendencies commonly found on Berlin’s campuses,” as well as providing leisure activities for the city’s more-than 5,000 Jewish students.“As Berlin has become a magnet for Jewish students from throughout the world in recent years, it’s time to have a regular home for Jewish students in the city,” Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, a local cleric, told attendees at the center’s opening, which was attended by several senior government officials, including Petra Pau, vice president of the Bundestag.The three-story structure on Schlegelstrasse Street is the spiritual heir of the “House of Jewish Learning,” established by philosopher Franz Rosenzweig in Frankfurt prior to the Holocaust, German-Jewish philosophy professor Micha Brumlik said.“Our job is to build a bridge between the past and the future through this Jewish student house, showing everyone that there is a future for Jews in Germany,” he said.Chabad on Campus, a student group run by the Chabad hassidic sect, and KSpace, a student-run organization, will co-manage the center.