Centrum Judaicum Berlin

OPEN YE THE GATES …

This biblical quotation was inscribed over the doors of the New Synagogue and connected it to the city. Once the most beautiful and largest Jewish house of worship in Germany, the New Synagogue is a unique testimony to German-Jewish history. Dedicated in 1866, it symbolized how natural it was to be a German, a Berliner and a Jew at the same time. The surviving sections of the building document the violent destruction of lives and social milieus. Since September 1991, the inscription has once again been part of the urban landscape.

We regard “Open ye the gates” as the foundation of our program. We examine not only the challenges of cultural diversity and difference, but also the encounters between tradition and modernity and the various forms of Judaism. Jewish history in Berlin provides a paradigm for looking at history as a whole from a variety of perspectives – and for imagining the world through the lens of Berlin.