Germany ordains first rabbis since World War II

DRESDEN, Germany — For the first time since the end of World War II, rabbis have been ordained in Germany.

The three graduates of Potsdam’s Abraham Geiger College were officially ordained in Dresden’s New Synagogue Sept. 14 under heavy security and with an audience of about 200, including dignitaries such as German President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The ceremony was emotional for the country that was home to the Holocaust. Many dignitaries gave speeches highlighting how this event marked a historic change. The graduates were from the first rabbinical school to open in Germany after the Holocaust, and the Dresden synagogue was the first to open in eastern Germany after the fall of communism.