Leonie's View – A Message for Shavuot
Chag Sameach, everyone. I have just come back to Britain from a week in Berlin. I have walked passed the Gestapo HQ; I visited the Wannasse House where the “Final Solution” was agreed in a 90 minute meeting; I walked on platform 17, the goods railway track at Grunewald Station,where most of Berlins Jews were taken to concentration camps.
I looked into the Glass Memorial to the Book Burning in May 1938, opposite the Humbolt University. I looked down on small brass commemorative street plaques; each named a Jewish individual, indicating this was, at one point, his or her home…
Multicultural practices, including the old Jewish traditions, are now alive again in Berlin
One week in Berlin. One week and my Jewish history was everywhere around me.
50,000 Jews live in Berlin today, including 20,000 Israeli immigrants. Hebrew is heard on the busy shopping streets and the Jewish sites are major visitor attractions. The orthodox synagogue in Joachim Street is formal and attended on Shabbat by mainly old Russian Jews.
One week to remind me of a catastrophe like no other in our history, or for that matter in the history of any other nation.
Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments to the Jews at Mount Sinai
One week – 2 days prior to the holiday of Shavuot. The holiday where we became a nation, where we declared our commitment to monotheism, and where we stated our commitment to a binding set of moral codes and practices. The festival when we read the story of the Book of Ruth, the Biblical narrative about generosity, empathy, sensitivity, about care for the needy and the poor, the widow and the orphan, the disadvantaged in society.
In light of this, the name Ruth is associated with acts of kindness. However, the now disused opposite of the name Ruth – ruthless – is synonymous with the actions carried out in Nazi Germany and recalled by me in my week in Berlin.
One week. One shavua. A time for me for reflection. Chag Sameach.
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