germany is kicking off a year of
anniversary events marking
1700 years of jewish life and culture in
the country
the nationwide celebration will include
performances art installations
kosher food tasting sessions and many
other events
the campaign deliberately deliberately
aims to look beyond the persecution of
jews during the holocaust
instead the focus is on the diversity of
jewish life in germany's past
and present
judaism has many faces in germany today
helena shawnee brown identifies as queer
she's soon to become a rabbi
and she's an avid instagram user she
posts about religion sexuality and life
in berlin
and is representative of a generation
connected by all of these aspects
what many people learn about judaism at
school is really terrible so they're not
really learning anything
or they're taught about national
socialism but nothing about judaism as
it is lived today
that's why it kind of became my goal to
show jewish life just how it is
helena grew up in a religious household
she believes there are too few women in
high positions
and she wants to change that after
completing her studies the 23 year old
will likely be germany's youngest female
rabbi
she also wants to be the contact person
she herself never had
i'm very clear about the idea that
nobody should have to choose between
their jewish and queer identities
you can't just choose what sexuality
you're born with
you develop with your sexuality and if
you are jewish then you should be able
to live both lives
it's also thanks to women like giza
ettabeg that the jewish community has
come
so far she had to fight hard to be
recognized as a rabbi
at all
there were people who left the room when
i entered so i made sure that i was
always there early because then i was
already seated and the others had to
think about whether to sit down and join
in or not
giza edeberg converted to judaism now
she's the rabbi of berlin's new
synagogue
berlin is also where the very first
female rabbi was ordained in 1935
regina yonas jonas however was limited
to teaching religion
and rabbinical pastoral care
there she is and you can basically see
her main point
that god did not query gender she just
wanted to be a rabbi
she was the only female one but that has
to do with the showa
there were probably other young women
who thought and dreamed of doing the
same thing
and for me it's just wonderful not to be
the first
the holocaust is forever present for
jews in germany
ragina yonas was also murdered by the
nazis
she was forced to pay for her faith with
her life
and what's it like today the
judaism in germany today is more diverse
than it has been
in decades people like helena will never
let that be taken from them
again with more i'm joined by shelly
kipfember she's an israeli-born
journalist who grew up in former west
berlin and works for
various media outlets here in germany
shelley thanks for joining dw
uh what does this day mean for you
actually today as such is not of great
importance for me rather the fact that
jewish life
on the territory of today's germany so
all this is really astonishing for many
people also for me i have to admit
and makes me also think because it is a
very difficult
violent history as we know the history
marked by
discrimination exclusion and persecution
but also by
participation now you've spent most of
your life
in germany what changes have you noticed
in people's perceptions here
of jews and judaism and what hasn't
changed enough
well what has changed i think is a view
a perspective of nowadays
jewish alive because it can
look so different we have religious
people we have non-religious very
secular people many artists
from all over many young jewish
um well human beings come to germany to
join here it has
become very popular to be here in
germany
also as a jew and i think many
of those younger jewish people really
commit
to what this country and say yes
we are a natural part of it and i think
this has really changed because i
grew up rather with this view
on jewish life in germany in terms of
well we sit on packed suitcases
and we doubt if we really belong to this
country
well that sort of leads nicely into what
i wanted to ask you next would you
recommend
germany today as a place for jewish
people to live
yes of course i would although we have
to
admit that anti-semitism as we heard
a few minutes earlier uh in the film
has become louder i think it was
it has been always there but nobody
talked about it so loudly
and this has really changed but on the
other hand side we have a
very let's say lively and a various
and an interesting and a very diverse
jewish cultural life in germany and this
is something
everybody is invited to all right thank
you very much journalist shelley
kifferberg for that uh personal
perspective
you're welcome