Pogromnacht anniversary visit
The Rabinowitzes spent an hour with Rabbi Shaul Nekrich in the current synagogue, rebuilt in 2000 on the same block as the memorial.
Jill and Eli Rabinowitz, co-founders of the We Are Here! Foundation, recently visited the site of the Great Synagogue of Kassel Germany where 86 years ago, on November 7, 1938, Pogromnacht began.
The inscription on the plaque dated 1988 translates as: “This is where the Great Synagogue of the Kassel Jewish community stood, completed in 1839 and having 2301 members in May 1933.”
Many had already fled the city when activists from the Nazi Party broke into the synagogue. They broke open the ark, setting fire to Torah scrolls and holy objects.
The Rabinowitzes spent an hour with Rabbi Shaul Nekrich in the current synagogue, rebuilt in 2000 on the same block as the memorial.
The day before, they visited the Arolsen Archives, the international centre on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive record of the victims and survivors of National Socialism.
The Jewish community of Kassel, in existence since 1262, was destroyed in the Holocaust.
The community of Kassel today consists mostly of Jews from the former Soviet Union, who migrated there in the 1990s.
Eli said, “The memorial brought home to Jill and me what a dangerous place the world has again become, and how we need to reverse the growing antisemitism.
“Our In My Pocket project educates children to be kind and empathetic to others, sharing our knowledge of what happened right here where we were standing.”
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