New Berlin Program Sets Historic Ordination
Source: JTA
Two graduates of a new Berlin rabbinical program will be ordained in the first ordination of homegrown Orthodox rabbis in postwar Germany.The ceremony for the Rabbinerseminar zu Berlin will be held June 2 at the new Ohel Jacob Synagogue in Munich by the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which together founded the institute.
The seminary's ordination is recognized by the Conference of European Rabbis and the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany.
Other groups ordaining rabbis in recent years in Germany include the Abraham Geiger College, a Reform seminary in Potsdam that is about to hold its second ordination since 2005, and Chabad-Lubavitch, whose new Yeshiva Gedola Berlin has ordained 16 students. Some of the Lubavitch students have settled in German-speaking countries, said Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, director of the Chabad-Lubavich Berlin Jewish Education and Family Center.