By COLlive staff
A groundbreaking ceremony taking place next month in Berlin will signal the continued growth of the Jewish community in Germany post World War II.
The Pears Jewish Campus which will be built adjacent to the Chabad Jewish Education Center in Berlin will cost over $21 million and have a footprint of 7,000 square meters and a height of 6 stories.
“Much has been said about fighting anti-Semitism in Germany, and this is something tachles, this is something concrete,” said Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, executive director of Chabad Lubavitch Berlin, according to JTA.
Scheduled to open in 2020, the building will house a school for up to 500 students, a gym, library and event spaces.
JTA reported that the main donors are the British-based Pears Foundation, the German federal and state governments, and other private and public foundations.
Architect Sergei Tchoban donated his design of a “bean-shaped” structure said its partially blue surface will symbolize Jewish themes, from the Israeli flag to the colors of the tallis, according to JTA.
The Berliner Morgenpost reported that Rabbi Teichtal dreams of the day that security measures around the building will not be necessary. “Prejudices come because there is fear of contact – which we want to break down, the answer to darkness is light, which is tolerance to intolerance,” he said.
Plans for the new center were shown to Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau during his recent visit to Germany to ordain a group of rabbis in Hamburg. Germany has an estimated 200,000 Jews with some 20,000 living in Berlin.
VIDEO:
This building will be the center of yiddishkeit