Dresden, Germany
Rabbis were ordained in Germany this week for the first time since World War II. Three graduates of the Abraham Geiger training college in Berlin, which opened six years ago, received ordination at a ceremony in Dresden. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the event a “day of recognition and joy” and said she hoped that the three rabbis would be “followed by many more.” Germany’s Jewish population has quadrupled to about 100,000 since 1990, mostly because of immigration from the former Soviet Union. There is now a severe shortage of rabbis.
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