Jewish Culture Center (JCC)
Jewish Cultural Association
[German]
Jüdischer Kulturverein -
Oranienburger Str. 26 (entrance: Krausnickstraße), district: Mitte, tel:
282 66 69
While the Jewish Culture Center (Juedischer
Kulturverein) was founded after German reunification, it has its origins
in the mid-eighties in GDR. Young people, whose parents had returned from
exile to the GDR to build up a new antifascist Germany, felt the need to
meet and to share what being Jewish meant for them. They sought out a
cultural, rather than a specifically religious, form of meeting in order
to bring together a wider group of Jews and people of Jewish origin. They
founded a group "Jews for Jews: We for Ourselves" which met under the roof
of East Berlin Jewish Community on a regular basis. There was an active
and lively exchange of ideas. Later they also organized cultural events.
From time to time Rabbis, scholars and Jewish artists and activists mostly
from the United States visited and offered their support.
When the Berlin Wall fell, some of
them started the Jewish Cultural Association which is an independent group
with a concept similar to Jewish cultural centers in the US where
everybody is welcome from orthodox to secular Jewish. After re-unification
in 1990, and the rise of a new German national identity, the question of
Jewish consciousness was reframed for many Jews with a more distant
relationship to their Jewish roots. For many of those living in the former
East Berlin, the opportunities for Jewish outreach and learning provided a
way to deal with the sometimes difficult challenges of the changing
lifestyles.
The Jewish Culture Center is now the
established home of programs and special meetings dedicated to furthering
Jewish identity, community, and history through cultural events, classes,
music, religious education and celebrations, lectures and political
discussions.
An increasing number of members are
immigrants from the former Soviet Union. As a consequence a certain number
of events take place in Russian and refer to their special situation. For
some time it was possible to publish the monthly "Juedische Korrepondenz"
(Jewish correspondence) in German and Russian. From the very beginning the
Jewish Culture Center has been at the forefront in welcoming Soviet Jewish
immigrants to Germany. Russian language and the Soviet system was a part
of the East German educational curriculum, so the language and cultural
differences were less pronounced than in the former West.
The JCC is in contact with the
Lubavitch Chassidic Movement and thus get their support for the holidays (religious
instruction, glatt kosher passover seder ...).
If you are in Berlin during Chanukka,
you should not miss their Chanukka Ball.
Jüdischer
Kulturverein - Berlin
Oranienburger Str. 26
(Eingang
Krausnickstraße),
Mitte,
Tel. 282 66 69
Send an e-mail
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