Autumn 2001

GERMANY

Lauder Fellowship Program Reaches Germany’s New Jewish Community

Ten years ago, some 25,000 Jews lived in what was then West and East Germany. Today, bolstered by new arrivals from every corner of the Former Soviet Union, the number has nearly tripled and exceeds 70,000. This has made the German-Jewish community the fastest growing in all of Europe.

With the support of the Federal Republic of Germany, these new Russian-speaking immigrants have been given homes and social welfare benefits in 87 small and isolated communities throughout the 16 German states. As a result of being so widely dispersed, these immigrants have had great difficulty in establishing the Jewish identities they were denied in their former homeland.

In response to this increasing problem, the Foundation established offices and various programs in key cities throughout Germany in order to serve the educational needs of the Russian Jews.

To help facilitate and inspire new programming, the Foundation created the Lauder Fellowship Program in the year 2000. The program, which recently completed its second year, places young American Jewish leaders throughout Germany to serve as educators for a year. All Fellows are fluent in either Russian or German.

In Berlin, Fellows assume staff positions at the Lauder Beit Midrash program in the Lauder Judisches Lehraus. They conduct classes, lead study sessions, and tutor young Jewish men from across Germany who are enrolled in the program. Here students with little or no background in Jewish studies are able to achieve a high level of Jewish literacy in one to two years.

In Frankfurt, Fellows staff the Lauder Chorev Midrasha, which trains young German Jewish women in Jewish texts and traditions. The Midrasha serves as a counterpart to the Lauder Beit Midrash in Berlin.

In addition, the Fellows run various programs aimed at fulfilling the Foundation’s dream of reaching at least one person from each of Germany’s Jewish communities. The monthly Klei Kodesh Seminars, for example, provide practical knowledge and learning for future leaders of small communities. Participants return home able to lead a Kabbalat Shabbat service, hold a Passover Seder, and lecture on basic Judaism.

The Lauder Fellows are attracting attention from German politicos as well. This past year, the program was awarded a grant and asked to participate in "The Bridge of Understanding", a project of the German government. The Fellows also attended a seminar on "Germany Today" which is designed to give Germans a better understanding of the current state of Jewish affairs and to foster friendships in post-Holocaust Germany.

It is the Lauder Foundation’s hope that these Fellows will return to the United States inspired to continue their work in the Jewish community. Many have already expressed an interest in doing so and are pursuing careers in formal Jewish education and Jewish communal life. (See interview with returning Fellow below.)

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Interview with Returning Lauder Fellow

For Yosie Levine, spending a year in Germany as a Lauder Fellow was just one more example of his commitment to Jewish education. The Los Angeles native spent summers working at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation-sponsored camps in Germany, and had spent a winter in Krakow, Poland teaching the members of the Jewish community.

This past year, as one of six Lauder Fellows, Yosie lived and worked in Berlin, where he was a part of the Foundation’s Beit Midrash Program at the Lauder Judisches Lehrhaus. There he taught and studied with young Jewish men from the Former Soviet Union in an all-day Jewish learning program.

"The hope is that these students will become the next generation of Jewish leaders in Germany. There is no one else to fill that role," says Yosie. "Their parents grew up under communism and never had the chance to experience Judaism. This new generation needs to fill the shoes of their ancestors, and many of them are meeting that challenge."

A graduate of Columbia University, Yosie will attend Yeshiva University this fall, where he will begin the REITS Rabbinical Program and work towards a Master’s Degree in Jewish Literature.

In addition Yosie will spend the year as a member of the prestigious Wexner Fellows, a program geared for those who have been identified as having the potential to become great leaders in the Jewish community. This select group of 75 receive leadership training and attend two annual meetings throughout the yearlong program.

Yosie says that his year in Germany strengthened his decision to go to Rabbinical School, after which he hopes to assume a pulpit. "My experience working for The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation has reaffirmed my notion that one person or one organization can make a very big impact on a community."

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Dedication of the Lauder Kindergarten of the Jewish Community of Hamburg

More than 200 people joined Ronald S. Lauder on June 5, 2001 for the dedication of The Lauder Kindergarten of the Jewish Community of Hamburg. Among the guests were German Jewish leaders, local celebrities and politicians including Lord Mayor of Hamburg, Ortwin Runde.

Students greeted Mr. Lauder with hugs and colorful paper flowers hand-made for the occasion. Those present were also treated to a spirited rendition of “Am Yisrael Chai,” which the students learned in their kindergarten class.

Prior to the dedication ceremony, Mr. Lauder and Dr. George Bán, Executive Vice President of the Foundation, hosted a luncheon for leaders of the Hamburg Jewish Community. He praised the cooperation between the Jewish Community of Hamburg and the Lauder Foundation stating, "This model of partnership should set the tone for all future efforts between Central and Eastern European communities and their counterparts on other continents."

The school, which is the first Jewish kindergarten to be opened in Germany since World War II, has already reached its capacity of 22 students, and has a waiting list of 30. Discussions for expansion are already underway!

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