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German Jewish community opens new synagogue
New synagogue opens in western city of Krefeld seven decades after its destruction by Nazis 'We are here, in the center of this society, and we will never let anyone challenge that place again,' says chairwoman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Germany's fast-growing Jewish community opened a new synagogue Sunday in the western city of Krefeld seven decades after its destruction by the Nazis, hailing it as a symbol of flourishing Jewish life.
"We are here, in the center of this society, and we will never let anyone challenge that place again," the chairwoman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, told guests at the inauguration.
The new synagogue, which can accommodate 300 people and cost 12 million euros (17 million dollars) to build, is a testament to the fact that the Nazis failed in their bid to wipe out European Jewry, North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Juergen Ruettgers said.
"Jewish life has unquestionably assumed its place across the country," he said, calling the development a "sign of confidence and hope" in German society.
Krefeld, a city of 237,000 on the Rhine River, had no synagogue for 70 years after Nazi thugs destroyed the 19th century house of worship in the city centre during the Night of Broken Glass pogrom on November 9, 1938.
Historians consider the Night of Broken Glass -- Kristallnacht in German -- to have been a harbinger of the Holocaust in which six million European Jews were systematically slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II.
Some 600,000 Jews lived in Germany before the Holocaust but the population numbered just a few thousand in the postwar years.
Immigration from the former Soviet Union has led the German Jewish community to grow rapidly and it now counts about 110,000 members.
Several synagogues have been restored or built new in recent years in cities including Berlin, Munich and Bochum.
