Historic B’Not Mitzvah Celebrated by Hameln Congregation

WUPJnews, December 8, 2005

The Progressive congregation in Hameln recently celebrated its first double bat mitzvah by calling to the Torah Evelina Boraschanska and Greta Golbereg, both recent immigrants to Germany from the former Soviet Union. Held on Shabbat Trumah, the service was led by Rabbi Irit Shillor (with the girls in the photo below); Shillor visits the Hameln congregation four times a year thanks to a grant from the World Union’s European Region. The girls prepared for the historic b’not mitzvah under the supervision of Orly Kenig, the emissary to Germany for the Netzer Olami youth movement. The service was attended by some 100 congregants and guests, and was conducted in Hebrew, German and Russian. According to congregation leader Rachel Dohme, the girls spoke in their Drashot about the importance of building a new synagogue in Hameln, emphasizing that it is people who make a synagogue valuable. “With a younger generation like this,” says Dohme, “we are sure Jewish life in Germany will grow and prosper.”