In Nazi cradle, Germany marks Jewish renaissance

Munich's mayor Christian Ude lauded the dedication of the new synagogue as a kind of homecoming for the city's Jewish population, saying " Munich's Jews have literally returned to the heart of the city," where the main synagogue stood until Adolf Hitler ordered it destroyed in 1938.

In contrast with the community's old synagogue, which was tucked away in the backyard of a building that half-resembled a bunker, the new buildings convey a sense of openness. With their modern lines and elegantly understated travertine facades, they could easily be mistaken for museums or posh shopping centers. A series of paths and plazas also link them to the surrounding neighborhood, so residents can wander through as they would a college campus. Eventually, the restaurant and auditorium are slated to be open to the public, and the school will accept children of all religious backgrounds.

While Munich's new synagogue is the largest, new synagogues have also sprung up in several other German cities recent years. And there are other signs of the growing strength of Germany's Jewish community. In September, for instance, the first group of rabbis to be trained on German soil since WWII was ordained.

But as Germany's Jewish population has increased in might and visibility, so, too, have anti-Semitic feelings. In fact, back in 2003 German police foiled a plot to bomb the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the Jakobsplatz Jewish center. The culprits, a ring of neo-Nazis armed with thirty-odd pounds of explosives, were later convicted and sentenced to probation.

Neo-nazis also planned to protest today's festivities at the Jakobsplatz Jewish center, but Munich officials banned the rally, calling it a threat to public safety. Still, a few malcontents turned out with placards mocking Knobloch's invitation to engage the Jewish community. "But we don't want to speak with you!" read one.

These incidents appear to be signs of an increasingly active and brazen neo-Nazi movement. German police logged 8,000 "neo-Nazi crimes" – 425 of them violent attacks – in the first eight months of 2006 alone, a 20 percent increase the previous year.

And, for all the talk of openness, the block surrounding the new synagogue was ringed with steel barricade and some 1,500 police officers Thursday. Before the ceremony, men in camouflaged fatigues also prowled the building's roof. What's more, guests had to pass through metal detectors and submit to handbag searches.

The situation highlights the ongoing dilemma of German Jews in their long, slow quest for normalcy.

As President Horst Köhler noted in his remarks, "Even today our dream of a normal Jewish life in Germany clashes with reality. There is open and latent anti-Semitism and the number of violence by right-wing extremists is on the rise."

His solution? Education and personal responsibility. "It is all of our duty to get involved to keep people being abused, injured or even murdered because of their religion, origin or appearance," he noted.

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