German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed the importance of Jewish life in Germany during a visit on Thursday to a recently opened synagogue in his constituency just outside Berlin.
Scholz described the synagogue in Potsdam, which opened a few weeks ago, as a symbolically important step for Germany.
“It is a moving moment for me to see that Jewish life is once again finding a place and that, after the terrible history of fascism and National Socialism with the destruction of Jewish life in Germany and throughout Europe, there is once again a place for Jewish life,” Scholz said.
“That is a sign that gives us hope,” he added.
Scholz, who lives just a few hundred meters from the synagogue, came by on Thursday, flanked by his bodyguards.
Scholz said the Jewish community in Germany “can count on us” as they face what Scholz described as political threats.
Potsdam, the capital of the East German state of Brandenburg, was the only state capital in Germany without a synagogue. The city’s previous synagogues had been destroyed by the Nazis.
The Jewish community in Potsdam uses a small space at the local university as a house of prayer. The synagogue project was difficult and involved years of disagreement between different denominations within the religion.
The €17.5 million ($19.5 million) synagogue was inaugurated a few weeks ago under heavy police guard. From September 1, it will become the religious center of several Jewish communities in Potsdam and can accommodate 199 people at a time.
The building has a security gate and the windows are made of bulletproof glass.
