Munich (dpa / lby) - Rabbis from Europe, the USA and Israel are meeting today for a three-day meeting in Munich. At the invitation of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), around 400 participants are expected - in addition to high-ranking religious representatives, politicians such as Austria's National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka, the Federal Government's Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, and EU Deputy Commission President Margaritis Schinas. The CER President and Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt will open the meeting in the afternoon (4 p.m.) together with Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
In the evening, the Free State invites you to a gala dinner at which Charlotte Knobloch is to be honored for her life's work. The 89-year-old is President of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria and headed the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 2006 to 2010. Before that, the EU Anti-Semitism Commissioner Katharina von Schnurbein will receive the Rabbi Moshe Rosen Prize.
The theme of the conference is "Rabbinic Leadership in Times of Pandemic and War - Serving God and Community in a New Reality". Among other things, the rabbis want to advise on a code of ethics and discuss challenges such as the corona pandemic or the war in Ukraine. Further topics will be the protection of religious freedom, the fight against anti-Semitism and the future organization of community life.
Wednesday is dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. At the end of the conference, a memorial service is planned on the site of the former National Socialist concentration camp in Dachau, to which Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) is also expected.
