Germany ordains three rabbis

DRESDEN, Germany, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Three rabbis were ordained Thursday in Dresden, Germany, marking another break from the country's Nazi past.

The three graduated from the Abraham Geiger College in Berlin, attached to the nearby University of Potsdam. The college was founded in 1999 as a liberal rabbinical seminary involved in educating rabbis for Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe.

The last Jewish seminary in Germany was shut in 1942 and no rabbis have been ordained in the country since the Holocaust, reports Deutsche Welle.

German President Horst Kohler called the first ordination in 64 years a special occasion.

"After the Holocaust, many people could not imagine that Jewish life would one day blossom in Germany again," he said.

"Together we must make sure that we achieve this; remain open for change, but also continue to remember the bitter past."

Of the three new rabbis, Czech-born Tom Kucera will be based in Munich, Daniel Alter in Oldenburg and South African Malcolm Matitani in Cape Town, the report said.

Germany currently has a Jewish population of 100,000, served by about 25 rabbis.