Dear friends,
this is a short newsletter after winter is leaving while spring slowly arrives - birds also are coming back to Berlin, the first flowers are blooming. We hope you had a nice Purim.
About our private life
Rabbi Rothschild before Kabbalat Shabbat service at Mendelssohn-Remise
In our last newsletter we informed about new services held in Berlin's Jewish Community. On February 20, we attended the first service of the "Egalitarian Minyan" led by Rabbi Walther Rothschild.
It was a big success, the location was the former bank of the Mendelssohn family. Almost 60 people attended this service. Rabbi Rothschild made it a wonderful experience - as expected. His sermon was full of humor and wise words about Jews, Jewish Berlin and the expected growth of liberal services besides the orthodox-movement.
Next Kabbalat Shabbat with Rabbi Rothschild will be on March 27, 2015: It is planned to be a "Jazz"-service. Very modern and different. As you might have learned from our last newsletter, Rabbi Rothschild is a very talented singer. And Max Doehlemann, who is one of the founders of the new service is a fantastic musician. Unfortunately we will not be able to attend since it is Sue's birthday-evening.
Kiddush - we are awaiting the Challah (left side of the picture)
Bambi and the theory of relativity
92 years ago, on March 2, 1923, the austrian author Felix Salten published his book "Bambi - A life in the woods (Bambi - eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde").
This days, the Jewish Museum Berlin commemorated Felix Salten in facebook, the author of "Bambi". We all remember Walt Disney's adaption of this emotional story. We all love this movie!
Not everybody knows that the man behind the story was jewish. And that "Bambi" was one of the books being burned by the Nazis on May 10, 1933.
In 2013 there was a special exhibition about "Bambi" and other burned books at the museum, please take a look at the website about the exhibiti, especially at the interview with George Warburg, who collected the books that have been burned as a special memorial: He donated 400 books to the Jewish Museum Berlin.
More information on the exhibition website Bambi and the theory of relativity
Felix Salten emigrated to Zurich, Switzerland, where he died in 1945
"Gone to Ground: A woman's extraordinary account of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany" (available as a book, e-book and on your Kindle)
Dr. Hermann Simon, the director of the Centrum Judaicum (Neue Synagoge Berlin), published the diary of his mother hiding during the Nazi-time. Now this book is published in English as well. Damian Witworth recently published an article on Times UK about this book.
For Hermann Simon it was a painful work to put together the memories of his mother. To read this is very touching and gives us a bit of an idea how hard it was to survive in those times.
Read the article from Feb. 26, 2015 at the Times UK Website Times-article (subscription-based! - 1£ for the first 30 days for new subscribers)
Here you can get the eBook:
False passport with Marie Jalowicz-Simon's foto © Dr. Hermann Simon
Rembrandt's "Susanna and the Elders" - The creation of a Masterpiece
From March 3 to May 31, 2015 the Gemäldegalerie Berlin shows a special exhibition about Rembrandt's masterpiece "Susanna and the Elders". Don't miss it!
More information on the official Website The creation of a Masterpiece
"Susanna and the Elders" by Rembrandt
"Body worlds" - A new permanent exhibition in Berlin
After many discussions and several trials by the local administration at court to forbid this exhibition, a new "sensational" museum has opened it's doors in Berlin: "Körperwelten/Body worlds". Here Gunter von Hagens exhibits the transformed corpses of people. "Plastination" is his own description how he created objects out of what have been once living people. It is somehow fascinating but not everybody's taste.
We just want to inform you about it and please be careful and sensitiv. All"plastinated" people shown/used there donated their bodies on their free will to the "Plastinator". We find it very ambivalent, therefore we don't come up with a picture in this article.
More information on the official Website Body worlds Berlin
Live long and prosper (R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy)
For today we wish Shabbat Shalom
Sue (Shoshana) and Eckart (Aaron) Arns
your Berlin Dream-Team
March 6, 2015
You got this newsletter because you are a customer of ours or requested our services. At any time you can subscribe or unsubscribe to our newsletter on my websites www.sue-arns.de or www.jewish-touring-berlin.com.
If you run into problems reading this newsletter, here you can open it online: http://www.sue-arns.de/newsletter/nl201502.html - the archive of our newsletter is to be found at: http://www.sue-arns.de/newsletter/archive.html
Our address is:
Sue Arns
Landshuter Str. 28
10779 Berlin
Germany
tel: +49 (0)30 214 76 881
mobile: +49 (0)179 591 27 75
suearns@googlemail.com
sue@arns.de
www.sue-arns.de www.jewish-touring-berlin.com www.aronhold.de