Chabad Lubavitch of Germany
Chabad-Lubavitch in Germany: the Berlin mission of Yehuda and Leah Teichtal from 1996, the Pears Jewish Campus and its public funding, disputes with Jewish communities in Frankfurt and Berlin, Hamburg's state rabbi, and the 2019 attack on Teichtal
| Chabad Lubavitch of Germany
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  The Pears Jewish Campus in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, June 2023 |
| Type | Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch) |
| Founded | 1996 (Berlin mission) |
| Founder(s) | Yehuda Teichtal and Leah Teichtal (Berlin) |
| Headquarters | Berlin |
| Location | Münstersche Straße 6, 10709 Berlin (Chabad Lubawitsch Berlin e.V.) |
| Area served | Germany |
| Services | Synagogues, schools and day care, community centres, youth and student programmes |
| Key people | Yehuda Teichtal (chair, Chabad Lubawitsch Berlin e.V.); Israel Diskin (chair of Chabad Deutschland, 2017) |
| Website | https://www.chabadberlin.de |
Chabad Lubavitch of Germany is the Chabad-Lubavitch network in Germany. Its best-known branch is in Berlin, where Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal and Leah Teichtal have been emissaries since 1996, and where Chabad opened the Pears Jewish Campus in 2023.[1][2] Chabad's world headquarters lists 26 Chabad institutions in Germany.[3] In 2017 Abraham Lehrer, vice-president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany), described Rabbi Israel Diskin as chair of "Chabad Deutschland".[4] In 2003 the journalist Sue Fishkoff wrote that "Chabad exerts considerable influence in the Jewish communities of France and Germany".[5]
History
Chabad.org says that Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, "lived and studied in Berlin from 1928-1932".[2]
Berlin
Chabad Berlin says it was founded by Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal and Leah Teichtal in 1996.[1] In 2024 the Berliner Morgenpost wrote that Teichtal had come to Berlin from New York with his wife 28 years earlier and built up the Chabad community there.[6] Chabad.org reported in 2023 that Teichtal's work was supported by eleven further Chabad couples in Berlin, that some Chabad centres in the city served Israeli expatriates and others immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and that a large Chanukah menorah was lit each year at the Brandenburg Gate.[2] Deutsche Welle reported that Teichtal had since 2012 also been one of the rabbis of the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin (Jewish Community of Berlin).[7]
Hamburg
In January 2012 the Jüdische Allgemeine reported that Rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky, a Chabad rabbi born in Jerusalem, had become state rabbi (Landesrabbiner) of Hamburg, succeeding Dov-Levy Barsilay. Bistritzky had come to Hamburg in 2003 and had opened the city's Chabad centre with his grandfather. The paper reported that a possible conflict of interest with his Chabad role had been discussed in the community, and quoted Philipp Stricharz on the matter.[8]
Legal bodies
The Berlin organisation's imprint names it as Chabad Lubawitsch Berlin e.V., registered in the register of associations at the Amtsgericht Charlottenburg as VR 18795 B, at Münstersche Straße 6, 10709 Berlin, with Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal as chair of the board.[9] The Berlin Senate's culture department names the recipient of state payments as "Jüdische Gemeinde Chabad Berlin e.V.".[10] The Pears Jewish Campus is run by a foundation, Stiftung Pears Jüdischer Campus, which Teichtal chairs.[11][12]
Pears Jewish Campus
The Pears Jewish Campus in Berlin-Wilmersdorf opened on 25 June 2023. It has seven storeys and about 8,000 square metres, with day care, primary and secondary schools, a sports hall, a cinema, a music studio and a kosher deli.[12][7] The foundation stone was laid in summer 2018.[11] Chabad.org called it "the new home of Chabad-Lubavitch of Berlin" and "the largest Jewish structure built in Germany since World War II".[2] Guests at the opening included Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor, the Governing Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner and the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster.[2]
Cost and funding
The sources give different figures for the cost:
- Teichtal told Deutsche Welle that it cost "around €40 million"; the Pears Foundation and the Berlin city portal also gave €40 million.[7][13][12]
- Chabad.org gave $44 million and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency $43.7 million.[2][14]
- A report by the Berlin Senate's culture department to the House of Representatives' main committee, dated 21 November 2022, gave the eligible total as €17.65 million in December 2017 (not counting security), €23.4 million in July 2020 and €33.3 million in January 2022. It blamed the rise on defective construction work, planning errors, the dismissal of site supervisors and higher building prices.[15] In April 2021 Teichtal had told the Jüdische Allgemeine that the budget had risen from €18 million to about €25 million, citing pandemic material costs and an extra floor.[11] The Tagesspiegel reported the rise to €33.3 million in January 2023.[16]
The Senate report listed the funding as of 2022: €2.4 million from the state of Berlin's SIWA infrastructure fund plus a further €2.4 million reserved in April 2021, €5 million from the day-care expansion programme, €3.5 million from the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin, €2 million from the federal culture commissioner, €4 million from the federal interior ministry and €5,386,000 from the builder's own funds. To close a gap of €8,614,000 the four public funders agreed in June 2022 to pay €2 million each. The report put Berlin's share, without security costs, at €6.8 million. It also noted a separate security budget of €7.46 million at the Senate building department.[15] The Pears Foundation said most of the cost "came from federal and state governments", with the foundation giving "significant capital support"; Sir Trevor Pears attended the opening.[13] The Jüdische Allgemeine named the Pears Foundation as main sponsor and listed further donations from the Stiftung Lebendige Stadt, the Berliner Sparkassenstiftung, Siemens and Bayer.[11] Deutsche Welle reported that an online fundraiser shortly before the opening raised €1.5 million in 36 hours.[7]
Relations with other Jewish bodies
Frankfurt (2017)
In March 2017 the board of the Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt (Jewish Community of Frankfurt), signed by its chair Salomon Korn, wrote to members that it would no longer provide rooms for Chabad Lubawitsch Frankfurt. It said that Chabad's local leaders had discredited the community's rabbinate after the appointment of Rabbi Avichai Apel, and cited "zunehmend aggressives Verhalten sowie Beschimpfungen und Respektlosigkeiten gegenüber unseren beiden Rabbinern" (increasingly aggressive behaviour, insults and disrespect towards our two rabbis).[17] The European Jewish Congress reported that Chabad had held its services and housed its yeshiva in the Westend Synagogue, and that Chabad had not yet responded.[18] In May 2017 Abraham Lehrer of the Central Council called the dispute "primär eine lokale Angelegenheit" (primarily a local matter) and called for dialogue between the Central Council and Chabad Deutschland.[4]
Berlin funding dispute (2024)
In March 2024 the Berliner Morgenpost reported a dispute over state funding. Under a 1994 state treaty, Berlin's payments to Jewish groups went only to the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin, then led by Gideon Joffe. Teichtal said: "Wir fühlen uns von der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin nicht repräsentiert" (we do not feel represented by the Jewish Community of Berlin) and "Von dem Geld aus dem Staatsvertrag bekommen wir Null" (we get nothing from the treaty money). He said Chabad wanted its own state treaty and recognition as a public-law corporation. The paper reported that the CDU–SPD coalition had agreed internally to give €3 million a year to Chabad and €1 million to Adass Jisroel, but that the culture department said payments outside the treaty had first to be checked, as the treaty followed "das Prinzip der Einheitsgemeinde" (the principle of a single community). Chabad gave its own figure of 3,000 active members, against about 8,000 for the Jüdische Gemeinde.[6]
The Senate's culture department later stated that the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin receives payments for Chabad and for Kahal Adass Jisroel, which belong to it under cooperation agreements, and that in 2025 Berlin paid €1.44 million for Jüdische Gemeinde Chabad Berlin e.V.[10] In January 2025 the Morgenpost reported that Teichtal had plans for a synagogue extension at the campus and that its funding was not settled.[19]
2019 attack on Teichtal
Deutsche Welle reported on 31 July 2019 that Teichtal said two men had cursed at him in Arabic and spat on him while he walked home from synagogue with his son, and that police were investigating it as a religiously motivated crime.[20] The Federal President's office said the attack took place on 26 July and that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Teichtal at home on 4 August 2019 to express his sympathy. It noted that the two had lit the Chanukah menorah at the Brandenburg Gate together on 2 December 2018.[21]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch movement
- Chabad Lubavitch of France
- Chabad Lubavitch of Netherlands
- The Pears Family Charitable Foundation
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About and Contact", Chabad of Berlin, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Mendel Super and Yaakov Ort, "Chabad Center, Largest in Germany Since Holocaust, Symbol of Jewish Transformation", Chabad.org, 27 June 2023.
- ↑ "Europe – Centers", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Detlef David Kauschke, "»Streit nutzt niemandem«", interview with Abraham Lehrer, Jüdische Allgemeine, 3 May 2017.
- ↑ Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch (New York: Schocken Books, 2003), p. 14.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Joachim Fahrun, "Konflikt um Fördermittel entzweit jüdische Gemeinschaften", Berliner Morgenpost, 14 March 2024.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Christoph Strack, "New 'Jewish campus' opens in Berlin", Deutsche Welle, 25 June 2023.
- ↑ Moritz Piehler, "Neuer Landesrabbiner für die Hansestadt", Jüdische Allgemeine, 16 January 2012.
- ↑ "Impressum", Chabad Lubawitsch Berlin e.V., accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, "Rechtsgrundlagen", Berlin.de, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Jérôme Lombard, "Das Ziel vor Augen", Jüdische Allgemeine, 30 April 2021.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "For a 'vibrant future': Jewish Campus Pears opens in Berlin", Berlin.de, June 2023, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Pears Foundation funds largest Jewish centre in Germany", Pears Foundation, 30 June 2023.
- ↑ Toby Axelrod, "Chabad opens Germany's largest Jewish center since WWII", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 26 June 2023.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, "Sondervermögen Infrastruktur der Wachsenden Stadt (SIWA) … Zuwendung an den Verein Chabad Lubawitsch Berlin für die Errichtung eines Jüdischen Campus", report 0670 to the main committee of the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, 21 November 2022.
- ↑ Cay Dobberke, "Landesregierung soll Zuschuss erhöhen: Kostenexplosion bei jüdischem Kulturzentrum in Berlin", Der Tagesspiegel, 31 January 2023.
- ↑ "Gemeinde distanziert sich von Chabad", Jüdische Allgemeine, 22 March 2017.
- ↑ "Frankfurt Jewish community severs ties with Chabad", European Jewish Congress, 27 March 2017.
- ↑ Alexander Rothe, "Neue Synagoge für Jüdische Gemeinde Chabad – Das sind die Pläne", Berliner Morgenpost, 15 January 2025.
- ↑ "Rabbi spat on and cursed at in Berlin", Deutsche Welle, 31 July 2019.
- ↑ "Treffen mit Rabbiner Yehuda Teichtal", Der Bundespräsident, 4 August 2019.