20.01.2020

                     While today did not include a performance it was nonetheless informative about both the city of Berlin and the culture of Germany. The tour our class went on saw many impressive things in Berlin. Some are so well known that even I had heard of them, while others were much less so. We got to see Berlins oldest standing synagogue and learn about its significance despite how young it was in comparison to other synagogues in Europe. What I found really interesting about this was that in order to assimilate into the german culture the synagogue commissioned and contains an Organ. I have been to several synagogues in the United States as well as Israel and even the West Bank and yet none of these had an organ within them.
                   Continuing in the vein of Judaism within Germany and Europe as a whole, our tour stopped to walk through the  memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. What was different about this memorial was that the designers did not explicitly explain the meaning behind their work. Instead they let visitors decide for themselves what it truly meant. I believe that made the memorial that much more impactful. From the perimeter the memorial looks like gray columns of stone about the length and width of a coffin rising to varying heights. To me it seemed to be a mausoleum in dedication to the body count of Jews that the Nazis amassed. Walking down the slope into the rows of growing stone, the memorial took on a whole new meaning. Very quickly our group of seventeen dispersed within the stones leaving me alone in an endless sea of gray. The memorial became very isolating. From its depths it was easy to hear the sounds of society, the chattering of people, the hum of cars, and the sounds of construction, and yet unable to see anything but gray stone and gray sky. Just as the Nazis isolated the Jews from german society one law at a time, so too did the gray columns with the dimensions of coffins isolate me in the center of Berlin.

The tour stopped at other interesting points in Berlin and provided history and anecdotes about them. Of these remaining spots, I found the Brandenburger Tor the most interesting. The history of the statue atop the gate was amusing, especially about why the statues head now points in a different direction. Spots like Museum Island, the Berlin wall, Humboldt University, and the memorial for the victims of war a tyranny were also visited and discussed. Many of the places visited today are places that I would love to return to and learn more about.