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World Jewish News
Shabbat dinner held in Reichstag
26.05.2009
A Shabbat dinner was held in the German National Parliament building.
Representatives of the German parliament and Israeli Embassy in Berlin, along with 200 international guests, attended the historic celebration hosted by German lawmaker Phillip Missfelder. Rabbi Pynchas Brener, chief rabbi of Venezuela, led the ritual aspects of the meal.
The event - to celebrate an upcoming marriage - was held in the private dining room of the lawmakers, next to the parliament's debating chamber. The Reichstag kitchen was made kosher for the first time for the occasion.
Though the Shabbat celebration, the first in the Reichstag since the building's construction by Kaiser Whilhelm II in 1894 - and held in the same hall from which the German Republic was declared - was held in February 2008 but is just now being made public due to security risks.
The building was burned down by the Nazis in 1933 and reconstructed after World War II.
The preparation and special dispensations by multiple levels of the German government took several months to obtain. For example, the building's metal detectors were turned off for the first time ever to allow Sabbath-observant Jews to enter.
Источник: JTA
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