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Visit with Soroptimist clubs in Germany, September 2003 .
Report by Hanna Bickel, Haifa-Nave Shaanan Club und Dani
Our previos visits in Germany with Soroptimist clubs were kind
of a byproduct of our vacation journeys. This time it was the other
way round, our visits with our Clubsisters was the main reason
of this journey.
This time, my "Soroptimister" Dani was not anymore surprised by the
warm and "sisterly" reception by our clubsisters, as he had
witnessed already at our last visit how warm the "Link" between
clubsisters is.
First we visited Mainz, our "Friendship link".
View from the window of the Hilton Hotel on the Rhein river.
Die Clubschwestern machten uns ein wunderbares Program.
We arrived on 7.9 in Mainz, and Irmgard Schreiber-Kasper came to
see us in the hotel to discuss our program.
On the next day she accompanied us on a short Rhein tour, and Renate
Glaser von Roman met us at our destination in St. Goar where
we made a very tasty lunch break in the restaurant of hotel
"Rebstock".
and drove us back to Mainz in her car.
Two of the places we passed reminded me of the romantic poet and
writer Heinrich Heine.
"Es will mir nicht aus dem Sinn" (I cannot forget) is the
keyword of the
"loreley", a poem about the fable about the famous
rock on the shore of the Rhein.
Click here for a translation of the poem by Mark Twain
The second is the town of
Bachrach.
Bachrach
At the evening of his life, Heine went back to his Jewish roots and
wrote the Epos of
the "Rabbi von Bachrach".
Unfortunately we had left the camera in the hotel so that the pictures
from the Rhein are plucked from the internet.
In the evening we were invited by Franziska, who had been our
hostess on our previous visit.
And on a different note:
The next day Marlene Huebel, who is an accomplished tourist guide,
and author of a number of historical and touristic books about
the region, arranged a very emotional visit for us at the restored
synagogue in the suburb of Weisenau.
The Tora shrine in the restored synagogue
Dr. Heinrich Schreiner himself
who led the restoration voluntarily and also directs the activities
of the site, as a center for ecumenical gatherings, as well as
a real synagogue, particularly for weddings, Bar Mitzvas and
the like, introduced us to the synagogue and explained the process
of restoration to us.
Dr. Schreiner shows us the contents of the Tora Shrine.
We intend to write about the tragic Jewish history of Mainz and
the visit to this synagogue in an more extensive writeup on our
private homepage, especially for our friends on a genealogical forum
in which we participate.
After the visit to the synagogue, Irmgard took us to hotel Favorit
where the Club holds its meetings. We took our lunch there.
The sign of the Soroptimist club at Hotel Favorit
That evening to end our visit to Mainz, Irmgard and her husband invited
us to dinner, and we had the opportunity of seeing their very
special home.
The next morning we continued to Eisenach, about which we wrote
extensively in our report to our Haifa-Nave Shaanan club last year.
Click here for the report
We met many of our clubsisters in a Cafe the same afternoon.
The next morning we intended to roam Eisenach, which has such an
interesting history, but alas this was the only day with streaming rain.
We just will have to come again.
The group photo the clubsisters gave us.
In the evening the clubsisters and we were invited by Dr. Waltraud
Mueller and her husband at their home. This time again the evening and
the conversation were extremely pleasant.
The next day we drove to Jena, the ancient university city, where Dani
was born. As we did not have enough time to visit the other clubs
in the provinces of Thuringia and Saxonia, we instead invited the
clubsisters of Leipzig, Erfurt and Chemnitz to a light dinner in
the hotel in which we were staying.
Ten of our friends in Leipzig and Erfurt came. It was a very pleasant
and interesting evening. We have a considerable interest in this
area as I myself was born in Chemnitz, my late mother spent many
years of her youth in Leipzig, and my late husband was born in
Muhlhausen, also in Thuringia. As often, the fact that we come from
Israel, which is so often in the news, arose special interest.
The next day Magdalene Erkens, who is the coordinator for culture
and education for S.I. Germany, invited us for supper. Kerstin
Eberhard, the new president of the Leipzig club also came.
Both there husbands were also there.
I am repeating myself about how easy it is for us soroptimist to get
friendly, but the conversation was so pleasant and
interesting that Dani forgot to take photos, and before we knew
it we had to hurry to catch our train back to Jena.
Out last station in Germany was Berlin.
In the evening of our arrival we went to the "Gedaechtniskirche" and
saw the two buildings which sprung up on both sites of the ruin, and
which now took on the function of the old church, which is left as
it was after WW2 as a reminder.
Andrea Fowinkel who is in charge of visitors contact, and who has
become a dear friend on our last visits to Berlin, took us on a
lightnig tour of the new sites, so that we could chose the next day
what we want to see.
(We decided to return to the "Brandenburger Tor"
the restoration of which had been in full swing last time we visited)
In the evening we were invited for dinner with Marianne Krueger and
her family.
Marianne had been in Haifa this year, for a governors meeting of the
Technion, but we failed to meet her then. The evening was especially
pleasant, and we hope to meet Marianne next time she comes to Haifa.
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