The Rabbi with a Blog (Rabbi Jason Miller): 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Sunday, November 09, 2014

25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. All over Germany, this day is marked by somber and hopeful ceremonies. While it's a day to be celebrated in the name of freedom, it is also a difficult day for family members who had a relative killed while trying to cross from East Berlin into West Berlin.

For me, I always associate the fall of European communism with my bar mitzvah which took place just over a month before the Berlin Wall came down. On October 7, 1989 I became a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom Synagogue and pledged that was also celebrating that day in honor of my Soviet Twin, Alexander Proekt of Leningrad. It wasn't long after Alexander and I "shared" my bar mitzvah that his family was able to emigrate from the Soviet Union. While I was never able to connect with Alexander over the phone prior to my bar mitzvah date, I did send him a couple of letters. Last year I found him through the social network LinkedIn and we finally connected. Today, Dr. Alex Proekt, MD, PhD is an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is part of a team uncovering new insights into how the brain recovers from anesthesia. Imagine, how much research, innovation and new technology the Western World would be missing out on had that wall not come down twenty-five years ago.

A few years ago I had the chance to tour Berlin with other Conservative rabbis as part of a Germany Close Up program. After the conclusion of the formal program, I spent an entire afternoon with a private guide as we walked through what was East Berlin before the fall of German communism. Below are some photographs I took of remnants from the Berlin Wall and the surrounding area: