Rabbis Ordained in Germany

It is difficult to imagine that it hasn't happened since 1942, but good to see this threshold of healing being crossed:

Three men on Thursday became the first rabbis ordained in Germany since World War II, a milestone in the rebirth of Jewish life here decades after the Holocaust.

Daniel Alter, 47, of Germany; Thomas Cucera, 35, of the Czech Republic; and 38-year-old Malcolm Matitiani of South Africa were officially named rabbis in the ceremony in Dresden's synagogue, which was rebuilt after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

No rabbis have been ordained in Germany since the Nazis destroyed the College of Jewish Studies in Berlin in 1942, midway through the World War II.

Alter and Cucera plan to remain in Germany, while Matitiani says he will return to his native South Africa.

''After the Holocaust, many people could never have imagined that Jewish life in Germany could blossom again,'' German President Horst Koehler said before the event. ''That is why the first ordination of rabbis in Germany is a very special event indeed.''