Greetings

For the opening of Abraham Geiger College, November 12, 2000

Seminaries for Rabbis are dedicated to training people in Jewish thought, belief, and behavior. They are the guardians and developers of Jewish life all over the world. They transmit knowledge of the religious traditions and history, the ethics and philosophy, the practices and the wisdom of a 4,000 year tradition. They give teachers to the people.
Abraham Geiger College is the first German-speaking institution for the training of Rabbis since the Holocaust. Its founding in 1999 is a very important event of immense symbolic significance for the whole of Central Europe. […]

The choice of Potsdam for Geiger College is a return home. In 1942, the light of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin was extinguished in an act of violence. Six decades later this light has been rekindled. We trust that Jewish communities all over the world may note with pleasure that this is what is happening in today's Germany. May Abraham Geiger College take its noble place in the international world of Jewish scholarship, and be a worthy successor, a revival and continuation rather, of the long and proud tradition that the Hochschule established. […]

Dr. Manfred Stolpe
Governor of the State of Brandenburg

This seminary will disseminate Jewish scholarship and tradition. For Jewish congregations it will be a guiding light into modernity. It takes up the liberal Jewish tradition which was violently terminated in 1942. This sign of your deep confidence is reflected in our profound obligation.

Jörg Schönbohm
Minister of the Interior and Deputy Governor of the state of Brandenburg