Jewish Life Past And Present In Berlin

Jewish Life Past And Present In Berlin Photo #1 of 2 Photo copyright ShoreTrips.com.

Overview

After trying many 'Jewish' tours in Berlin, we finally found the real thing!

A Jewish tour of Berlin seems like a natural, considering the history of the city, but after meeting with many guides, we decided that only one group was expert enough to understand the history and its effects on today's world. These were the only guides able to go beyond the basic facts and touch us.

You will be met by your expert guide, who will lead you through the city's rich and tragic Jewish history, uncovering the Jewish community's intriguing past and present. See and experience firsthand that Jewish Berlin is not only of historical interest, but also a central place for the renaissance of Jewish life in Europe.

Jewish Berlin is back on today's city skyline with the magnificently restored golden dome of the 19th century New Synagogue. The home of Moses Mendelssohn and the Jewish Enlightenment, Rachel Varnhagen and her famous salons, Abraham Geiger and Reform Judaism, Berlin is one of Jewish Europe's most exciting cities. Many moving memorials testify to the Holocaust. The most famous among them is the new Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman. Its location in the city center, right next to the Brandenburg Gate, attests to the importance of remembrance in Germany.

This full-day guided tour will include well-known places of interest on Jewish life and history in the eastern and western parts of the city, as well as lesser known, hidden sights. The day's itinerary will be determined by your interests, museum hours, and events of the day, and may include:

- Walk through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which opened in 2005. This somber spot occupies a space the size of a football field and its information center brings this tragic period in history to life, revealing fates of individuals and entire families.

- Take in the Neue Synagoge, built between 1859 and 1866 in an interesting hodge-podge of styles. The synagogue’s faintly Middle Eastern appearance is accentuated by its bulbous, gilded cupola. With a seating capacity of 3,200, this was the largest synagogue in Europe at the time of its opening. The building was badly damaged during WWII and wasn’t restored until 40 years later. An exhibit documents the history of the building and its congregation.

- A visit to the Jewish Museum will take you through the history of Germany’s Jews over the last 2,000 years, with an emphasis on contributions to culture, art, science, and other fields. All is chronicled here. The building itself, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, is an exciting, imaginative example of 20th century architecture.

- Visit the House of the Wannsee Conference, where 15 top Nazi officials met in 1942 to coordinate the attempted extermination of 11 million Jews in Europe and the Soviet Union. Now an excellent educational center, this museum elucidates Hannah Arendt's statement: "The banality of evil."

- Enjoy touring the Liebermann Villa in Wannsee. Max Liebermann, Germany's foremost expressionist painter, lived and painted here in this idyllic villa. Built in 1910, the house and its garden inspired Liebermann's more than 200 paintings.

- Stroll through Weissensee Cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, designed by renowned German architect Hugo Licht in the Italian Neorenaissance style. Its gravestones read like a text of 19th and 20th century Jewish cultural history.

Depending on your preferences, your tour guide will take you to a special location for lunch, be it a kosher or Jewish-style restaurant, a lakeside café, or trendy, refurbished, 19th century coffee house.

- Lunch is not included in the price of this tour.

- Price includes all required entrance fees and a bottle of water.

- Tour start and end times can be adjusted to correspond with your ship's itinerary.

- Your guide will be accompanied by a pre-selected driver with a taxi vehicle. The driver will be with you for the entire tour.

Visit to Neue Synagoge's museum is not possible on Shabbat. Museum visits are dependent on opening times. An appropriate stop will be substituted in the event that one of those mentioned is closed.

ShoreTrips and our partners do our best to ensure that every stop described is available for your visit. There are some times when a site or building is closed at the last moment with little to no warning. We assume that those in charge make those decisions based on external information and for visitors’ safety. We apologize when this causes inconvenience and disappointment.

Days offered: 7 days a week

Departures:

• 09:00 AM, duration: 8 hours