Rabbi Igor Mendel Itkin opens Hanukkah festival in Friedensau

From 25 December 2024 to 2 January 2025, Friedensau University Library invites you to commemorate and celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. All residents of Friedensau and neighbouring villages and their guests are cordially invited to take part in this traditional Jewish festival at one event each day at 4 pm in the library, Ahornstr. 3.

To kick things off on Wednesday 25 December 2024, Christmas Day, Rabbi Igor Mendel Itkin, lecturer at the Fachhochschule der Polizei (Police University of Applied Sciences) in Saxony-Anhalt, will give a lecture on the ‘Message of Hanukkah’. Thanks to his great commitment and perseverance, library director Raul Cervantes has succeeded in persuading Rabbi Itkin to give this lecture followed by a discussion and the lighting of the first Hanukkah light in Friedensau.

Rabbi Igor Mendel Itkin, born in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), studied Jewish Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. He completed his rabbinical training at the Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. Rabbi Itkin works for the interfaith organisation ‘meet2respect’ and as a religion teacher at a Jewish Grammar School in Berlin. As already mentioned, he is also a lecturer at the Saxony-Anhalt Police University of Applied Sciences. Rabbi Igor Mendel Itkin is involved in numerous online and offline projects for dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, is the occasion for the university library to light a light every day and offer various cultural events related to Jewish cultural traditions. The events are suitable for visitors of all ages. Pre-registration is required via e-mail , by telephone on 03921 916–135 or in person.

The other events in this Hanukkah cycle can be found here: https://thh-friedensau.de/termine.