Tubingen Church

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The first time the town of Tubingen, Germany, expelled all of its Jewish residents was in 1477. It wasn’t the last. It became a place where anti-Jewish doctrines thrived, especially during World War II. Today, however, the Jerusalem Post reports that not only has a tiny Jewish community returned to the town, but there also exists a church of about 250 members who possess a heartfelt love for both the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. The church meets in a large tent built on top of the same railroad tracks that once deported Jews from Tubingen to concentration camps throughout Germany and Poland. In 2007, TOS organized a March of Life to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day. Their march, which covered the roughly 350 kilometers from Bisingen to Dachau, followed the route many Jews walked as a death march in early 1945, just months before World War II ended.

They held a special meeting the night before the march began. Four members stood before the assembly and told stories of their own family's participation in the Nazi regime. One woman, who now sings in the church worship group, had recently discovered that her grandfather was an SS guard who beat Jews and other prisoners. She and three others then followed the example of Jesus by humbly washing the feet of several Jewish guests, including some who were Holocaust survivors. The Jewish guests then symbolized their forgiveness by washing the feet of their German hosts. Rose Price, a survivor of six concentration camps, embraced and comforted several Germans who had broken into tears.

A man from Syria witnessed the event and observed longingly that if Germans and Jews could be reconciled, the same model might also be applied between Arabs and Jews. That’s how peace happen. It’s not accidental, its intentional and it is decisive.

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