At left, the new building for the Beit Tikvah synagogue in Bielefeld, Germany, which was inaugurated in 2008. (Wikimedia Commons.) At right, a newspaper clipping showing the original Bielefeld synagogue building. (Courtesy of Jennifer Bern-Vogel)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Prior to the Holocaust, Bielefeld was home to almost 1,000 Jews, Michelsohn said. The community has been revitalized since Michelsohn took the helm on Jan. 1, 2000, at which point she said there were only 35 members.<\/p>\n
Michelsohn said the key\u2019s return is immensely meaningful to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so excited, because we only have one Torah scroll, and now the key, that\u2019s all we have from our old synagogue,\u201d Michelsohn said. \u201cAnd now the key is back. That\u2019s so great, you can\u2019t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelsohn said the key is especially important as a vehicle to educate the current community about its past. She explained that like many German Jewish communities, Bielefeld\u2019s Jews are almost all originally from the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have many people who are originally from Germany,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of them converted to Judaism, some immigrated from Israel or other countries or are working in Bielefeld with a university, but most of the members in all of our 120 Jewish communities in Germany are from the former Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key, Michelsohn said, represents an opportunity to \u201cteach them something about history, about the past, what we lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also returns a physical reminder of the old synagogue building, which had been built in 1905 and was commissioned by the Katzenstein family. Bern-Vogel\u2019s maternal grandfather had been the head of the Jewish community, and helped hundreds of families escape Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt symbolizes a connection to the old and very, very nice building which we had,\u201d Michelsohn said, adding that the destroyed synagogue was \u201csuch a marvelous building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like the key she kept, the remarkable story of Bern-Vogel\u2019s mother did not end in 1938. The following year, she and her younger sister escaped to England on the Kindertransport. Years later, she was at a Shabbat dinner in Israel when she met Julian Bernstein (later shortened to Bern), Bern-Vogel\u2019s father, who also survived the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
Julian was one of six children from a Lithuanian family, but only he and one brother survived the Holocaust. That brother, Leon Bernstein, and Bern-Vogel\u2019s mother were both working for the World Jewish Congress; Leon hosted the Shabbat dinner where Julian and Marianne met.<\/p>\n
The two were engaged within a week, and eventually settled in Iowa, where Bern-Vogel and her brother were raised.<\/p>\n
In the later years of her mother\u2019s life, Bern-Vogel said there had been efforts to bring the key to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. But a contact her mother had at the museum passed away, and in 2017, so did she, at 94 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just held a very deep connection,\u201d Bern-Vogel said, referring to the key, a copy of which she still has. \u201cI don\u2019t think I thought about, when we were growing up, that the key would be anywhere else but with us. It kind of belonged to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Bern-Vogel, left, presenting her mother’s key to Irith Michelsohn at a ceremony in Bielefeld, Germany, Nov. 9, 2024. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But as her mother aged, Bern-Vogel said her family wanted to determine where the key should go to be best taken care of and hold the most meaning. After a couple recent trips to Germany, Bern-Vogel said the answer crystallized.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just became clearer over the last couple of years, and especially after I went there last summer to meet with them at the synagogue and the museum, that it would really mean the most for everyone and future generations for it to be there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bern-Vogel said that even though her mother had a fraught relationship with Germany because of how her family\u2019s time there ended, Bielefeld will always be their home. And she knows her mother would appreciate knowing that the key has made it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that she would be incredibly moved by the reception that the key is going to have, and the people that are involved in the city,\u201d Bern-Vogel said. \u201cI think she would be very honored and happy, and I think grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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