For the fourteenth time, Touro College Berlin awarded practice-oriented Bachelor and Master degrees. Rector Sara Nachama sent off the graduating cohort together with a fare number of guests of honor at the Berlin City Hall in Berlin-Mitte on Wednesday, June 12.
Sara Nachama said: I am very proud of our college where students from all over the world and all religions have studied together since its founding. Particularly in times when people of the Jewish faith are afraid to wear the kippa in public, a tolerant interaction like the one on our campus is so very pleasant. At today’s commencement ceremony young people from 13 different countries are honored, for example from the United States of America, Germany, Israel, Morocco, Libanon, Kazakhstan and Ghana.
The annual graduation celebration due to American tradition took place again at the Berlin central city hall – this year in the presence and with greetings by Secretary of State for Science Steffen Krach for the Berlin Senate, District Mayor of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Reinhard Naumann, the chairman of the Berlin Jewish Community Dr. Gideon Joffe and with a keynote from the CEO of the Berlin-Brandenburg Trade Association Nils Busch-Petersen.
Since its founding in 2003 by Rabbi and Sociologist Dr. Bernard Lander, Touro College Berlin has produced more than 300 graduates. A huge part of the positive development of the college is due to the Master program Holocaust Communication and Tolerance, which has been in existence for 12 years now. Besides the exploration and communication of the history of National Socialism it also deals with minority rights and tolerance – highly topical in the face of the revitalization of Anti-Semitism, populism and right-wing extremism in Europe.
It is a great success that the Jewish Community of Berlin has decided to award up to ten scholarships to students in the Bachelor and Master programs at Touro College Berlin. This applies to the above-mentioned Master degree Holocaust Communication and Tolerance, the Bachelor degrees in Management und Psychology as well as the MBA degree. The Jewish Community is going to raise that number to 15 next year.
As a private institution with state recognition Touro College Berlin offers American and German degrees. Currently, about 130 young people from all over the world study at the campus Am Rupenhorn.