At the invitation of the Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Amberg, Elias Dray, Dr. Andreas Eberhardt (CEO) and Derviş Hızarcı (Program Director) have each been given the opportunity to write one of the final signs of the historic Torah scroll. Dervis and Andreas were honored to make this symbolic contribution to the completion of the scroll, which has been extensively restored in recent years in an initiative by Elias Dray.

"For me as a Muslim, this is a special honor. I also want to send a signal in the direction of the Muslim community to stand up for Jewish life in Germany," says Derviş Hızarcı, our Program Manager who has been involved in Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Germany for years.

"Personally, it was very important to me to have Derviş with us during the completion of the Sulzbach Torah scroll," says Rabbi Elias Dray. "The closer representatives inside of the three major religions exchange with each other, the better we will succeed in breaking down prejudices."

On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism on January 27, 2021, numerous dignitaries inside contributed to the last signs of the Torah scroll in a commemorative ceremony of the German Bundestag, among them German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, German President Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Bundestag President Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble. Read more about the ceremony in the Bundestag in this article by Deutsche Welle.

Other contributors of the Torah scroll included actor Christian Berkel, Cilly Kugelmann (chief curator of the new permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin and member of the Academic Council of the Alfred Landecker Foundation), journalist Shelly Kupferberg and Barrie Kosky (artistic director of the Komische Oper Berlin).