News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The New Berlin Jewish community center to open in early September will feature a huge replica of the Western Wall (Kotel). "This is a symbolic part of making Berlin a central hub of Jewish life again," the center's executive director, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal told the Associated Press.

The replica will include plants that sprout from within the slabs of the wall, which was the exterior structure surrounding the courtyard of the Holy Temple. It was constructed from 19 tons of sandstone. Officials pointed out that it will not be used as a place for prayers and added it was built to show "the strongest symbol of the survival of the Jewish people."