Second Jewish high school to open in Germany

A Jewish secondary school will be opened in the western German city of Düsseldorf on Wednesday, and another such establishment is soon to be inaugurated in Munich, which will bring the total number of Jewish high schools in the entire country to three.

Some 40 fifth-grade students will make up the inaugural class of the newly founded Albert Einstein Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, the state capital of North Rhine Westphalia. Until now, Germany's only Jewish high school has been in Berlin.

"We are convinced that Jewish life has a firm place in Germany," Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the news agency DPA. Whenever there are enough students to open such a school, that's "a great gain for the Jewish community," Schuster said.

Hebrew and subjects related to Judaism will be taught eight hours a week, but non-Jewish students are also allowed to attend. The school will be housed in temporary accommodation, with a new school building scheduled to be completed in five years' time.

The school is funded up to 90 percent by the North Rhine Westphalia state government.

WIth 7,000 members, the Jewish community of Düsseldorf is Germany's third largest, after Berlin and Munich.