Visit of Mark Rubin

Discovering the grave of his great-great-great-grandfather

Mark is a primary school teacher for gardening in Rosh Pina in Israel and by the way produces goat cheese. His mother Margot Stein fled from Freudental as a child and did never want to come back or let her children discover their German roots. But as a 26 year old man, Mark absolutely wanted to see the „Heimat“ of his family. In the evening, he slept on the cemetery next to the grave of his great-grandfather Bernhard. The next day, after a meaningful dream, he entered Freudental looking for people having the same age as Margot to ask them about her…

On 16th October 2024, he returned again to the Freudental Jewish cemetery, sang the kaddish on Bernhard’s grave and let a stone there. With the help of FADEN-GE-SPINNE (prepared by our volunteer Felix following an idea of our former volunteer Bianca) he saw his ancestors‘ graves on the Jewish cemetery and discovered the linking lines from his great-great-great-grandfather Veit Isaac (Uri Schraga) Stein, dead in 1837, until his great-grandfather Bernhard. He really was very impressed and touched by this “art installation” helping to see his family tree on the cemetary.

Taking dinner in the evening, Mark prayed kiddusch for Sukkot and sent messages to his relatives. We spoke about books to read, about antisemitism and Israel, about Zionism and the idea of “Heimat” and that you mustn’t leave your ideas and even the words to describe them to your (political) enemies.

In Corona times and together with a dedicated neighbour, the PKC refreshed the geocache around the life of Mark’s mother: MARGOT STEIN – MEMORY TO GO. You could experience it starting just in front of the former apartment of the family Stein in Strombergstraße 16, near the PKC.