Berlin (CNN)During Germany's Covid-19 lockdown, Rabbi Zsolt Balla earned a devoted online following, live-streaming prayer services on Facebook. Be

This rabbi is joining the German army, 90 years after Hitler expelled Jewish soldiers

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2021-06-20 11:30:07

Berlin (CNN)During Germany's Covid-19 lockdown, Rabbi Zsolt Balla earned a devoted online following, live-streaming prayer services on Facebook.

Berlin (CNN)During Germany's Covid-19 lockdown, Rabbi Zsolt Balla earned a devoted online following, live-streaming prayer services on Facebook. Now, as the country begins to open up, he's taking on a previously unimaginable job as the German military's chief rabbi -- its first in almost 90 years, since Adolf Hitler expelled Jews from the armed forces in the 1930s. All this, and he didn't even know he was Jewish and the son of a Holocaust survivor until he was nine. A rabbi proudly joining the German army eight decades after the Nazis orchestrated the Holocaust is a hugely symbolic moment for the Jewish community. Balla will be sworn in at a synagogue in Leipzig, eastern Germany, on Monday; officials hope his appointment will highlight t

Berlin (CNN)During Germany's Covid-19 lockdown, Rabbi Zsolt Balla earned a devoted online following, live-streaming prayer services on Facebook.