Berger, Beate

Beate Berger was born 1886 in Niederbreisig, Germany and died on 20.5. 1940 in Kiryat Bialik in Israel. Trained as a nurse, Beate was the director of the Berlin-based Jewish orphanage and children’s home, Ahawah, which worked primarily with orphans from Eastern Europe, promoting Zionism and using progressive educational methods. Already in 1934, she transferred the Ahawah home and over 100 of the children living there to the Ahava Youth Village in Kiryat Bialik in Palestine, which she founded and directed based on the Ahawah model, and which still operates. Her siblings Else, the first woman allowed to study at the university in Cologne, Julius and Alfred were also involved in the work of Ahava, with Else directing the school, and Alfred and Julius helping with administration.