i trained it up to the frankfurt to spend some time with the family of an exchange student that spent some time at a very close family friend from providence. how i knew them wasnt as important as the fact that i hadnt a place to go for rosh hashana. the family was very nice and invited me to spend my holiday weekend with them. friday night we went to a friend of theirs for dinner. it was nice, interesting variety of invitees. saturday morning we went to temple. temple in frankfurt was interesting to say the least. it was “orthodox” in the sense that men and women were seperate. but nobody in the service sang, followed along or prayed except the few at the bimah. everyone else just sat, stared around, and talked. you couldnt even hear the rabbi if u tried. once in a while he would shush the crowd but that only lasted a half a minute until the crowd resumed their conversations. it didnt really feel like temple. admittedly, i didnt always follow along when i went to synagouge back home, but it was still nice to sit and sing and listen to others singing. however i found this lack of interest in the service very concerning. i voiced my observations to my host family, who seemed not to bothered by it. based on what i saw at this temple i am convinced the fate of the jewish community in frankfurt is limited. there were not many younger people there (and i can understand why), and the older people didnt seem to be making any effort to change the current practices to involve the congregation. on the flip side however, i always felt the prayers in the sidor didnt not always capture my personal feelings very well, and the real reason for going to temple was to bring the community closer together; and on that note the members of this congregation did a great job of talking with each other. in anycase my experience at frankfurts largest synagouges (probably one of germanys larger ones, as frankfurt has one of the larger concentration of jewish people in germany) was very interesting…saturday after temple we went for a quick bite, italian food. i got a tunasalad. in the afternoon the daughter of my host family took me around a bit, then we meet up with some of her friends for a quick drink. after a dinner with my host family and a quick nap, the daughter of my host family and i met up with some of her friends and went out in the center of frankfurt. first a more obscure spot with an alternative/grunge crowd, then to ‘the living’ a very large disco in frankfurt. it was a decent time…sunday morning i got up early and hit the town. i had one day and a long list of sites i wanted to see. first i went to borner platz, where they had a jewish memorial. then i walked to near the opahouse and had a half sandwhich and read the news paper. i then went to the goethe house. this was a great museum/house. i got a PDA that told me everyhting about every room. and the staff was very knowledgeable and helpful. really enjoyed the visit here. i then went on to roemerplatz where i sat outside and had a frankfuter (a trip to frankfurt would not have been complete with out it.) i continued on to the Dom church. after much walking a decided to stop for a real lunch, and popped into a sushi place. (sushi here is expensive!!) it was the type of place where the sushi keeps going around on a conveyer belt and u grab whatever u want. after a couple tiny plates i was walked onward and stumbled upon another great tourist spot, the main tower observation deck. i went up 150 meters and got a great view of all of frankfurt. after the main town, i crossed the main river and visited the architecture museum. mission accomplished i visited everthing i had set out to see. after a long day of walking i grabbed an icecream and took a nap on dock with my feet in the main river. very succesful day. i hopped the train back to reutlingen.