Jewish community of Frankfurt

Last updated

The Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main has been a public corporation and a member association of the Central Council of Jews in Germany since 1949. [1]

Contents

The Frankfurt Jewish Community is one of the largest unified Jewish communities in Germany with an institutionalized administrative organization that is not associated with any particular Jewish movement.

Its community center is located in Frankfurt's Westend district, and includes the Westend Synagogue and the Baumweg Synagogue, as well as several smaller synagogues and prayer rooms. [2] The community also operates, among other things, the I.E. Lichtigfeld School at the Philanthropin, a senior citizens' home, and two kindergartens.

The 17-member elected community council elects the five-member community board. The members of the community council and board determine the work and direction of the community and represent it externally. The chairman is Salomon Korn, the rabbi of the community has been Rabbi Julien Chaim Soussan since 2013, and Rabbi Avichai Apel joined in 2016 as a second rabbi.

At the end of 2019, the community had 6,316 members.

History

History until 1945

See also Jewish Frankfurt am Main
The first evidence of a Jewish settlement in Frankfurt dates back to 1150. As early as 1241 and 1349 there were the first persecutions, the so-called "Judenschlachten" (Jew-killings). Since 1360, with a short interruption during the Fettmilch Uprising (1614–1616), the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main remained in existence for almost six hundred years until its dissolution by the Nazis. It was not until 1864 that Frankfurt's Jewish residents gained full political and economic equality. In 1933, about 28,000 Jews lived in the city.

The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 marked, like everywhere in Germany, a deep cut in this development. Of the four large synagogues, only the Westend Synagogue on Freiherr-vom-Stein-Strasse was spared from the November 1938 Kristallnacht. More than 10,000 Jews were deported from Frankfurt to the concentration and extermination camps, while others were able to emigrate.

Leopold Neuhaus was the last rabbi of Frankfurt before World War II, serving until 1938. When the residents of the Jewish old people's home on Gagernstrasse in Frankfurt's Ostend district were deported in February 1942, he saw it as his duty to accompany them. [3]

The Provisional New Beginning

After Frankfurt's liberation from the Nazis by the Allies, there were still about a hundred Jews remaining in Frankfurt, and another 300 returned from the concentration camps. In May 1945, on orders from the Frankfurt city administration, a small group of returnees from the Theresienstadt concentration camp were brought back to their hometown by bus. Among them were the re-founders of the Jewish Community in Frankfurt after the war: Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus and the merchant Max Meyer. Immediately after his return in 1945, Neuhaus opened a provisional care center for surviving Jews with Max Meyer at Friedrichstrasse 29. The first service took place eight days after the return from Theresienstadt in today's synagogue at Baumweg 5–7, which had housed a Jewish kindergarten before being confiscated by the Nazis. Regular services took place there from November 1945 onwards. In the same month, the "New" old people's home was established at Gagernstrasse 36, where there was also a service starting on Hanukkah in early December 1945. Religious instruction for children also resumed in November 1945. A month earlier, Rabbi Neuhaus had begun publishing a newsletter of the Jewish communities and care centers.

In the westernmost Frankfurt district of Zeilsheim, there was a DP camp. Between 1945 and 1949, an average of 3,500 Jews, predominantly from Poland, waited there for their entry permits. They wanted to emigarate to Palestine/Israel, the US and other overseas countries. All across Germany, approximate 200,000 Jewish refugees waited in DP camps between 1945 and 1950 to be able to move on. The Jews in Zeilsheim were organized in the Committee of Liberated Jews in Frankfurt. After the formal recognition of the Jewish Community as a public corporation, this committee merged with the Jewish Community on 27 April 1949. This united the two Frankfurt community organizations.

Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus emigrated to the US as early as 1946, and his successor Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg left the Frankfurt community in 1951. In his farewell sermon, he also mentioned the circumstances for his departure: "At the same time, however, it is a duty to say that even those among us who believed or wanted to believe in a change of thinking of the German people are gradually losing this belief. For even the politically blind gradually notice that those figures are once again haunting the German lands who worked for the smooth implementation of the brown order and the Nazi world conquest campaign, this time disguising their martial faces with the mien of injured innocence, but tomorrow showing their true face unveiled." [4]

The Reconstruction of Community Life

In 1947, work began to convert the rooms in Baumweg into a synagogue, which was consecrated in the fall of 1948. In September 1950, the Westend Synagogue was also restored to its intended purpose. The two-year reconstruction had been financed by the State of Hesse, since the former community assets had not yet been returned. During these transitional years, there were several rabbis in Frankfurt. After Rabbi Neuhaus emigrated in 1946, there was a period without a rabbi until Rabbi Wilhelm Weinberg took office in June 1949. However, from 1947 to 1951, Uri Bluth, who had received his Semicha in Kraków, spent two years in Siberia and four years in Bukhara, served as rabbi in the Orthodox prayer room at Röderbergweg 29, the former Jewish adult education center. Rabbi Leon Thorn (1906–1978) was rabbi in Frankfurt from 1946 to 1948 and during this time editor of the journal Jeschurun. [5] He is credited with establishing a Jewish soup kitchen, a Jewish afternoon school, the reopening of the Samson Raphael Hirsch School, and the founding of a charity fund. [6]

The Community Center

With the construction of the community center at Savignystrasse 66, the provisional character of the post-war Jewish community in Frankfurt came to an end. The older generation was now definitely no longer sitting on packed suitcases. "Whoever builds a house wants to stay, and whoever wants to stay hopes for security," said Salomon Korn in his speech at the opening on 14 September 1986. [7] With this community center as an administrative building without a synagogue, a secular concept was realized; the synagogue no longer formed the center of community life. Nevertheless, symbols of Judaism were chosen as design elements. A narrow stone replica of the Mosaic Tablets of the Law next to the main entrance is intersected by long and deep cracks, intended to hint at the fragility in the relationship between Jews and non-Jews. A list with the names of about 11,000 Frankfurt Jews deported to concentration camps by the Nazis was placed in the foundation stone beneath them. Facing the Tablets of the Law above the main entrance are three stylized seven-branched candelabra, symbols of light as a sign of a still uncertain hope for the future. [8]

Budget

In the "Frankfurt Agreement" of 1990, the city of Frankfurt committed itself to supporting the Jewish Community, whose budget had been running a deficit for a long time. Strengthening Jewish life is a political goal of the city of Frankfurt. The increase in this financial aid to 2.4 million euros in 2007 takes into account the community's growth and increased expenditures. From 1989 to 2007, the number of members rose from around 4,500 to 7,100, with the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union contributing significantly to this growth. This led to increased efforts for integrating the immigrants. The founding of the Philanthropin secondary school, whose student numbers are growing rapidly, also created additional financial burdens. Furthermore, the costs for security measures have increased significantly because the threat of attacks by right-wing extremists and Islamists has increased.

On the basis of the state treaty signed by the State Association of Jewish Communities in Hesse and the Federal State of Hesse on 11 November 1986, and due to a cooperation agreement between the State Association of Jewish Communities in Hesse and the Jewish Community of Frankfurt, the Jewish Community of Frankfurt receives 70 percent of the state contractual state benefits. [9] From 2008 onwards, the State of Hesse increased its contributions to the State Association of Jewish Communities in Hesse to 3.7 million euros, of which the Frankfurt community, as the largest community in the state, receives 70 percent because it performs central functions for the other communities.

Furthermore, based on a special agreement of 10 November 2000 between the State of Hesse, the City of Frankfurt and the Jewish Community of Frankfurt, the State of Hesse provides a debt relief contribution for the Jewish Community of Frankfurt amounting to 1,277,100 euros. Nevertheless, Hesse then ranks among the lowest in terms of benefits provided, according to a survey of the states.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Zunz</span> German Reform Rabbi (1794–1886)

Leopold Zunz was the founder of academic Judaic Studies, the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Zunz's historical investigations and contemporary writings had an important influence on contemporary Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iyar</span> 2nd month of the Hebrew calendar

Iyar is the eighth month of the civil year and the second month of the Jewish religious year on the Hebrew calendar. The name is Babylonian in origin. It is a month of 29 days. Iyar usually falls in April–May on the Gregorian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pápa</span> Town in Veszprém County, Hungary

Pápa is a historical town in Veszprém county, Hungary, located close to the northern edge of the Bakony Hills, and noted for its baroque architecture. With its 28,549 inhabitants (2024), it is the cultural, economic and tourism centre of the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Frankfurt</span>

The city of Frankfurt am Main started on a hill at a ford in the Main River. The city developed into a financial centre, nicknamed the smallest metropolis in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Austria</span> Ethnic group

The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. There have been Jews in Austria since the 3rd century CE. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewish community prospered and enjoyed political equality, and during other periods it suffered pogroms, deportations to concentration camps and mass murder, and antisemitism. The Holocaust drastically reduced the Jewish community in Austria and only 8,140 Jews remained in Austria according to the 2001 census. Today, Austria has a Jewish population of 10,300 which extends to 33,000 if Law of Return is accounted for, meaning having at least one Jewish grandparent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Carlebach</span> German scholar, scientist, Orthodox rabbi (1883-1942)

Joseph Hirsch (Tzvi) Carlebach was a German Orthodox rabbi, natural scientist, and scholar of the history of the Jews in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Márkus Horovitz</span> Hungarian rabbi and historian

Markus Horovitz was a Hungarian rabbi and historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankfurter Judengasse</span> Historical Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, Germany

The Frankfurter Judengasse was the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt and one of the earliest ghettos in Germany. It existed from 1462 until 1811 and was home to Germany's largest Jewish community in early modern times.

The history of the Jews in Laupheim began in the first half of the 18th century. Until the second half of the 19th century, the Jewish community in Laupheim, expanded continuously to become the largest of its kind in Württemberg. During this period, the Jewish community gradually assimilated to its Christian surroundings and its members prospered until the beginning of the Nazi-period in 1933. With the deportation of the last remaining Jews in 1942, more than 200 years of Jewish history in Laupheim forcibly came to an end.

Rhina is a village in eastern Hesse, Germany, belonging to the Haunetal municipality within the district of Hersfeld-Rotenburg. In 2004, the population of Rhina consisted of 509 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburg Temple</span> Former synagogue in Hamburg, Germany

The Hamburg Temple is a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Hamburg, Germany. The congregation was the first permanent Reform Jewish community and the first to have a Reform prayer rite. It operated from 1818 to 1938. On 18 October 1818 the Temple was inaugurated and later twice moved to new edifices, in 1844 and 1931, respectively. The congregation abandoned the synagogue in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Cologne</span>

The history of the Jews in Cologne dates to 321 C.E., when they were first recorded in a census decreed by Emperor Constantine I. As such, it is the oldest European Jewish community north of the Alps. The community quickly established itself in what came to be known as Cologne's Jewish quarter, building its first synagogue by 1040 C.E. The Crusades put an end to peaceful coexistence with Christians in 1096 C.E. Despite the Archbishop's protection many Jews were killed and their synagogue destroyed. The community regained its economic and religious life until about 1300 C.E., when the Christian majority again applied pressure. The community's fortunes improved and worsened a number of times into the 20th century. Before the 1930s, it consisted of 19,500 people. After the end of World War II it had been almost entirely extinguished due to Nazi destruction, expulsion and murder. Currently it numbers approximately 5,000.

The history of the Jews in Königsberg reaches back to the 1530s. By the 20th century Königsberg had one of the larger Jewish communities within the German Reich. The city's Jewish community was eliminated by emigration and then The Holocaust during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Löwenstamm</span> German-born British Jewish theologian, writer and rabbi

Arthur Löwenstamm was a Jewish theologian, writer and rabbi in Berlin and in London, where he came in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berthold Guthmann</span> German lawyer and soldier (1893–1944)

Berthold Guthmann was a German lawyer and First World War veteran. Guthmann, a German Jew, was the secular head of the Jewish community of Wiesbaden in its final years from 1938 to 1942 and was murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salomon Korn</span> German architect

Salomon Korn is a German architect and an honorary senator of Heidelberg University. Since 1999 he has served as chairman of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main and since 2003 as vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dieter Graumann</span> German jurist

Dieter Graumann is an Israeli/German jurist and economist. From 28 November 2010 to 30 November 2014, he was President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and has been Vice President of the World Jewish Congress since 6 May 2013. He succeeded Charlotte Knobloch in both positions.

Like other areas under Nazi Germany, Jews were persecuted in the northernmost German state Schleswig-Holstein. Before the Nazis came to power in 1933, an estimated 1,900 Jews lived in Schleswig-Holstein, mostly in Lübeck and Kiel. By the time of Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945, many of Schleswig-Holstein's Jews had been murdered in the Holocaust.

The history of the Jews in Hannover began in the 13th century. In 2009, about 6200 people belonged to the four Jewish communities in Hannover.

References

  1. ↑ Zentralrat der Juden – Landesverbände
  2. ↑ Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt – Synagogen
  3. ↑ Neuhaus, Leopold in the Frankfurter Personenlexikon.
  4. ↑ Otto R. Romberg, Susanne Urban-Fahr (editors): Juden in Deutschland nach 1945. Bürger oder „Mit“-Bürger? Edition Tribüne, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-00-005169-4, p. 138.
  5. ↑ Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt 1945–1949, Inventory B, 1/13, Series A, in Central archive for researching the history of Jews in Germany, [zentralarchiv-juden.de].
  6. ↑ Kata Bohus, Atina Grossmann, Werner Hanak, Mirjam Wenzel (editors): Unser Mut – Juden in Europa 1945–48. DeGruyter Oldenbourg, 2020. ISBN 978-3-1106-4918-5, Kapitel Moritz Bauernfeind: Frankfurt und Zeilsheim. Amerika in Deutschland, pages 248–265.
  7. ↑ Salomon Korn: Geteilte Erinnerung. Beiträge zur „deutsch-jüdischen“ Gegenwart. Philo Verlags-Gesellschaft, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8257-0141-7, page 73.
  8. ↑ Salomon Korn: Geteilte Erinnerung. Beiträge zur „deutsch-jüdischen“ Gegenwart. Philo Verlags-Gesellschaft, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8257-0141-7, page 63.
  9. ↑ Gesetzentwurf der Landesregierung. starweb.hessen.de, 5 November 2007
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.