Mikvah of Strasbourg | |
---|---|
Native name Mikvé de Strasbourg | |
![]() Mikvah site, June 2018 | |
Type | Mikvah (Jewish ritual bath) |
Location | 20, rue des Charpentiers Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, Alsace France |
Coordinates | 48°34′49″N7°45′10″E / 48.5802°N 7.7527°E |
Official name | Bain rituel juif présumé |
Designated | 1985 |
Reference no. | PA00085013 |
The Mikvah (or Jewish ritual bath) of Strasbourg is a historic site in Strasbourg, in the French department of Bas-Rhin.
The site is unique as it connects to the Jewish heritage of Strasbourg that dates back to the Middle Ages.
The mikvah is located in a cave within a modern building at 20 rue des Charpentiers in the historic center of Strasbourg, midway between the Strabourg Cathedral and the Episcopal Palace of Strasbourg.
The ritual bath has been listed as a monuments historique since November 15, 1985. [1]
It was discovered in 1985 during a 1984 renovation of a group of houses at the corner of Rue des Juifs and Rue des Charpentiers. The buildings housed the ISTRA printing company until the 1980s. [2]
The housing block was long known as being part of the perimeter of the Medieval Jewish life in Strasbourg. Oral traditions conserved the memory of the existence of a mikvah in this building (at 19 Rue des Juifs) to the point that in the 16th century the location was referred to as Zum Judenbad, or the Jewish Bath. Other than these stories, all other information or memory had been lost to history until its rediscovery.
Conscious of the risk that the planned demolition and renovation of the space would do to the ritual bath site, the Société d'Histoire des Israélites d'Alsace et de Lorraine (SHIAL) appealed to then Minister of Culture Jack Lang, and an agreement between the buyers and the public authorities was signed. The agreement allowed for a six-month stoppage in building work to organize an archaeological investigation of the site. [3] The investigations brought to light the Mikvah site in its entirety.
The site currently serves as a public mikvah within a synagogue on site. Another private mikvah exists within a private residence on Rue des Juifs.
The monument is open for visits under certain conditions. Its opening to the public – along with the possibility of guided tours – is organized on certain days of the year by the Department of Culture for the City of Strasbourg.
The first Jews arrived in Strasbourg around 1150, coming from nearby German towns along the Palatinate, including Mayence, Spire, and Worms.
The mikvah was constructed a short time after the arrival of the community, around 1200. At the same time, the Jewish community in Strasbourg was flourishing, with community members working as merchants along European trade routes.
The situation for the Jews in Strasbourg began to deteriorate at the beginning of the 14th century, due to economic competition from local bourgeoise and increased Jewish immigration from other areas. It worsened in 1347, when Jews were accused of having propagated the Black Death. In 1349, the synagogue in Strasbourg was pillaged and hundreds of Jews were massacred in the Jewish cemetery in town (now location of Place de la République). Survivors of the massacre were given the decision to either convert or flee. Some Jews decided to return to Strasbourg in 1362, but Strasbourg banned Jews from settling in the city in 1391, a ban that would stay in place for 400 years, only overturned after the French Revolution.
After the Jewish community was forced out of Strasbourg in the 1390s, the mikvah was turned into a well. This well was found during excavation of the mikvah site.
The Mikvah is an approximately 3m square room of grey sandstone topped by a red brick barrel vault.
At four corners of the room, near the upper part of the vault, are four Romanesque stone corbels.
The basin at the center of the room can hold at least 500 liters of purified water, coming directly from primarily groundwater (rainwater can be used as mikvah water under Jewish law, but it is not relevant in the case of this particular mikvah). Today, the groundwater is no longer visible, as the water table in that neighborhood is 8 meters below street level.
At the center of the barrel vault, there is a circular zenith hole of about 0.9 meters. This hole is believed to be used for the collection of rainwater in addition to the groundwater. In Alsace, groundwater is easily accessible, thus the mikvah primarily uses these two sources for its water.
The remains of a staircase of grey and pink sandstone remain visible at the mikvah. The staircase led from the entrance of the bath, at the basement level of the building, down to the water table. The last step of the staircase opens to the bath itself. Part of the steps in the staircase were reused in the construction of a well following the departure of the Jews from the building.
Two niches are visible on the walls, used for the placement of candles.
At the bottom of the basin lies a wooden structure of about 1.7 m by 1.5 m. This structure, whose interlocking angles are characteristic of the 11th or 12th century, was probably retaining formwork associated with the construction of the bath.
The opening of the well found during the excavation of the area, was off-center in relation to the zenith hole at the top of the vault. This continues archaeological questions about the site. Work to clear the mikvah area has left the base of this well, represented by four large stone slabs 1 meter wide, 1.3 meters high and 12 cm thick.
It is believed that the room next to the square room was used for people to undress before entering the Mikvah. [5]
Strasbourg is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department.
The Marais is a historic district in Paris, France. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements on the Rive Droite, or Right Bank, of the Seine. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It lost its status as a fashionable district in the late 18th century, with only minor nobles calling the area home. After the French Revolution, the district fell into disrepair and was abandoned by nobility. After a long period of decay, the district has undergone transformation in recent years and is now once again amongst the more fashionable areas of Paris, known for its art galleries, upscale restaurants and museums.
La Petite France, in Alsatian dialect: Französel is the south-western part of the Grande Île of Strasbourg in Alsace in eastern France, the most central and characteristic island of the city that forms the historic center. The district is bounded to the north by the Quai de la Bruche (Brischstade), the Rue du Bain-aux-Plantes, the Place Benjamin-Zix and the Rue des Dentelles; to the east by the Rue du Pont-Saint-Martin, the Pont Saint-Thomas and the Mills footbridge; to the south by the Channel of Zorn-Mühle; to the west by the Covered Bridges.
Armand Lunel was a French writer of Provençal Jewish background.
David Feuerwerker was a French Jewish rabbi and professor of Jewish history who was effective in the resistance to German occupation the Second World War. He was completely unsuspected until six months before the war ended, when he fled to Switzerland and his wife and baby went underground in France. The French government cited him for his bravery with several awards. After the war, he and his wife re-established the Jewish community of Lyon. He settled in Paris, teaching at the Sorbonne. In 1966, he and his family, grown to six children, moved to Montreal, where he developed a department of Jewish studies at the University of Montreal.
Bouxwiller is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department, Alsace, Grand Est, northeastern France. Likely meaning "Bucco's land", Bouxwiller is the capital of the Bouxwiller canton and is located within the Saverne arrondissement about 34 kilometres (21 mi) northwest of Strasbourg.
Herrlisheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The town dates from the 8th century. Herrlisheim was the scene of very heavy fighting during Operation Nordwind, an offensive launched by the German Army during World War II that inflicted considerable damage to the town.
Shmuel Trigano is a sociologist, philosopher, professor emeritus of sociology at Paris Nanterre University. He was Tikvah Fund Visiting Professor in Jewish Law and Thought at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York (2009), and Templeton Fellow at the Herzl Institute (Jerusalem) program "Philosophy of the Tanakh, Midrash and Talmud" (2012-2013), (2015-2017). Elia Benamozegh European Chair of Sephardic Studies, Livorno, Italy (2002).
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme or mahJ is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. It is located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Marais district in Paris.
The history of the Jews in Alsace is one of the oldest in Europe. It was first attested to in 1165 by Benjamin of Tudela, who wrote about a "large number of learned men" in "Astransbourg"; and it is assumed that it dates back to around the year 1000. Although Jewish life in Alsace was often disrupted by outbreaks of pogroms, at least during the Middle Ages, and reined in by harsh restrictions on business and movement, it has had a continuous existence ever since it was first recorded. At its peak, in 1870, the Jewish community of Alsace numbered 35,000 people.
The beginnings of the history of the Jews in Besançon go back to the Middle Ages, a period during which the Jews settled in the city attracted by its activity as a commercial place. The community was founded at the end of the 14th century and, due to its status as a free imperial city, Besançon remained one of the only territories in present-day France to tolerate Jews after their expulsion from the kingdom of France in 1394. The community was nevertheless expelled in turn from Besançon in the middle of the 15th century. The Jews made a tentative return to the city in the 18th century, but it was only after the French Revolution, which emancipated them, that their situation in the Franche-Comté capital stabilized. Although the Jewish community never exceeded 2,000 people except on the eve of the Second World War, it experienced great economic success during the industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century, when the Lipmann family founded LIP, a brand of watchmaking which then became one of the economic engines of the region and remained associated with the name of the city.
Fritz Münch was a French music administrator and conductor, as well as being a pastor.
Etablissement René Neymann is a French company founded in 1850 that makes matzah and unleavened bread. It is the oldest company of unleavened bread operating in France. The general manager is Jean-Claude Neymann, who represents the 5th generation of managers of this familial and artisanal company.
The Bischheim Musée du bain rituel juif is a museum in Bischheim, France, in which Jewish bathing rituals were practiced, now recognized as a historical monument in France.
The Neustadt is a district of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. In 2017, the heart of the district was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, as an extension of the site including the older city centre and Strasbourg Cathedral. The district is a unique example of city planning, merging the Haussmannian model with elements of German architecture and urban planning.
The Synagogue du Quai Kléber was the main synagogue of Strasbourg, France before World War II. It was built in the "Neustadt" when the city was part of the German Empire and destroyed by Nazi Germany after it annexed the city in 1940; in the years between, Strasbourg and its Jewish community were French.
The Place de la République is one of the main squares of the city of Strasbourg, France. It is surrounded on three sides by five buildings only, of which none is residential: the Palais du Rhin, the National and University Library, the Théâtre national de Strasbourg, the Préfecture of Grand Est and Bas-Rhin, and the tax center Hôtel des impôts. All of these buildings are classified as monuments historiques. The fourth side of the square is devoid of buildings.
The synagogue of Guebwiller is a synagogue in Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin, France.
The Saint-Avold Synagogue is a Jewish synagogue at the corner of Rue des Americains and Rue de la Mertzelle near Place Paul-Collin in Saint-Avold, France. The current synagogue building, completed in 1956, replaces a nearby synagogue destroyed during the German occupation of France in World War II.
The Rashi Synagogue is a Jewish Synagogue on 5 rue Brunneval in Troyes, Grand Est, France. The synagogue is named after the medieval Jewish Rabbi and biblical commentator Rashi, who was born and died in Troyes. A Sephardic Orthodox synagogue, it is a member of the Consistoire central israélite de France. The site includes a museum, the Rashi House, a cultural center, and a library. The European University Rashi Institute,, located opposite the synagogue, is a research institute independent of the synagogue focused on Jewish studies, Semitic studies, and Monotheism.
un itinéraire à travers l'histoire, les traditions et le patrimoine