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Jewish Cultural Sites in Berlin
Berlin – the center of the Jewish renaissance Theater festivals, readings, concerts, and art – there is no end to the list of cultural arenas where Jewish life is leaving its mark in Berlin. Tens of thousands of Jews, many of them Russian Jews who emigrated from the former Soviet Union, are reconstituting Jewish life in Berlin, which is once again home to the largest Jewish community in Germany. Its hub is Mitte, Berlin’s vibrant cultural district in former East Berlin where local hot spots and Israeli-style cafés that attract out-of-town visitors and Berliners alike. Over the entire district towers the gilded onion dome of Berlin’s New Synagogue, built in 1866. The New Synagogue Berlin and the Centrum Judaicum
When the New Synagogue opened in Berlin in 1866, it was the largest religious meeting place for Jews in the city and quickly became the largest in Germany with a total of 3200 seats – though barely enough to accommodate the city’s blossoming Jewish community at the time. It was built by the architect Eduard Knoblauch (1801-1865) in the style of the Alhambra in Granada. The building’s onion dome, laced with gold, towers more than 50 meters above the district and quickly found fame throughout Germany as an example of modern building techniques. The New Synagogue was spared the devastation that most Jewish-owned buildings experienced during the Kristallnacht pogrom – the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9, 1938, that saw Nazi thugs lay waste to Jewish homes and business throughout the country and murder hundreds of people – but was severely bombed during World War II. Just the two main buildings facing the street remained until 1995, when the synagogue reopened with a cultural center and the permanent exhibitions “Tuet auf die Pforten” and the “New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum.” While few objects from the original synagogue remain, the exhibitions include documents that chronicle Jewish Life in the area of Berlin surrounding Mitte. Several of the original walls have been preserved to act as “living wounds,” reminders of the bombing that destroyed the original building. The Synagogue at Rykestrasse 53 The Synagogue at Rykstrasse 53 is the only Jewish house of faith that escaped the terror of the Third Reich, desecrated but not destroyed. Today, it is a gathering point that has facilities to accommodate more worshippers than any other synagogue in Germany. Built in 1904 by Johann Hoeniger, it was confiscated by the Nazis in 1940 and underwent restoration in 1953. For almost half a century, it was the only synagogue for the small East Berlin Jewish community. Today it is an orthodox synagogue with regular services and home to the Jewish education center of the Lauder Foundation. The Jewish Museum in Berlin
With its jagged, striking new wing at its location on Lindenstrasse 9-14, the Jewish Museum in Berlin has become one of the most thought-provoking destinations in Germany and Berlin’s architectural highlight. The exhibitions cover over two millennia of the relationship between Germans and Jews, exploring the periodic making and breaking of cultural ties between non-Jews and the Jewish people, and serves as a springboard for reflection on the darkest chapter of German history—the Holocaust. Long before Germany’s Jewish population was obliterated during the Third Reich, the country experienced something of a highpoint of religious tolerance during the European Enlightenment. Philosophers such as Moses Mendelssohn and plays such as G.E. Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise” promoted tolerance by extolling the virtues of education, equality, and the universal rights of man. Therefore it is appropriate that visitors to the Jewish Museum first enter the Baroque building known as the Kollegienhaus, which stands in stark contrast to the museum’s famous modern wing, built by American architect Daniel Libeskind. The remarkable change in the Jewish German relationship is reflected in the extreme architectural contrast between the two buildings. Since Libeskind erected the remarkable steel and glass construction, he has become a major force in modern architecture.
The museum’s extensive exhibitions chronicle Jewish Life in Germany
from the early Middle Ages, when Jews were granted the right to be appointed
to state government, to the establishment of Jewish schools and synagogues
in medieval times, the lives of rural Jews in the 16th-18th centuries,
the Enlightenment, and the emergence of modern Judaism in the 19th century.
A section on early 20th century Jewish Life details the growth of Anti-Semitism
in Europe alongside the abundant flourishing of Jews in all walks of business
and cultural life. Documents, photographs and artwork mark the Jewish
people’s fluctuating status as citizens in Germany. Jews fought
alongside their countrymen in the First World War and Judaism was granted
equality with other religions under the fated Weimar Republic in 1919
– a right that was promptly abolished under the Third Reich. The
Libeskind wing of the museum confronts the Holocaust through both the
architecture of the building and the exhibitions displayed therein. Jewish Culture Days in Berlin
Events at the festival included performance by a Jewish theater group from Bucharest – the oldest in Europe, Jewish rappers, a film series, Klezmer performances, concerts by Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian musicians, a cooking studio, a lecture series, and a children’s program. Links:
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The
Jewish Culture Days festival in 2003 marked the 17th time that the city
has put together an annual city-wide cultural offering that reflects the
vibrancy and scope of Jewish influence on culture.
