Israelite synagogue community Adass Yisroel in Berlin
The Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin is a Jewish community in Berlin that was founded in 1869 as a counter-movement to the reform-oriented Jewish community in Berlin . After the community was destroyed during the Nazi era , it resumed its activities in 1986.
General
Emergence
The Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin was founded in Berlin in 1869 by previous members of the Jewish Community in Berlin who did not support the assimilation and reform-oriented direction of this community. "Adass Yisroel" (Hebrew: Adat Israel) is a synonym from the Torah with the meaning of the Jewish people, here meant as the Jewish community. The church planters adhered to the handed-down rules and traditions of law-abiding ( Orthodox ) Judaism. In 1885 the Adass Jisroel community received official recognition from the German Emperor and King of Prussia as a Jewish religious community with equal rights alongside the Berlin Jewish community. Since 1904, the Israelite Synagogue Congregation (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin, Kdö.R. their headquarters in Berlin-Mitte, Tucholskystraße 40 (former name Artilleriestraße 31). Today the parish hall, synagogue and all other community facilities are located there. Also their kosher restaurant, the “Beth Café” and their “Kolbo”, kosher food, wines and Judaica.
Religious and social self-image
In the 19th century, the rabbis Esriel Hildesheimer in Berlin and Samson Raphael Hirsch in Frankfurt am Main devoted themselves to the development of a youth “equipped for everyday social life as well as for the eternal life of the Torah” . The latter had made a section from the "sayings of the fathers" by Rabban Gamliel , the son of Prince Rabbi Jehuda, the guideline for his ethical work in the community and society: "It is beautiful to fulfill the Torah ideal combined with the demands of the times".
For the Adass Yisroel, too, this motto was in their cradle and from then on. In general, this phrase has entered the traditions of enlightened Orthodox Judaism as a motto. Observance and maintenance of the Jewish religious law in modern society, opening up to science, culture and art, in short “tradition plus enlightenment” became the calling card of the Adass Yisroel community.
Legal status
The Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin is the law-abiding (Orthodox) Jewish religious community in the capital of Germany since July 1869. It is the only well-established Jewish religious body still in existence in Germany, as it was already a recognized body under public law when the Weimar Constitution came into force in 1919 . That she is still the one and only Adass Yisroel from 1869 was confirmed by the Federal Administrative Court in October 1997 - with a judgment of the highest instance. It was established that the community with its seat at Tucholskystraße 40 (formerly: Artilleriestraße 31) is part of the institutional and personal legal continuity and legal identity of the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin, founded in 1869 and approved by the Prussian royal house in 1885. Some free riders tried their hand at fortune: both in 1949 and in 2014, associations appeared in Berlin that presumptuously named themselves “Adass Yisroel”, but without admitting anything historically, institutionally, legally or in terms of content with the Israelite synagogue community (Adass Yisroel) Berlin has to do. Torah terms such as the combination of words “Adass Yisroel” are logically not protected by copyright. These groups took advantage of this and not only violated the truth and the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion, but also tried to deceive the Jewish and non-Jewish public in a clumsy way.
The two long-established Jewish religious communities from the time before the Shoah still exist in the German capital Berlin : The Jewish community in Berlin , established in 1712 and headquartered in Oranienburger Strasse, and the Israelite synagogue community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin, founded in 1869 in Tucholskystraße (formerly: Artilleriestraße), both Berlin-Mitte .
The Adass Yisroel in the Nazi era and afterwards
Like all Jewish institutions in Germany, the two communities in Berlin were smashed and plundered during the Nazi era , their members disenfranchised and persecuted, expelled, abducted, and murdered. Although it had already been active again, the Jewish Community in Berlin was formally re-established in September 1951; their historical rights were not recognized. Adass Jisroel was able to resume its activities in the mid-1980s and was confirmed in 1997 by a judgment of the Federal Administrative Court as a well-established religious body under public law, with its legal identity and legal continuity with regard to the pre-war community. Both communities are religiously, culturally and socially active for their members and for the benefit of Jewish life in Berlin.
Adass Yisroel yesterday and today
Adass Yisroel in the early days
Regardless of the pressure prevailing in the 19th century for social and ideological assimilation, the establishment of the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Yisroel) in Berlin in 1869 was the conscious commitment of 100 Jewish families from Berlin to the Jewish religious law in its traditional form and tradition. Neither the reform on the one hand nor an anti-emancipation isolation on the other hand was the goal of the Adass Yisroel community, but the standardization of law-abiding life with an openness to culture, science, education and art of the environment - emancipation and active participation in society should be while preserving the Jewish tradition be realized.
Development of the community up to the Shoah
With the opening of religious schools, synagogues and ritual institutions immediately after 1869, the Adass Jisroel developed an independent community life in Berlin. The first rabbi to be appointed was Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer , who was born in Halberstadt and worked in the Hungarian-Austrian town of Eisenstadt. In 1873 he founded the rabbi seminar in Berlin, which was closely associated with Adass Jisroel. In 1880 Adass Jisroel inaugurated their community cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee on Falkenberger Chaussee, today Wittlicher Straße 14. Initially, the community center and synagogue were located at Gipsstrasse 12 (today destroyed) to be relocated to the new building of the community at Artilleriestrasse 31 (today: Tucholskystrasse 40) on Friday, September 29, 1904, on the eve of the Jewish New Year festival " Rosh Haschaná " 5665 , where they are still today. This community complex included both the Adass Yisroel and the Rabbi Seminary in Berlin and was built in the years 1902–1904 by the community on land that the community had acquired in 1897 with the help of its member Israel Kessler. As the community grew, in 1924 a second community center was set up in addition to the religious schools in Berlin-Tiergarten, Siegmundshof 11 with a synagogue, secondary school and upper lyceum - the first and to this day only Jewish-religious grammar school in Germany. A separate hospital, the Adass Yisroel Israelite Hospital, was opened in Berlin-Mitte in 1909. The community also maintained or supported some smaller prayer rooms in Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Tiergarten and Charlottenburg. The rabbi seminar, founded in 1873 and ideally, institutionally and spatially connected to the community, has meanwhile become the most important training center for law-abiding rabbis with an international presence. At the beginning of the thirties of the 20th century, one sixth of Berlin's Jews were associated with the Adass Jisroel, either as members or as supporters who used the services of the community and actively or passively participated in community activities.
The Adass Yisroel fared like all Jewish communities in Germany. After countless previous acts of persecution and disenfranchisement, the Gestapo ordered the smashing of Adass Yisroel and its incorporation into the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany" founded and directed by the Nazis in December 1939. This deprived the Adass Yisroel of their rights and of their historical parishes.
The post-Shoah church - overview
After the genocide of the European Jews, the surviving, emigrated Adassians had neither the opportunity nor the strength to immediately reconstitute themselves as a community in Berlin. For its part, the German state had not invited, asked or asked the survivors to return to Germany or to rebuild the community. There was a lack of interest in the restoration of Jewish community life throughout Germany. In the west of Berlin, the school building and the synagogue in Siegmundshof were sold by unauthorized persons to third parties and razed in 1955. In the east of the city, the community's great synagogue fared the same in 1967. In 1985, efforts to rebuild the community began in both parts of Berlin, which was then still divided. The governments in the east and west of Berlin were in astonishing agreement, even if they were not mutually agreed. H. on the one hand the government of the GDR and on the other hand the Senate of Berlin, unwilling to face the responsibility of the disenfranchisement and destruction of the community by Nazi decrees and to restore the Adass Yisroel to their traditional rights.
Since the summer of 1985, Adass Jisroel has rescued and restored its devastated and overgrown cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee from destruction under difficult conditions, with the tolerance and selective support of the GDR authorities and mainly with the help of volunteers from East and West.
On December 18, 1939, the Gestapo ordered the dissolution of the Adass Yisroel community. On December 18, 1989, the 50th anniversary of the NS dissolution decree, the first GDR government declared the reinstatement of the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Yisroel) in Berlin to the rights that had been revoked during the Nazi era . The rights of the community in the east of the city were thus restored. The rebuilding of the community could begin. On Purim 1990 (5750) a makeshift synagogue was re-consecrated in the parish hall, Torah scrolls came from Israel, it was celebrated. In the presence of Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, the kosher restaurant Beth Café was opened in the parish hall in July 1991 and the reconstructed parish cemetery was re-inaugurated; In April 1992 the shop for kosher food and Jewish rituals "Kolbo" followed. A new synagogue and the restoration of the destroyed ritual spring baths (Mikwaot) were planned.
Church work
In addition to the regular church services, Hebrew lessons, religion courses for children and adults, lectures and readings on Jewish tradition and culture in the past and present were set up in the community. A library with a department for archives and documentation on Jewish events in Berlin was set up. The children's club ("Mo'adonit") opened in the parish hall became a magnet for children of all ages. In social work, Adass Yisroel dedicated itself to the reception and integration of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The congregation was the first Jewish institution in Berlin to look after hundreds of immigrant families and individuals from March 1990 onwards, providing them with advice and assistance in all social, professional, health and housing issues. For many immigrants it was the first time that they had the opportunity to become part of a Jewish community and to experience and absorb Jewish life practically. The community also turned to care for the elderly, sick pastoral care and the care of Jewish prisoners in Berlin prisons. In general, the community is active in the field of Jewish education and welfare.
In its self-image, Adass Yisroel is and remains committed to the preservation and transmission of law-abiding Judaism, to strengthening Jewish life in Berlin and to maintaining ties to Israel.
The Senate of Berlin and the municipality
Until the reunification
Even after German reunification , the attitude of the Berlin Senate towards the Adass Yisroel community remained to adhere to the post-war situation. In 1951 the Jewish Community became Berlin, that was enough for the Senate, Jewish diversity, which was the norm until the Nazi era, was not welcome. Several years of dispute and three instances of German jurisdiction were necessary to restore the community of Adass Yisroel in Berlin to their rights.
The central line of argument of the Berlin Senate against the recognition of Adass Yisroel was twofold: the “human substratum” of the community was no longer there. In German: too many of the Jews of Adass Yisroel were killed, too few remained. The community "went under" and thus the right of the community to continue to exist was forfeited. In this justification, the genocide of the Jews degenerated into a kind of accident on the high seas, a kind of natural event in which the German state was not involved and the victims themselves had to bathe. In 1988, Anke Martiny, the SPD Senator for Culture at the time, presented such objections to the Berlin Administrative Court. The second argument of the Berlin Senate accused the parishioners of "inactivity" after 1945. The logic was as follows: Because the Jewish survivors had failed to show up in Berlin after the liberation to practice the resumption of community activities, they would have unspoken, so as it was called "implied" decided against the continued existence of the Adass Jisroel. The right of the community is forfeited. The community was responsible for its own destruction. However, the fact that the Jews were murdered or expelled and the survivors were unable to start over in the perpetrators' country was ignored. As she had brought before the court, the Berlin state government had to “respect” the negative Jewish vote it had invented itself.
After reunification
In October 1997, the legal dispute between the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin and the Senate of Berlin, represented by the Senate Department for Culture, was decided by the Federal Administrative Court in the last instance. The court unreservedly confirmed the position of the community and the legal status of Adass Yisroel as a pre-constitutionally recognized, long-established religious body - a public corporation. The community was neither legally dissolved nor perished. This made the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin the only Jewish religious community still in existence in Germany that has its original legal title in full legal identity and continuity between today's community and the community before the Holocaust. The community is not a new foundation, not a legal successor and not a re-admitted corporation, so the court. Since neither the injustice of the German state in the period 1933–1945 nor the arguments of the Berlin Senate can unfold validity, the community of Adass Yisroel has existed without interruption since 1869 and to this day with all its rights.
The arguments of the Berlin Senate were never withdrawn, neither the Senate nor individual politicians have ever apologized for their derailments. In the decades that have passed since the decision of the Federal Administrative Court, the arguments have been modified somewhat, made more contemporary, so to speak. To this day, the Adass Yisroel Church has experienced the same hostile and hostile attitude.
The rabbinical seminary in Berlin
founding
The establishment of the rabbinical seminary in Berlin is closely linked to Esriel Hildesheimer's appointment to Berlin in September 1869 to head the law-abiding synagogue community that has just been established. He had made taking over the rabbinate of the community subject to the condition that he would be assured of the opportunity to combine both activities. Since then, both institutions, the Adass Yisroel congregation and the rabbi seminary in Berlin, have been closely interwoven and have always been housed under one and the same roof. As it says in a report of the time, "with the energy that distinguishes him", Rabbi Hildesheimer opened his lectures immediately after taking office in the community. A number of students from his previous educational establishment in Eisenstadt had followed the teacher to Berlin to continue their training here under his direction. At the same time a number of other students from all over Germany gathered around him, “attracted by the reputation of his erudition and his tireless teacher, captivated by his loving kindness, helpful for all needs of his disciples, and by the exemplary way of life of this master, all of him Working in devotion to noble works of love, just as the preservation and preservation of traditional Judaism was exhausted ”. So it was reported back then. A suitable plot of land (Gipsstrasse 12a) was acquired in Berlin-Mitte at. To achieve the rights of a legal person, the necessary steps have been taken with the relevant authorities; they were crowned by royal decree of November 29, 1873. The rabbinical seminary in Berlin was an academic teaching institution.
development
After a build-up phase of barely two years, the opening took place on October 22nd, 1873 (1st Marcheschwan 5633) at a ceremony at which representatives of the Prussian Ministry of Culture and the Provincial School Council personally congratulated. At the opening of the seminar, the teacher college was formed by Esriel Hildesheimer, the rector, two lecturers, David Zwi Hoffmann (for Talmud, ritual codices and Pentateuch exegesis) and Abraham Berliner (for post-Talmudic history, literary history and auxiliary sciences). The college was expanded in 1874 with Jakob Barth as a lecturer in the Hebrew language, exegesis of the biblical books (with the exception of the Pentateuch) and philosophy of religion. History, previously represented by the rector himself, was taken over by his son Hirsch Hildesheimer in 1882 . This calling made it possible to introduce lectures on Josephus , Philo and the Alexandrians , and the geography of the Holy Land , into the curriculum . After moving from Schwerin to Berlin, Rabbi Salomon Cohn took over the theoretical and practical homiletics . The increase in the number of pupils required another teacher, Joseph Wohlgemuth, who, in addition to the Talmudic disciplines, also took on theoretical homiletics and philosophy of religion . Through this relief, David Zwi Hoffmann was able to dedicate his undivided strength to the Talmudic-Halachic teaching in the senior department.
Rabbi Seminary: An academic educational institution
What Rabbi Hirsch Hildesheimer had already practiced in his rabbinical school in Eisenstadt, namely the simultaneous Abitur training for his rabbinical students, he continued in Berlin, immediately after the establishment of his rabbi seminar for Orthodox Judaism. At that time, not only Jewish, but also general scientific subjects were taught in the rabbi seminar in Berlin. The annual report of the rabbi seminar for 1878/1879 already lists Rector Hildesheimer as a lecturer for mathematics, combination theory and binomial theorem, progressions, analytical and synthetic. Lecturer Rabbi David Hoffmann teaches planimetry and trigonometry, Jakob Barth teaches German literature from the beginning to Lessing, auxiliary teacher stud. phil. L. David teaches Latin and Greek, assistant teacher stud. phil. Hirsch Hildesheim history and geography.
Later, there were more demanding admission requirements: the applicants had to have a uniform level of education. In addition to the religious lifestyle, which is taken for granted, the following was required: a) in Talmudic, the ability to independently grasp a text of medium difficulty along with Rashi and Tosaphot commentaries on the Pentateuch and Talmud, b) in the profane, be able to prove at least the maturity for the prima of a high school.
Shortly afterwards, the study conditions were defined as binding: In order to study at the Rabbi Seminar in Berlin , applicants also had to be regular students at the Friedrich Wilhelm University (today Humboldt University in Berlin). This fact ensured the high scientific level of the students, who at the same time as completing their rabbinical training, graduates of the university were provided with an academic title. This is how the well-known figure of "Rabbi Dr.", typical for this educational institution, came about.
Today's institutions that recklessly and presumptuously try to adorn themselves with the title "Rabbi seminar", even in Berlin, whether intentionally or not, operate a fraudulent label because their training profile, their academic level and their entire concept do not clearly define anything have in common the academic character of the rabbi seminar in Berlin associated with the Adass Yisroel community.
The unity of the community and the rabbi seminary
The congregation and the rabbi seminar were always not only housed under one roof, they also complemented each other in terms of personnel and organization and benefited from each other in their work. Both institutions were "children" of the one father with a unified spirit and purpose. They were downright "twins" due to their common appeal to "יָפֶה תַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה עִם דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ" from Pirkei Avot (Proverbs of the Väer) and "דְּרָכֶיךָ דָעֵהוּ, וְהוּא יְיַשֵּׁר אֹרְחֹתֶיle. בְּכָל" from Proverbs. Until 1904 the community was housed in the house of the rabbi seminary at Gipsstraße 12a; from Rosh Hashaná of the same year the rabbi seminar was located in the parish hall Artilleriestraße (today: Tucholskystraße). Not only Rabbi Hildesheimer and his sons Hirsch, Meier and Gustav, but also for all other spiritual lights, whether it is Rabbi David Zwí Hoffmann, Rabbi Eduard Chajim Biberfeld, Rabbi Esra Hacohen Munk, Rabbi Hermann Zwí Hacohen Klein, Rabbi Joseph Wohlgemuth or Rabbi Jechiel Jacob Weinberg was - for all of them the close connection between the two institutions was a natural part of everyday life.
Adass Yisroel Municipal Cemetery
opening
The community cemetery of the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin is located in the Weißensee district . His address is Wittlicher Strasse 14, originally it was An der Falkenberger Chaussee . It was opened with the first burial on February 24, 1880. At that time, the congregation member Abraham Michelsen, a Berlin Jew from the 18th century, died in the 95th year of his life (grave site: field A, row 1, no. 2) . It has been handed down that, as is customary in law-abiding communities, Kohanim (members of the priestly family) act once when digging the first grave site. Otherwise it is forbidden by religious law to come into contact with death (Tumáh).
The cemetery grounds were acquired on December 22, 1873. Rabbi Hildesheimer's father-in-law and community patron Gustav Hirsch (the legendary "Hirsch-Kupfer", from the Eberswalde family who owned the brass works there) bought the area for the community and had it prepared. After the enactment of the “Exit Act” of July 28, 1876, which abolished the previous monopoly of the Jewish community in Berlin in Prussia and allowed institutional Jewish plurality, the angry rang out from the Jewish community (according to tradition), "If the Hildesheimer does not join wants us to live together, he shouldn't be buried with us either ". In addition, there was the fact that regulations and customs that had hitherto been passed on without doubt had undergone a gradual change. B. Often no longer simple, metal-free Aronot (wooden shrines), but elaborately processed coffins are used for funerals. Large, magnificent tombs were approved, as was the opening of the cemeteries on Shabbatot and public holidays.
Then the Adass Yisroel opened their own cemetery. Following the commandment of selfless neighborly love "Gemilut Hesed schel Emet", both the funeral system, as well as the care and maintenance of the cemetery, as well as generally all of the "love services" handed down in the funeral society Chewra Kadisha , became the most highly recognized activities within the community Adass Yisroel counted.
A special cemetery
From the founding of Adass Yisroel in 1869 to the opening of their own cemetery, Adassians such as B. the renowned chronicler of Jewish life in 19th century Berlin, Aron Hirsch Heymann, her final resting place in the cemetery of the Jewish community in Berlin in the Schönhauser Allee in the district of Prenzlauer Berg . In the cemetery of Adass Yisroel you can find the graves of the big names as well as those of the lesser known ones from 1880: Rosenberg, London, Struck, Hirsch, Goldschmidt and Zamory - the greats of rabbinic teaching and education. Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer , his sons Hirsch, Meir and Gustav, Rabbi David Zwí Hoffmann , Rabbi Lurie, Rabbi Abraham Berliner , Rabbi Eliahu Kaplan, numerous members of the Biberfeld and Rosenblüth families ( Pinchas Rosen-Rosenblüth was Israel's first Justice Minister) are lying in the cemetery the Adass Jisroel in Berlin-Weißensee .
The cemetery after 1945
Thousands of parishioners were murdered. The Adass Yisroel cemetery survived the Nazi era largely unscathed, apart from minor damage. The GDR authorities placed the cemetery under the East Berlin Jewish Community . Until 1974 he was looked after by a cemetery gardener - more badly than rightly. After 1974 no more successors were hired; the cemetery was declared "closed". In fact, it was not closed, the enclosure had broken open in several places, strangers constantly stole clinker bricks from the wall and even grave slabs from the children's field. The weeds and undergrowth grew rampant. During this time, unknown people used the cemetery as a playground. Countless gravestones were knocked over. The cemetery was desecrated and destroyed. At the beginning of the 1980s a picture of devastation emerged: 2,200 gravestones were smashed, dismembered, 200 stolen. With the work of relatives and committed help from volunteers, the cemetery was restored by the community in the mid-1980s, most of the tombstones were put back together and erected.
In the period from 1945 to 1985, twelve burials took place in the cemetery, most of them deceased from abroad, whose last will was to be buried in the cemetery of their ancestors and relatives. Since 1989, burials have taken place again under the supervision of the community at the Adass Yisroel cemetery.
The cemetery is currently threatened with destruction
After the Shoah, all Jewish cemeteries in Germany are supported by the state in their preservation, security and maintenance, since the task for the communities after the Holocaust can no longer be mastered financially and personally. In contrast to Christian or urban cemeteries in Germany, the majority of grave sites in cemeteries like Adass Jisroel's are "orphaned" and the families belonging to them have been murdered or expelled. Since the Adass Jisroel community does not receive any funding from the Berlin Senate, it is largely dependent on the help of volunteers. For the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin, organized volunteer work (e.g. by the Bundeswehr and the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge eV ) is a necessity for preservation.
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Volunteers and members of the Adass Yisroel Congregation maintain tombs. The volunteer groups consist of a. of schoolchildren and students, community members, volunteer helpers. The community provides their professional guidance.
The cemetery was declared unsafe for traffic years ago by experts, as there are numerous and more and more grave monuments the stability of which is so unstable that an inspection of the cemetery without supervision and accompaniment by a qualified person is life-threatening. A small group of community representatives must therefore perform this supervisory and guidance activity in addition to the other activities. This takes place on a voluntary basis.
In 2010 the Senate of Berlin stopped all support for the preservation and maintenance of the cemetery and asked other sponsors, such as the Federal Ministry of the Interior, to stop helping, which happened. The existence of the Adass Yisroel community cemetery was seriously threatened. Despite repeated requests, inquiries and complaints, the Berlin Senate refuses any help. Apparently the renewed destruction of this ritual Jewish site, this unique testimony to Jewish and Berlin history, plays no role, according to the community. If the cemetery of the Adass Yisroel community, like the other three Jewish cemeteries in Berlin, had the necessary state funding, the situation would be different. Then the security-endangering damage could be repaired and then staff would be on site and every visitor from near and far, Jewish or non-Jewish, could visit the cemetery at any time. Unfortunately, this is not currently possible.
Adass Jisroel memorial at Siegmundshof
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Up until the Nazi era , the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) in Berlin had two community centers in the capital: One in the Mitte district of Berlin, Tucholskystrasse 40 (formerly: Artilleriestrasse 31), which continues to exist; the other in the street Siegmunds Hof (short: Siegmundshof ) in the Tiergarten district , on the banks of the Spree, next to the Achenbachbrücke, a few meters from the Wullenweberwiese, five minutes' walk from the Tiergarten S-Bahn station. In 1924 the primary school, the girls' college and the Adass Yisroel grammar school, the so-called school work, as well as a second synagogue and other community facilities (administration, library, rabbinical offices) were housed in a studio house acquired and converted by the community. The synagogue was neither set on fire nor looted on the night of the pogrom, but services were banned from then on. The schools were closed in 1938/1939, until 1941 there was still a kind of vocational school in the classrooms. Up until 1943, services were sporadically held in private apartments. B. in Moabiter Wiclefstrasse instead. The Reich Ministry of Aviation and the KPM, Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur, which is still around the corner today, took over the community building.
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The community site survived the Nazi and war times damaged, but at the end of the war still stood in its entire area. In the 1950s, the Siegmundshof community center was sold by Allied exploitation organizations in cooperation with the Berlin Senate and the Berlin Jewish Community and then razed. At this point there was no longer any sign of the existence of a Jewish community center. On September 9, 1985, on the 100th anniversary of the imperial approval of Adass Jisroel by the Prussian royal family, a first memorial hour took place at this location in the presence of the district mayor of Berlin-Tiergarten, Hans-Martin Quell and other personalities, Rabbi Pinchas Biberfeld , Rabbi David Weiss, Rabbi Ernst Stein, chairman Ari A. Offenberg and a representative of the Berlin Senate Protocol (as long as it was about commemoration and not about restoring community life, the Berlin Senate had no problem with Adass Jisroel). On June 25, 1986, in the presence of numerous representatives of public life and with the participation of dignitaries as well as community members and friends from home and abroad, a memorial with the title Commemorate was erected. On the eve of Jewish New Year 5759, September 17, 1998, Jörn Jensen, District Mayor of Berlin-Tiergarten, and Adass Jisroel Ari A. Offenberg, the chairman of the community, unveiled a plaque in German, Hebrew and English, with which the memory and the work who once worked in the Siegmundshof - then murdered - is honored members, teachers and students.
Historical documents on the subject
- Constitutional Certificate (1869)
- Granting of the rights of a synagogue community (1885)
- Incorporation of the Israelite Synagogue Community (Adass Jisroel) into the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany", December 18, 1939.
- Incorporation of the Aid Association for Jews in Germany eV into the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany", October 4, 1939.
- Incorporation of the rabbi seminar into the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany", 10. April 1940.
Restitution documents
- Press release of the Federal Administrative Court of October 15, 1997
- Press release by Adass Yisroel on the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of October 15, 1997
- Adass Yisroel special publication on the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court ("Adass Yisroel News No. 35").
literature
- Max M. Sinasohn: Adass Jisroel Berlin. Origin, development, uprooting 1869–1939. Jerusalem 1966.
- Mario Offenberg: Tradition plus education. "Adass Jisroel" parish in Berlin. In: Wolfgang Dreßen (Ed.): Jüdisches Leben. Berliner Topografien 4. Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-88245-243-9 , pp. 76-87.
- Mario Offenberg (ed.): Adass Jisroel, the Jewish community in Berlin (1869–1942), destroyed and forgotten . Exhibition in the Landesarchiv Berlin, June 29 to September 21, 1986, Museum Pedagogical Service Berlin, Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin (West) 1986, ISBN 3-88245-149-1 .
