Jewish Liberal Congregation Emet weSchalom Northern Hesse
The Jewish Liberal Congregation Emet weSchalom eV Northern Hesse ( Hebrew Emet weSchalom = "Truth and Peace") is a progressive Jewish community based in Felsberg and offering regional services in and for Northern Hesse .
local community
The Jewish community Emet weSchalom was founded in Kassel in autumn 1995. It is one of the first liberal Jewish communities in Germany after National Socialism and one of the founding members of the umbrella organization Union of Progressive Jews in Germany, which was founded in 1997 . Due to the intensive immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union, Judaism in Germany was in a phase of intensive growth in the 1990s. This development also led to the revival of progressive Judaism in northern Hesse. While liberal Jewish communities in Hesse and all of Germany before National Socialism made up the majority of the Jewish communities, Emet weSchalom is the only liberal Jewish community in Hesse today. Between 2001 and 2010 the municipality was located in Gudensberg in northern Hesse . Since June 2010 the community has its seat in Felsberg.
Events take place both in the community rooms in Felsberg and in the synagogue culture house in Gudensberg , built in 1843 . Services are regularly held in German and Hebrew, and occasionally in Russian and English. In line with the progressive tradition, Emet weSchalom has complete equality between men and women.
In addition to church services, the community also offers cultural activities such as Hebrew lessons and lectures, as well as a Jewish library.
In October 2010 the Temple Israel congregation in Dayton, Ohio, also a member of Reform Judaism , decided to donate a Torah scroll to the Jewish Liberal Congregation Emet weSchalom . Temple Israel would like to remember their German roots and strengthen progressive Judaism in Germany. A delegation from Temple Israel will travel to Germany in June 2011 for the handover ceremony .
Roots and predecessors of Emet weSchalom
The Jewish Liberal Congregation Emet weSchalom Nordhessen sees itself as following a lively and rich Jewish tradition in Northern Hesse. By far the greater part of the Jews who lived there until the Shoah belonged to the liberal tradition. The following information is mainly taken from the book "The Jewish Communities in Hesse" by Paul Arnsberg from 1971.
Gudensberg had had Jewish residents since 1646. In 1825 a Jewish elementary school was built there and in 1730 a Jewish cemetery. The synagogue, built in 1843, now serves the city of Gudensberg as a cultural center and is used by Emet weSchalom on Jewish holidays.
A protective Jew was mentioned in Felsberg as early as 1593. The community had a school, a mikveh and a cemetery. At the moment Emet weSchalom is actively trying to acquire the synagogue that has been preserved and is now empty. In Kassel, where the synagogue of the unified community stands today, the liberal synagogue built by Albrecht Rosengarten stood until 1938. It was the synagogue of what is by far the largest Jewish community in Northern Hesse. Eschwege, east of Kassel, had one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany since 1250. "The majority of the community was liberal, a small group was strictly Orthodox." In Fritzlar, the liberal Jewish community "New Religious Society" was founded in 1849 with its own elementary school. In 1848 a reform group "New German fellow believers" was founded in Marburg.
In addition to the communities already mentioned, there were 91 smaller Jewish communities in Northern Hesse in 1933 with a total of approx. 4117 members.
Memberships
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of the communities of the Union of Progressive Jews ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Jewish life in Germany - today in: HNA from November 23, 2010
- ↑ October Newsletter in: The Temple Tablet from October 2010 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ "The Jewish communities in Hesse p.169" by Paul Arnsberg 1971
