Judaism in Zurich

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Memorial plaques in Froschaugasse to the Jews in Zurich in the Middle Ages

The Judaism in Zurich today was stronger in the 20th century and, as in other Swiss represented cities and has an up to at least the Middle Ages goes back story.

history

Zurich's first Jewish community was first mentioned in writing in 1273 and was largely tolerated by the city and its population. As early as the 14th century, a synagogue (judenschuol) near today's Froschaugasse, which today's Synagogengasse commemorates, is documented in Zurich . At that time Froschaugasse was called Judengasse. Significant wall paintings stylistically dated to around 1330, including coats of arms with a Hebrew description, were discovered in 1996 in the property at Brunngasse 8, “Zum Brunnenhof”. The residents of the house, which probably also served as a meeting place for the Jewish community, must have been influential citizens. In the first half of the 14th century, Rabbi Moses wrote the commentary on the law in Zurich Semak . However, the Jewish population was not granted full civil rights. Many worked as lenders.

When the plague epidemic hit Switzerland in 1348/49 , the Jews were held responsible for the dead in many places . In the same year as the Basel pogrom took place, there was also a pogrom in Zurich on February 24, 1349 , and the city's Jews were tortured, murdered or burned and expelled. Their property was distributed among the non-Jews of Zurich, with Mayor Rudolf Brun securing a lion's share. The synagogue was destroyed.

Jews settled in the city again before 1380, until the council decided in 1436 to finally expel the Jews.

In the course of the 19th century, the situation of Zurich's Jews became increasingly paradoxical, as the French government in particular campaigned for the protection of the rights of their Jewish fellow citizens, who were still exposed to numerous forms of discrimination in Switzerland . With the first newcomers from Endigen and Lengnau in 1848 and later from Eastern Europe, a small Jewish community emerged, which in 1862 comprised 100 people. That year the canton of Zurich granted Jews free settlement. In the same year the Israelitische Kultusverein was founded, which was later renamed the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde . Only with the partial revision of the Federal Constitution of 1866 Jews in Switzerland was the freedom granted and the full exercise of civil rights.

In 1920 the proportion of the Jewish population was at its peak at 1.3%. The Jews who came to Zurich in the first quarter of the 20th century often worked as freelancers: in trade, in clothing and underwear manufacturing, in commercial professions, as lawyers or doctors. During the Second World War , most of the Jews who fled to Switzerland came to Zurich and were granted the right to stay there from 1940 to 1943. In 1945 the Jewish population of Zurich made up around 10,500 people, but then fell again from 1948. Since 1970 the Jewish population in Zurich has remained more or less constant at around one percent.

The library of the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich , opened in 1939, was declared a national cultural asset of Switzerland in 2009 , as it is the most important Judaica library in the German-speaking area.

Demographics

Today around 5000 Jews live in District 2 and District 3 , and another thousand live in the rest of the city. The majority of the Jewish population consists of Ashkenazim . Others are Misrahim and Sephardim .

In Zurich there are representatives of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox as well as liberal and secular Judaism.

Communities

The ICZ and the liberal municipality of Or Chadasch have been recognized by the Canton of Zurich under public law since 2007.

Synagogues

Löwenstrasse synagogue
  • Löwenstrasse Synagogue , ICZ, City , inaugurated in 1884, expanded and rebuilt several times
  • Synagogue Freilutstrasse , IRGZ, Enge , inaugurated in 1924
  • Agudas Achim synagogue , inaugurated in 1960

There are also around ten prayer rooms in Zurich.

Personalities

graveyards

Abdication hall in the Unterer Friesenberg cemetery

Jewish cemeteries in Zurich:

literature

  • Annette Brunschwig, Ruth Heinrichs, Karin Huser: History of the Jews in the Canton of Zurich. From the beginning to the present day. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2005.
  • Hans-Jörg Gilomen : Late medieval settlement segregation and ghettoization, especially in what is now Switzerland . In: Demarcations - exclusions in the city and around the city (= city ​​and country walls. Vol. 3). VDF, Zurich 1999, pp. 85-106 ( online at Academia.edu ).
  • Dölf Wild, Christoph Philipp Matt: Evidence of Jewish life from the medieval cities of Zurich and Basel. In: Art + Architecture in Switzerland 56, 2005, pp. 14–20 ( digitized version ).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg: Judenschicksale and "Judenschuol" in medieval Zurich (= contributions to the history and folklore of the Jews in Switzerland. Issue 12). Zurich 1967.
  2. ↑ a b c d Zurich (Canton of Zurich, Switzerland); Jewish history in Zurich. In: Alemannia Judaica. Retrieved July 12, 2014 .
  3. ^ Matthias Dürst: Synagogengasse. In: Gang dur Züri. Retrieved July 12, 2014 .
  4. ^ Dölf Wild, Christoph Philipp Matt: Evidence of Jewish life from the medieval cities of Zurich and Basel. In: Art + Architecture in Switzerland 56, 2005, pp. 14–20.
  5. ↑ Peter Bollag: Zurich is finally getting a Jewish museum . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 196 , August 26, 2019, p. 15 .
  6. ^ A b Matthias Dürst: The house at Froschaugasse 4. In: Gang dur Züri. Retrieved July 12, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Giorgio Girardet: St. Matthias and the Zurich night of murder - the murder of Jews by 1349. In: nzz.ch . Aktiengesellschaft for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, accessed on July 31, 2017 : “Church tradition says that February 24, dedicated to St. Matthias, is the day on which God's will is made known. In the year 1349 this date took on a terrible significance in Zurich, when all Jews were put in one house and it was set on fire. "
  8. ↑ Andreas Schneitter: Questionable namesake. 100 years ago the city of Zurich built a bridge over the Limmat, which today bears the name of the former mayor Rudolf Brun. The pogrom against the Zurich Jews of 1349 falls during his term of office . In: tachles.ch . JM Jüdische Medien AG, April 12, 2012, archived from the original on April 17, 2012 ; accessed on July 31, 2017 .
  9. ^ A b Ralph Weingarten: Swiss Jews: Long excluded - today integrated. (PDF) In: Swiss Federation of Israelites. September 1, 2009, accessed July 12, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Hans-Jörg Gilomen: Inner Conditions of the City of Zurich 1300–1500. In: History of the Canton of Zurich. Vol. 1: Early to late Middle Ages. Werd, Zurich 1995, pp. 336-389, 351 f.
  11. ^ History of the ICZ. In: Israelische Cultusgemeinde Zurich. Retrieved October 15, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Bruno Fritzsche et al., History of the Canton of Zurich Volume 3 (19th and 20th centuries) , Zurich 1994, Werd-Verlag, p. 283.
  13. ↑ 184.1 Law on Recognized Jewish Communities (GjG). In: Collection of Laws of the Canton of Zurich. January 1, 2008, accessed July 12, 2014 .
  14. ^ Pascal Unterstährer: New Synagogue in Zurich. In: Tages-Anzeiger. January 21, 2014, accessed July 12, 2014 .