Synagogue (Wenkheim)

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The synagogue in Wenkheim (2013)

The synagogue in Wenkheim , a district of Werbach in the Main-Tauber district , was built in 1841.

history

Gallery and ceiling decoration of the synagogue
Interior with the Torah scroll, a loan from Freudenberg

Origins of the synagogue

The only almost completely preserved synagogue in the Main-Tauber district is in Wenkheim. It was built in 1841 and was the center of an active Jewish community, which by 1875 made up almost a fifth of the village population. On November 9, 1938, their interior furnishings and cult objects were demolished; However, the building itself with its prayer room, which is also significant in terms of architecture and history, was retained. In connection with the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Baden-Württemberg , the Main-Tauber-Kreis, the municipality of Werbach and the Association for Research into Jewish History and the Care of Jewish Monuments in the Tauber Franconian area have set themselves the task of restoring this synagogue.

The entrance to the synagogue building is adorned by Psalm 118 verse 20 This is the gate to the Lord, only the righteous enter here . In the front area of ​​the building facing the street was the rabbi's apartment , in the back the prayer room with Torah shrine and bima , of which only the niche of the Torah shrine is visible today. Particularly impressive are the stucco coffered ceiling, the arcade and the barred women's gallery . As is well known, synagogues are divided into two parts: in Wenkheim the lower area was for men, the barred gallery for women. The mikvah is located in the basement.

The synagogue during the Nazi era

The final end of the synagogue as a place for Jewish worship services came as a result of the devastation in November 1938. The building itself was not set on fire out of consideration for the dense development in the immediate vicinity, but the interior furnishings and cult objects were completed on November 10th destroyed. The valuable candlesticks made of precious metal were stolen by the SA hordes from Tauberbischofsheim and probably melted down. The Nazis also looted private Jewish homes. Following this, the local group leader confiscated the synagogue and made it available to the Hitler Youth for their group evenings. During the war the building served as a prisoner of war camp for Belgian soldiers. After the war, partitions were drawn into the prayer room and the rooms were used as temporary accommodation for refugees from the eastern regions.

The synagogue today

In 1980, Johannes Ghiraldin, the current chairman of the “Association for Research into Jewish History and the Care of Jewish Monuments in the Tauber Franconian Region”, discovered the now vacant building and founded the above-mentioned association, on whose initiative the interior of the synagogue could be restored. The prayer hall in particular has been preserved in its original form. After the renovation work was completed in 1992, the building was given a new use in view of its religious and historical significance.

The Catholic parish uses the prayer room as a parish hall. The rooms of the synagogue are available for clubs as well as for school teaching events. In this way, the Wenkheim synagogue became a documentation center for Jewish culture in the Main-Tauber district. The restoration of the former Wenkheim synagogue has become a document of the endeavor to face the questions of the Christian-Jewish relationship and to call the visitor to reflection. Even if the former synagogue is unfortunately no longer a Jewish sacred building used for cultic purposes, something of the sanctity and dignity of the place can be felt again.

Mikveh

The mikveh in Wenkheim

The mikveh in Wenkheim was used as a ritual bath, originally for women and men. The purpose of a mikvah is to purify people or an object in the cultic sense. The only way a person could become ritually "clean" again was to be completely immersed in a bath, a mikveh, which literally means "collection of water". Over time, visits to the mikvah were reduced to women before the wedding night, after childbirth and after menstruation, although immersion in the mikveh before the wedding night is still widely used today. The ritual bath was fed by groundwater, thus complying with the ritual regulations that forbade scooped water.

Monument protection

The former synagogue at Breiten Straße 7 is a listed building . It is a solid building with a round arched portal with a vestibule and Hebrew inscription. Carved door leaf, inscribed in 1841.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Synagoge (Wenkheim)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Synagogue Breite Strasse 7 Werbach - detail page - LEO-BW. In: leo-bw.de. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Elmar Weiss: Evidence of Jewish existence in Wenkheim . Ed .: Association for research into Jewish history and the care of Jewish monuments in the Taub Franconian area. FN DRUCK Graphic management of the Franconian News, 1992.
  3. ↑ a b c d e school memorial synagogue Wenkheim - detail page - LEO-BW. In: leo-bw.de. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 41 '58.9 "  N , 9 ° 42' 5.5"  E