Synagogue (Gelsenkirchen)

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New synagogue

The Gelsenkirchen (New) Synagogue is located on Georgstrasse in Gelsenkirchen . It is the center of the Gelsenkirchen Jewish community ( public corporation ).

history

The first synagogue on this site was inaugurated in 1885. It was set on fire during the November pogroms on the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938 and burned to the ground. A warning board has been commemorating the destruction since 1963. The site has been named Platz der alten Synagoge since 1993 .

On November 9, 2004, Paul Spiegel , the then President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , laid the foundation stone for the new synagogue, which was inaugurated on February 1, 2007. It replaced the prayer room of the Jewish community in Von-der-Recke-Straße, which today houses the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation .

building

The building was built according to plans by Benedikta Mishler and Reinhard Christfreund. It has clear shapes and the inner courtyard is flooded with light. There is a memorial for the community members who perished in the Holocaust . The prayer room on the upper floor can accommodate 400 people. The Torah scrolls are kept in a Torah shrine behind a blue curtain . The building also houses the community center and an event room. Exhibits that document Jewish life are shown in three showcases. The inscription in German and Hebrew is attached to the outer wall in the entrance area: My house is a house of prayers for all peoples Isa. 56.7 .

architectural art

On the square in front of the entrance to the synagogue, Jörg Wiele's moving sculpture “Five-winged wings” is placed. The base of the sculpture was damaged by unknown persons in 2016 and then restored. The repair was financed through a crowdfunding campaign .

Jewish community Gelsenkirchen

In 1933 more than 1,600 Jews lived in Gelsenkirchen; the majority of Gelsenkirchen Jews were murdered during the Nazi era. The Jewish community of Gelsenkirchen was rebuilt by a group of survivors who founded a Jewish aid association in 1945 under the leadership of Robert Jessel, who came from Weilburg , from which the Jewish community, led by Kurt Neuwald from Gelsenkirchen since 1956 , emerged. In 1957 she set up her seat in the house at Von-der-Recke-Strasse 9, with a community hall, classroom, offices and a library. A prayer house was built in the courtyard of the house and consecrated on June 29, 1958. Today the new synagogue is the center of the community. In 2018 the community had 325 members. In autumn 2011 the community hall of the new Gelsenkirchen synagogue was named after Kurt Neuwald, who has been chairman of the community for many years.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Central Council of Jews in Germany
  2. ↑ Report and photos
  3. ^ "Five-winged sculpture" repaired in front of the New Synagogue , report in the WAZ from July 5, 2016, accessed on August 27, 2016.
  4. ^ Information board of the city of Gelsenkirchen at the New Synagogue (2007).
  5. ^ AJR Information (Monthly Journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain , London), July 1946, page 50.
  6. ↑ Jewish community Gelsenkirchen Kdö.R. Retrieved October 7, 2019
  7. ↑ Friedhelm Pothoff: An honor for Kurt Neuwald. Report in the WAZ of October 8, 2011, accessed on August 27, 2016.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '36.8 "  N , 7 ° 5' 49.7"  E