Synagogue (Roxheim)

synagogue
	; Former synagogue in Roxheim (2008), today destroyed
Data
place	Bobenheim-Roxheim
Builder	Roxheim Jewish community
Construction year	1889
demolition	around 2017
Coordinates	49 ° 34 '47.8 " N , 8 ° 21' 53.3" E Coordinates: 49 ° 34 '47.8 " N , 8 ° 21' 53.3" E

The synagogue in the Roxheim district of the Rhineland-Palatinate community of Bobenheim-Roxheim existed as a Jewish sacred building from 1889 to the 1930s. The building no longer exists today, it had to give way to a new single-family house.

history

Around 1770 Jews had also settled in the former “Rheindorf” Roxheim owned by the Worms bishop . The French counted 16 Israelites in 1797 and in 1808 noted the settlement of a family of five in neighboring Bobenheim. As early as 1824 there was a "school" in Roxheim. This prayer room was a former stable. 15 years later the community submitted a request to build a synagogue. But it was only after another 15 years that the plans could be implemented. In March 1854 the 47 Roxheim and 13 Bobenheim Jews from Frankenthal went into business for themselves . They bought a house on Bobenheimer Strasse and converted it. Roxheim was the only village parish that was able to increase the number of its members from 1830 to 1884. The migration to the cities remained less dramatic than in the surrounding areas. One reason was the rail connection to Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Worms that had existed since 1853 .

The creation of a new mouth of the Neckar had devastating consequences for the village . Until 1869, the Friesenheimer Insel was a protective shield during floods. But at the end of 1882 the still unreinforced Rhine dam broke near Oppau . A week later, after the Frankenthal Canal Dam broke , Mörsch and Roxheim also became islands. After the blow of fate in the synagogue, which was destroyed by the flood, the community rented a prayer room for an annual rent of 70 marks . After the lease had expired, in October 1885 an appeal was made to the “Theuren co-religionists”. Moses Fränkel and Samuel Bender asked for donations for the community, "since it only consists of 12 families, some of which are poorly funded, but some are also poor." The construction costs were estimated at 7,000 marks.

In 1889, four years later, a new building was inaugurated on the old site. It was bigger than its predecessor. There was a teacher's apartment on the ground floor and the prayer room on the upper floor. The documents report a painting "with rosettes, friezes and decorative lines". Parts of the torah shrine were gilded.

Soon after the First World War, the minyan could no longer be reached by ten religiously responsible men. The community dissolved around 1930. The synagogue was sold and converted into a residential building. Because of the change of ownership, it was not damaged during the National Socialist era .

Building

The building stood on Bobenheimer Strasse within sight of the Catholic parish church of St. Maria Magdalena from 1834. The structure is no longer preserved today. The steep gable with two preserved arched windows and one round window was striking. The other arched windows had been walled up or replaced by modern windows facing the street. The apex of the entrance was also preserved on the west side. This still bore the year 1889, while the Hebrew inscription was chipped off. The building is not listed in the monument topography of the site. The protection of the structure, also in parts, failed in 1985.

It was the last evidence of a synagogue in the northern Rhine-Palatinate district and in the eastern part of the former Frankenthal district .

literature

Rudolf H. Böttcher (böt): The Hebrew script is rejected . In: The Rheinpfalz , Frankenthaler Zeitung . No. 279 , November 29, 2008.
State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate: "... and this is the gate of heaven" Synagogues - Rhineland-Palatinate. Saarland . 2005. pp. 118-119.

Web links

Alemannia Judaica : Roxheim (community Bobenheim-Roxheim, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis) Jewish history / synagogue. (As of April 10, 2017)

Individual evidence

^ Die Rheinpfalz, Frankenthaler Zeitung, from July 20 and 25, September 20 and October 1, 1985.

[1] Die Rheinpfalz, Frankenthaler Zeitung, from July 20 and 25, September 20 and October 1, 1985.