Lichenroth synagogue

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Former synagogue in Lichenroth

The synagogue in Lichenroth , a district of the Birstein community in the Main-Kinzig district , was built in 1837 and was used for church services by the local Jewish community until the Nazi era . The building at Bermuthshainer Straße 36 is a protected cultural monument .

history

Jewish residents are first recorded in the village on the southern slope of the Vogelsberg in 1666. They initially belonged to the Jewish community of Crainfeld in the neighboring Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , while Lichenroth was in the area of ​​the County of Isenburg-Büdingen . In 1733, Count Wolfgang Ernst I. zu Isenburg and Büdingen allowed the Jewish community to set up their own synagogue in Lichenroth.

In 1837 a new synagogue was built. At that time (1835) a total of 50 Jewish residents lived in Lichenroth. Their number rose to 114 by 1885, making a little more than a fifth of Lichenroth's population of Jewish faith. In 1933 there were still 13 Jewish families living in the village. Due to the very soon after the " seizure " of the Nazis onset of repression and violent attacks all the Jewish residents left their home village by the end of the 1936th In 1935 the synagogue was sold by Sally Rosenberg, the last head of the community, before he emigrated to Palestine . The cult objects were first brought to Gelnhausen and later to Frankfurt am Main , where they were destroyed in the November pogroms in 1938 .

description

The synagogue is a two-story half - timbered house . In the eastern part there was originally the prayer room with a gallery, in the western part the apartment of the prayer leader or teacher. The building could also be recognized from the outside as a synagogue through high rectangular windows with round arches in the area of ​​the prayer room. Inside the synagogue, under the teacher's apartment, there was also a mikveh . The Jewish elementary school was housed in an adjoining building until it was closed in 1924 .

Later use

From 1938 to the 1990s the synagogue was owned by an innkeeper in Lichenroth and was used, among other things, as a dance hall called "Zum Saalbau" and to hold the local fair . In 1997/98 it was converted into a private house.

literature

  • Paul Arnsberg : The Jewish communities in Hesse. Beginning - fall - new beginning. Volume I. Published by the regional association of Jewish communities in Hesse, Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt 1972, ISBN 3-7973-0213-4 , pp. 489f.
  • Jürgen Ackermann / Reinhold Winter: The Jews in Lichenroth , in: Geschichtsverein Birstein (ed.): 750 Years Lichenroth 1241-1991 , Lauterbach 1991, pp. 40–45
  • Thea Altaras : Synagogues and Jewish ritual immersion baths in Hesse - What happened since 1945? 2nd edition, Königstein im Taunus 2007, ISBN 978-3-7845-7794-4 , pp. 337–338.

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 26 ′ 7.1 ″  N , 9 ° 19 ′ 27.7 ″  E