Königsberg Synagogue

The Königsberg Synagogue, called at the time, the New Synagogue (), was a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Königsberg in Prussia, East Prussia, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia).

The New Synagogue was designed by Cremer & Wolffenstein in the Romanesque Revival style, Aesopian in its crafting, and completed in 1896 to replace the Old Synagogue. The New Synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, that occurred during November 1938. Also destroyed was the Adass Jisroel synagogue.

In 2018 a completely new synagogue was opened on the site of the former destroyed synagogue, at 1a Oktyabr'skaya Street, Kaliningrad.

History In 1508 two Jewish physicians were allowed to settle in the city. 307 Jews lived at Königsberg in 1756. There were 1,027 Jews in Königsberg in 1817. In 1864 there lived 3,024 Jews. In 1880 there were 5,000 Jews at the city. In 1900 there were only 3,975 Jews in Königsberg. The first synagogue was a chapel built in 1680 in Burgfreiheit (a location which was a ducal Prussian immunity district around the castle, not administrated by the city).

In 1704 there was the formation of the Jewish congregation, when they acquired a Jewish cemetery and when they founded a "Chevra Kaddisha". In 1722 they received a constitution. In 1756 a new synagogue in Schnürlingsdamm street was dedicated but destroyed by the city fire in 1811. In 1815 a new synagogue was constructed on the same location, meanwhile called Synagogenstrasse #2. The second constitution of the Jewish congregation was issued in 1811.

Some Orthodox congregants seceded from the Jewish Congregation of Königsberg, which they deemed too liberal, and founded the Israelite Synagogal Congregation of «Adass Jisroel» (). In 1893 the Israelite Synagogal Congregation built its own synagogue in Synagogenstraße #14–15. Soon later the mainstream Jewish Congregation of Königsberg built a new and larger place of worship, therefore called New Synagogue, dedicated in August 1896 in Lomse. The synagogue in Synagogenstrasse #2 was called Old Synagogue since.

The New Synagogue, as well as the Old Synagogue, were destroyed in the November Pogrom in the night of November 9–10, 1938. The Adass Jisroel synagogue was terribly vandalised, but spared from arson, and could thus be restored to serve as Jewish place of worship.Michael Wieck, Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs: Ein «Geltungsjude» berichtet (11990), Munich: Beck, 82005, (Beck'sche Reihe; vol. 1608), pp. 81 and 194. . In July 1939 the Gestapo ordered the merger of the smaller Israelite Synagogal Congregation in the larger Jewish Congregation of Königsberg, which now had to enlist also all non-Jews such as Christians and irreligionists, whom the Nazis categorised as Jews because they had three or more Jewish grandparents. The systematic deportations of Jewish Germans (and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent), starting in October 1941, brought the congregational life in Königsberg to a halt by November 1942.

Replacement synagogue In October 2011 the foundation cornerstone of the new synagogue was erected in the same place, where a modified replica of the building destroyed in 1938 was planned. The plaque attached to the cornerstone reportedly was damaged and sprayed with neo-Nazi symbols, but later was cleaned and repaired. The synagogue was reopened in 2018 on the 80th anniversary of its destruction.

Clergy

The following individuals have served as rabbi of the congregation:

Ordinal Name Term started Term ended Notes Solomon Fürst 1707 1722 years Wrote a cabbalistic work and a prayer, which is printed in Hebrew and German language 1745 1775 years Samuel Wigdor 1777 1784 years Shimshon ben Mordechai 1707 1722 years Joshua Bär Herzfeld 1800 1814 years Joseph Levin Saalschütz 1814 1823 years Wolff Laseron 1824 1828 years Jacob Hirsch Mecklenburg 1831 1865 years Wrote the "Ha-Ketav we-ha-Qabbalah" Isaac Bamberger Hermann Vogelstein 1897

Notable members

Jews of Königsberg have taken an important part in the struggle for the Jewish emancipation.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), political theorist Yaakov Ben-Tor (1910–2002), geologist

Hugo Falkenheim (4 September 1856 – 22 September 1945), last Chairman of the Jewish congregation of Königsberg Ferdinand Falkson (physician) David Friedländer (1750–1834), writer Leah Goldberg (1911–1970), author Theodor Goldstücker (1821–1872), scholar Marcus Herz (pupil of Kant) Immanuel Jacobovits, (1921–1999), Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Johann Jacoby (politician)

Rudolf Lipschitz (1832–1903), mathematician Moshe Meron (1926–2023), politician Leah Rabin (1928–2000)

Moshe Smoira (1888–1961), first President of the Supreme Court of Israel

Michael Wieck (1928-2021), violinist and author

In 1942 most of the remaining Jews of Königsberg were murdered in Maly Trostinez (Minsk), Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

Gallery Destroyed synagogue

Replacement synagogue

Königsberg Synagogue

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