Reestablishment - Additional Info Landmarks of Jewish History
At the end of the war in 1945, there were still about 700 Jews living in Hamburg. Twelve of them planned to reestablish the congregation starting in July 1945. On September 18, 1945, the founding meeting of the Hamburg Jewish Congregation took place as a moderate Orthodox so-called “unified Congregation”.
In 1948, it officially became the legal successor to the disbanded German- Israelite Congregation. It was made up of Hamburg Jews who had survived thanks to their non-Jewish partners, in hiding places, or in concentration camps. In addition, there were so called displaced persons, mostly from Eastern Europe. They had been deported or expelled during World War II and remained in Hamburg temporarily or permanently. The number of members grew to about 1,300 due to immigration from the Soviet Union, the Balkans, Iran, and Israel, and remained stable until the end of the 1980s.
Rothenbaumchaussee 38
The administrative headquarters of the German-Israelite Congregation had been located at Rothenbaumchaussee 38 since 1916. In 1938, the Gestapo confiscated the building and used it as the central organizational center for the Shoah in Hamburg. Jewish survivors occupied the vacant house immediately after the end of the war. In September 1945, the founding meeting of the Hamburg Jewish Congregation took place here. It was not until 1960 that the building was officially restituted.
The Iranian-Jewish Community
Due to free trade in Hamburg, some Jewish Iranians settled here in the 1950s. The group, growing as families were formed, was anchored in both the Jewish Congregation and the Muslim-Iranian community. It also came to include Iranians who fled Iran after the 1979 revolution for political, social, or religious reasons. Later generations mostly moved on, for example to the USA.
Tasks of the congregation
The Hamburg Jewish Congregation resumed its traditional congregational tasks, including religious services, education, burial, and welfare. One focus was on youth work. Since the 1960s, the Congregation has established its own facilities, such as a sports club and a kindergarten, which had to close again though at the end of the 1970s. In addition, new buildings were constructed, including the New Israelite Hospital in Alsterdorf, answerable to an independent board of trustees.
Captions
Dedication of the Hohe Weide Synagogue
Erich Andres, photography, 1960, Hamburg State Archives, reference number 720-1/343-1, A2048_32
In 1960, a new synagogue with a community center was dedicated on Hohe Weide in Eimsbüttel. Only then was it possible to hire a rabbi. The Congregation had no influence on the choice of location. The building, which is still in use today, has had to be guarded by police for decades.
Rothenbaumchaussee 38
Photograph, 1949, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo 33175, IRN 539408, 2016.308, Courtesy of Carl H. Rosner
On the anniversary of the founding of the state in May 1949, the Israeli flag was raised at the community center. Relations with Israel were conflictual. For their decision to live in Germany after the Shoah, the members of the post-war congregations had to justify themselves both to themselves and to the outside world.
‘Oriental carpets’
Branchen-Fernsprechbuch zu den amtlichen Fernsprechbüchern 2 und 30, für die Bereiche Hamburg, Nordniedersachsen, Elmshorn, Kaltenkirchen und Schwarzenberg 1969, Bd. II, S. 495, Reproduktion, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky
In the 1960s, Hamburg was the world’s largest trading center for carpets. Some Iranian-Jewish families were also active in the carpet trade, among them the Roubeni family, who maintained business premises in the warehouse district (Speicherstadt).
Harry Goldstein
Congregation Leader, 1880–1977
Photograph, undated, Hamburg State Archives, reference number 720-1/343-1, 00031557
After World War I, Harry Goldstein founded the local branch of the Reich Association of Jewish Front Soldiers. Following his dismissal in 1934, he worked for the Jewish Congregation and Jewish organizations. Having survived the Shoah in Hamburg, in 1945 he was a founding member and head of the Hamburg Jewish Congregation.
Ida Ehre
Actor and Theater Director, 1900–1989
Fred Lindinger, Fotografie, 1949, picture alliance / SZ Photo
Ida Ehre studied music and performing arts in Vienna. She worked as an actor until she was banned from working in 1933. Due to her marriage to a non-Jewish man, she survived the Shoah. In 1945, she founded the Kammerspiele in the former lodge meeting hall on Hartungstrasse, heading the theater as director until her death.
GlossarY
Unified community (‘Einheitsgemeinde‘)
The concept of a ‘unified community’ (‘Einheitsgemeinde’) brings together all strands of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform) in one coongregation, without limiting itself to any particular orientation. After 1945, the former diversity of Jewish religious institutions was destroyed.