Erfurt – 83 years after it was destroyed by the National Socialists, the Great Synagogue in Erfurt is back – in virtual form. The Jewish state community and state government on Wednesday presented an online portal with a 3D model of the Jewish House of God, opened in 1884, which was destroyed and set on fire in the anti-Semitic pogroms of the National Socialists on November 9. , 1938. Their virtual restoration is one of the most important elements of the program for the current year “900 Years of Jewish Life in Thuringia”. It is the first synagogue in Thuringia to be rebuilt in this way.
With the help of special glasses, users can “move” in the synagogue. Among other things, you can look at the shrine with the Torah prayer book, from which it is read at Jewish services. Nine Stations of Knowledge provides information on the architecture and history of the magnificent Moorish-style building with the inscription in Hebrew “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” above the main gate.
Scholars from the Erfurt History Museums, the Universities of Erfurt and Jena, and the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt worked with regional Jewish Rabbi Alexander Nechama on the reconstruction. In fact the “real” new synagogue, which was inaugurated on August 31, 1952 as the only new synagogue in the GDR, stands on the site of the destroyed church. There, at the site of the Fate and Sons monument and at the office of the Thüringer Tourismus GmbH in Erfurt, special glasses are available free of charge for visits to the virtual synagogue. According to its president, Reinhard Schramm, the Jewish community in Thuringia today has 700 members.
