SchUM

With all the developments around Corona and during the holiday season, I didn't find time to work on the third part* of my Worms trilogy, the Jewish heritage that figures under the name of SchUM.

*Here are the other parts: Stones Are Talking History and Here I Stand 

SchUM* is an acronym from the initial Hebrew letters of the medieval names of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. The Romans founded these three cities and named them Noviomagus (later Spira), Wormatia, and Moguntiatum. Diaspora Jews settling with the Romans called the cities Schpira, Warmaisa, and Magenza.

*Schin (Sch ש) for Schpira (Speyer), Waw (U ו) for Warmais (Worms), and Mem (M מ) for Magenza (Mainz)

In the Middle Ages, the three cities had important Jewish communities. Much of their cultural heritage was destroyed over the centuries in deadly pogroms. In 1346, when the plague infested Europe, the Jews being accused of well poisoning were slaughtered.

The "official" beginnings of Jewish life on German territory date back 1700 years. The first mention of Jews arriving in the area between the Danube and the Rhine in the wake of Roman legions is documented in a decree by Emperor Constantine, dated 321. It states that the council of the Colonia Agrippina could force Jews to take up offices (jobs?). How should we imagine Jewish life in Cologne at that time when all traces disappeared soon after that? Only from the 10th century onwards can one speak of the continuity of German-Jewish life.

The history of the Jews in medieval Germany can still be traced today in numerous places. These include gravestones, ritual baths (mikva'ot), and excavations of synagogues, as well as street names such as "Judengasse" or "Judengraben."

But like the life and work of the Jews, their persecution has also left traces. Anti-Jewish slurs are found on church buildings ...

Blindfolded Synagogue	Triumphant Church

... ranging from the juxtaposition of the blinded Synagoga with the triumphant Ecclesia, e.g., at Freiburg's Minster church...

...to depictions of the vile "Judensau" on the Wittenberg City Church.

Of the SchUM communities, Worms is distinguished for its synagogue dating back in its origins to the year 1034. The place of worship was destroyed during the Nazi era and rebuilt after the war.

A statue of Rabbi Schlomo ben Yitzchak
in the courtyard of the Worms Synagogue

The most important Bible and Talmud commentator to this day, Rashi (Rabbi Schlomo ben Yitzchak) from Troyes in northern France, had studied in Worms for a time.

Our group, wearing masks and paper hats instead of kippas, listened to our guide's explanations.

Soon after the war, a Holocaust memorial plaque was placed in the synagogue's vestibule. The erased spots held the names of the Worms Jewish community members who were later found alive.

The reconstruction of the synagogue after the war must have been badly botched. The rear part of the building is currently stabilized with iron girders. The Mikveh in front was inaccessible because of the danger of collapse.

After lunch, the visit to the Holy Sand, the old Jewish cemetery, was the second highlight of the day.

Near the entrance are the two famous Rabbi Meir ben Baruch graves, called of Rothenburg († 1293) and Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen († 1307). Both matzevahs (מַצֵּבָה) are among the most unique tombstones in the cemetery. They are the destination of many pious Jews from all over the world, who place visitation stones as a remembrance here. Red Baron learned that the Hebrew word for pebble is tz'ror, but the word also means bond.

Look into the Rabbinental (Vale of the Rabbis), the extended burial ground.

View of Worms Cathedral from the cemetery, known as the Martin Buber view. While reflecting on the ties between God and the Jews and between Jewry and Christendom, Buber made this visual axis a must for any visitor.

Yaakov ha-bahur's tombstone is the oldest in the Holy Sand. Not accessible, it is the taller one of the two stones located in the center of the meadow, dating from 1076/1077.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Worms' Jewish community occupied a new cemetery section. It is located on the higher ground formed by the remnant of the outer city fortifications that were destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV of France in 1689 during the Nine Years' War. 

With the emancipation of the Jews in the 19th century, their tombstones stylistically resembled those of Christian cemeteries. Inscriptions were often bilingual in Hebrew and German.

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