Jewish Cemetery, Worms

The Holy Sand Worms is the oldest preserved in situ Jewish cemetery in Europe. He seems to have been applied simultaneously with the construction of the first synagogue in Worms ( 1034). The oldest grave stone dates from around 1058 / 59th Overall, the cemetery comprises about two thousand graves. After 1911, a new Jewish cemetery was established outside the city, the use of the Holy sand ran out largely. The last burials were carried out in the 1930s.

Located near the entrance grave stones of Meir of Rothenburg ( † 1293 ) and Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen († 1307 ) are among the most important grave monuments of the cemetery and are a target of Jewish visitors from all over the world. Other important grave stones are primarily in the so-called " Rabbinental " and its surroundings; here, among others, the graves of Rabbi Nathan ben Isaac († 1333), Rabbi Jacob ben Moses Halevi Molin, called find Maharil, († 1427), Rabbi Meir ben Isaac († 1511) and Elia Loanz called Baal Shem († 1636).

The Martin Buber views

Martin Buber describes in his interview with the Protestant theologian Karl Ludwig Schmidt on January 14, 1933 a walk through the Jewish cemetery in Worms, to represent the continued election of the people of Israel:

"I live not far from the city of Worms, the binds me also a tradition of my ancestors; and I go from time to time over. If I go over, I always go first to the Cathedral. This is a made ​​visible harmony of the limbs, a totality, in which no part wavers from perfection. I will convert it looking the cathedral with a perfect joy. Then I go over to the Jewish cemetery. It consists of crooked, zerspellten, shapeless, directionless stones. I put myself into it, look from this cemetery jumble up to a beautiful harmony, and I feel as if I saw of Israel to the church. Down there you do not have a little bit of shape; one has only the stones and ashes under the stones. It has the ashes, if it has even the volatilized. [ ... ] I have been there, was associated with the ash and straight through them with the patriarchs. That's recollection of the events with God that is given to all Jews. Of these, can me the perfection of the Christian God not dissuade space, nothing can distract me from the time God of Israel. I have stood there and did everything to know themselves, to me has happened to all of the death: all the ashes, all the Zerspelltheit, all the silent misery is mine; but the covenant has not been revoked. I 'm on the floor, gone down as these stones. But is not terminated me. The cathedral is how he is. The cemetery is how he is. But we is not been terminated. "

Pictures

Graves of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg ( left) and Alexander ben Solomon Wimpfen

Grave stone of Rabbi Jacob Molin, called Maharil, 1427, in Rabbinental. It is free standing on his request, and the only east-facing grave of the cemetery

Grave stone of Rabbi Naphtali Hirsch Spitz, Rabbinental