Ohel Jakob synagogue, Munich

The Jewish Zentrum München is the community center of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria in the city center of Munich. Amongst these there are consecrated in November 2006, new main synagogue Ohel Jacob (Hebrew: אהל יעקב, Jacob's tent ), a cultural and community center ( with meeting rooms, school, nursery, youth center and restaurant) and the new Jewish Museum, in sponsorship of the City of Munich was opened in March 2007.

Between 1947 and 2007, the community center was housed with the former main synagogue and a small museum in the Reichenbachstraße 27.

Buildings

The buildings are located at Sankt -Jakobs -Platz between Schrannenhalle the Catholic Convent of the Poor School Sisters with affiliated church of St. Jacob and the Oberanger. North of the main entrance is the Munich City Museum.

The Jewish Center has the second largest Jewish community in Germany, which defines itself as orthodox, after the destruction of the main synagogue by the Nazis back over a domicile in Munich's Old Town. The planning had been entrusted to the Saarbrücken office Wandel, Hoefer Lorch and that could decide on a two-stage architectural competition for himself and had already designed the New Synagogue in Dresden.

Synagogue

The base of the 28 meter high synagogue, which has 585 seats, reminiscent of the Western Wall, the only surviving part of the Jerusalem temple. In enthroned - in a rectangular skylight - interlocking Stars of David Steel. They are glazed and hung with a bronze-colored metal mesh. The skylight to let in light during the day and emit light at night in the area. The incident solar radiation is broken in several places and soak the inside of the synagogue, which is covered with cedar from Lebanon and pale Jerusalem stone, in warm light. The glass structure suggests a tent that symbolizes the 40 -year-old migration of the Jews through the Sinai desert. The six meter high portal was made ​​in Budapest. Then are (from top to bottom, left to right) the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י ) which is also used in Hebrew for counting; so they remember the Ten Commandments.

The Ohel Jakob synagogue bears the same name as the destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938 Orthodox synagogue in the Herzog -Rudolf -Strasse. Like all synagogues invested in east-west direction and the house of God Ohel Jakob. On the east, that is, Jerusalem is located wall, covered by a dark blue Parochet, the Torah ark. Before him burns the Eternal Light. The reading desk ( Bima ) is located, as in Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues usual, in the middle of the room. For the men, the rows of chairs in the middle of the hall are determined, the women take on the only slightly elevated side balconies place.

Museum and Municipal House

The two remaining buildings of the center (museum, community center ) consist of rectangular, functional solitaires. As a uniform material surface are differently structured slabs of travertine of the Swabian Alb.

In kindergarten, which is housed in the community center, five groups of 18 to 25 children are cared for. The Sinai Elementary School, which is open to as kindergarten and non- Jewish children is conceived as a day school for 150 children. Courses on Jewish history, religion and culture as well as language courses offer the Jewish community college. There is also the community center a reference library and an archive, the newspapers, magazines and documents on Jewish life past and collects nowadays. In a restaurant on the ground floor of the community center kosher food is prepared. A Gym in the basement of the center uses including the TSV Munich Maccabi. Teaching in Israeli folk dance is issued by Matti Goldschmidt.

In a 32 meter long underground tunnel of memory between the buildings around 4,500 names are immortalized by the Munich Jews who were murdered during the period of National Socialism.

In October 2008, the Jewish Centre Munich won the German Urban Development Prize.

• Portal of the synagogue
• Ark
• Star of David motif in the glass structure

Groundbreaking ceremony and inauguration

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on 9 November 2003 in the presence of Federal President Johannes Rau. For this day had the neo-Nazi organization " camaraderie South " planned to bomb the site, the thwarted the police. According to the former Bavarian interior minister Günther Beck Stone presented the investigators 14 kg explosives and assassination plans safe. In two processes a total of eight men and women were sentenced to long prison terms.

As originally conceived was celebrated on 28 October 2005, the topping-out of the synagogue. The start of construction was delayed several times because unexpected medieval foundations were found and therefore a rescue excavation was required. On November 9, 2006 - exactly 68 years to the day after the Kristallnacht of 1938 - the synagogue was inaugurated. At the ceremony, distinguished guests attended from home and abroad, in part, as German President Horst Köhler, the Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber and the entire Bavarian cabinet, Israel's ambassador Shimon Stein, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel Meir Lau, as well as numerous representatives of political parties and faith communities. Was chaired the opening ceremony of Charlotte Knobloch, the Munich- grown President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Many of Munich had accompanied the move of the nine festively decorated Torah scrolls from the old to the new synagogue in the morning; the house of God was played by the clarinetist Giora Feidman Shalom Chaverim ( "Peace, my friends! "). More than 1500 police officers were mobilized to secure the area around the St. Jakobs-Platz.

Three days after the official opening, the people of Munich had to visit at a " day of meeting" opportunity, the synagogue and the community center. The unexpectedly large interest of the population meant that was formed a few hundred meters long queue in front of the synagogue after a few hours. The police had to regulate for safety further access to the place. In total, 15,000 people were looking at the new facilities.

Financing

The new Jewish center cost a total of 57 million euros according to information from the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. The project was financed by the city of Munich, the Free State of Bavaria, from the Jewish community and through donations. The contribution of capital and the state government amounts to about 30 million euros. More of 20.5 million euros was generated from the sale of the property at Herzog-Max -Strasse, on which stood the old main synagogue of the Reformed congregation at that time. The buyer was the Karstadt GmbH, which was able to expand their neighboring Oberpollinger department store. The 5500 sq m site on the St. Jakobs-Platz presented according to a proposal by the Lord Mayor Christian Ude the city of Munich for free. An inscription inside the synagogue recalled that the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in Bavaria donated a sum of money to the establishment of the Centre under Archbishop Cardinal Friedrich Wetter and the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Others

On 13 March 2007, a special brand of Deutsche Post AG was presented, which is dedicated to the Jewish center; Inception of the stamp was March 1, 2007. It was designed by Barbara Dimanski from Halle. The rest of the 55 cent stamp is 6.5 million copies.

The Synagogue and the Jewish center were the scene of the crime scene thriller A normal case, the Original held on 27 November 2011.