Download ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz

ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz
Allemagne
Date de soumission : 15/01/2015
Critères: (ii)(iii)(vi)
Catégorie : Culturel
Soumis par :
Permanent Delegation of Germany to UNESCO
État, province ou région :
Rheinland-Pfalz
Ref.: 5975
Description
1. Speyer
2. Worms
3. Mainz
Judenhof
Synagoge:
Synagogengarten:
Friedhof Heiliger Sand:
Jüdischer Friedhof:
UTM Zone 32 N: 459265 / 5462759
UTM Zone 32 N: 458715 / 5463418
UTM Zone 32 N: 454240 / 5498090
UTM Zone 32 N: 453457 / 5497647
UTM Zone 32 N: 446264 / 5539489
The communities (kehillot) Jews established in the Middle Rhine cities of Mainz, Worms und
Speyer from the 10th century onwards are among the earliest documented in Central and Eastern
Europe. Together, they formed a unique cluster that significantly influenced the culture, religion and
administration of justice in the Ashkenazi diaspora.
The intensity of their interrelations is also reflected in the acronym used to refer to them: the ShUM
communities (kehillot ShUM), coined on the basis of the initial letters of Speyer, Worms and Mainz
in Hebrew. The joint legal statutes of the three reaffirming them at another assembly in 1223, have
survived to this day.
The kehillot ShUM played a major role in establishing the specific principles underpinning Jewish
life north of the Alps by adapting key aspects of Jewish cultural traditions from Babylon, the Holy
Land, the western Mediterranean area and northern France – some of them stretching back to
Antiquity – to the specific conditions of their living environment north of the Alps. Indeed, their
influence even extended to how such principles were physically handed down from generation to
generation. This novel development of Jewish ways of life and traditions, partially coloured by the
Jews' close contact with a Christian environment, became characteristic of Ashkenazi Judaism,
which in the modern era assumed lasting importance in the New World and in the state of Israel.
For many of the legal decisions and traditions, rites and customs (minhagim) passed down by
scholars in the Rhine region remain binding for Orthodox Jews to this very day.
The significance and diversity of the unique architectural and cultural heritage of the ShUM
communities, dating back to the 11th century, are of universal value: the synagogues and ritual
baths (mikvahot) in Speyer and Worms attest to new, trend-setting architectural forms. The Jewish
cemetery in Mainz is home to the oldest known gravestones north of the Alps. The memorial
cemetery opened there in 1926 is the only example of a monumental cemetery on its original,
authentic site. Meanwhile, the sheer age, size and relatively intact condition of the cemetery in
Worms make it unique in the world, as does its constant use for almost 1,000 years and the
distinguished status of the prominent Jews buried there, making it an important place of
remembrance for Jews worldwide. In addition, many other significant physical reminders, mainly
archaeological artefacts, are to be found in the three cities' museums.
Despite the material damage inflicted mainly by waves of persecution and forced expulsions, the
overall Jewish legacy left by these different kinds of testimony to the past forms an ensemble that is
unique in the world for the cultural heritage of Judaism, which ranks alongside Christianity as one of
the bedrocks of European culture.
The buildings and cemeteries in the ShUM communities
The Speyer community's buildings
In 1084, Rüdiger, Bishop of Speyer (1074-1090), awarded a privilege enabling the foundation of a
Jewish community in the city. In the centre of the Jewish settlement near the cathedral and the
market square stood the synagogue, inaugurated in 1104, the ritual bath, dating from slightly later,
and the women's synagogue built in around 1250.
The Romanesque masonry on the east and west façades of the synagogue, which –
characteristically – cannot be seen from the street, reaches up to the roof, some six metres above
the ground, making it the oldest visible remains of a synagogue north of the Alps. The end walls of
the single-nave structure were distinguished by a characteristic group of windows consisting of two
window embrasures encompassing a central round window, or oculus. The Gothic renovation (after
1250) retains this layout, which became typical of 13th and 14th-century synagogues. The oculus
high above the Torah shrine also became a typical element of synagogue design.
While a single nave design is also commonly used in Christian architecture (e.g. for refectories and
town halls), the special composition of the windows is distinct from that of Christian buildings dating
from the same period. Furthermore, the characteristic ratio of the synagogue's window surface area
to the volume of the building, as well as its substantial height for a one-storey building mean that
even its exterior marks it out as a specific structural style of its own.
The interior has its own characteristic layout and design, with a Torah niche and light cornice in the
east and a raised lectern for reading the Torah (bima) in the centre.
In around 1250, a women's synagogue, which was only slightly smaller, was built along the south
face of the synagogue. The only documented women's synagogue dating from earlier (1212-13) is
in Worms. So the two women's synagogues in the ShUM communities of Worms and Speyer are
the oldest known examples of this type of building.
A door and rectangular windows in the south wall of the synagogue opened it up to the women's
synagogue, allowing women to follow services.
Trend-setting new solutions and forms were also used for the construction of the technically highly
demanding monumental ritual bath (mikvah) in Speyer in approximately 1120.
Tradition dictates that only water from a natural source may be used for the ritual bath. The
monumental ritual baths in Speyer and later in Worms (1185-86) met this requirement by drawing
groundwater. In Speyer the master builders were faced with the major technical challenge of having
to lay out a virtually square shaft, almost four metres wide, more than nine metres underground to
feed the water basin.
Surviving bath tiles indicate that a hot bath was built above the ritual bath in the second half of the
14th century. Documentary evidence suggests that a bath-house, a bakehouse and the hospital
were already in existence before 1349.
The courtyard next to the synagogue served as a place for consultations and decisions about the
community's affairs. Today, an essentially Baroque residential building, which has housed the
SchPIRA Museum since 2010, stands on this spot. The museum relates the history of Speyer's
Jewish population, and exhibits gravestones, other remnants and the Lingenfeld Treasure (ca.
1340–1349).
The Worms' community's buildings
A Jewish community is believed to have existed in Worms as early as the 10th century. A first
synagogue of the community that settled close to the city's northern wall, close to its commercial
centre, is known to have existed in 1034. The synagogue dating from 1174-75, the women's
synagogue from 1213, the ritual bath from 1185-86 which has survived largely in its original form,
and the Rashi college (yeshiva), often called the Rashi chapel, dating from 1623-24 have been
preserved. Above the cellars of the mediaeval dancing house, the Rashi House was built in 198082, accommodating the Jewish Museum and the city archives. The foundations of other municipal
buildings dating back to the Middle Ages – a bakehouse, a hot bath and a hospital – have not yet
been excavated.
A preserved original inscription provides information about the completion of the first documented
synagogue in the early autumn of 1034. In 1174-75, a new building was constructed partly on the
synagogue's foundations, still in place after the destruction during the Crusades. While its interior
dates back to the Romanesque period, the exterior underwent a Gothic transformation. The design
of the walls, featuring two high-up Gothic lancet windows and oculi arranged below them, dates
back to the restoration work after the pogrom of 1349 and is typical of synagogue construction of
that period.
A new element – which was characteristic of synagogue construction after 1174-75 – is the twinnave design already evident in a Christian context (in town halls or areas inside cloister buildings),
which was taken up in synagogues built at a later date, e.g. in Regensburg (1210-20), Prague
(1260s), Vienna (before 1294) and Nuremberg (1296). Accordingly, the twin-nave layout, along with
the construction of a room for Jewish worship, thus appears to have become a preferred design in
Jewish religious buildings earlier than in the construction of Christian churches, where the twinnave model only became established with the mendicant orders' churches in the 13th century.
It is highly probable that craftsmen working on the cathedral were also involved in the synagogue's
construction. In particular, the quality of the two central pillars with their intricately sculpted capitals,
which dominate the six-vault interior, lends weight to this hypothesis.
In 1212-13, the synagogue was extended on the north side with the women's synagogue, a slightly
lower building that could be entered through its own gate. Worms' women's synagogue, with its
inscribed construction date, is the oldest known example of its kind. As in Speyer, women could
follow the service going on in the men's synagogue through listening windows. When the
synagogue was modified in 1841-42, the dividing wall between the two previously distinct spaces
was removed.
The shape of the largely intact Romanesque mikvah dating from 1185-86 follows its predecessor in
Speyer. Two steep staircases lead down to the water basin, which is some seven metres below
ground level.
The synagogue complex was set on fire and destroyed on 10 November 1938. Until its destruction,
the synagogue, which until then had been in constant use, was one of the oldest and most
important synagogues in Europe. The foundation walls and most of the construction material were
preserved. The reconstruction of 1956-61 was based on rescued remnants of its architecture, old
photographs and pictures of the building, and by applying established archaeological principles.
The Mainz community's buildings
Mainz, the oldest of the ShUM communities, was home to the biggest Jewish community north of
the Alps until the 11th century.
The centre of the community, stretching back to the 10th century, was not far from the cathedral
and the market square. Written sources attest to the existence of a synagogue, a ritual bath, a
bakehouse, a dancing house and a hospital. These buildings are no longer in existence but their
approximate position has been established. Valuable original artefacts, including the oldest datable
Jewish gravestone in central Europe (from 1049) can be found in the Mainz State Museum's
Judaica collection.
Mainz's cemeteries and gravestones
The mediaeval Judensand cemetery in Mainz attests to the outstanding importance of the Jewish
community in Mainz. It was defiled in pogroms and after forced expulsions, and some of its
gravestones were used as building material, but topological data document the cemetery's
expansion. Apart from a few peripheral areas partly built on in modern times, the graves have been
preserved. The northeastern sector served as a burial ground until the end of the 19th century, with
around 1,500 gravestones standing on it dating from the late 17th century. The ‘memorial cemetery'
has been located on a part of the old site since 1926. Here, around 210 mediaeval gravestones that
were recovered in the 19th and 20th centuries have been re-erected. In 2007, another 29
gravestones and fragments were uncovered and put in safe keeping. The eight gravestones with
inscriptions from the 11th century are among the oldest in Ashkenaz, the region encompassing
Germany, northern France, northern Italy, and later also Eastern Europe. Many of the rediscovered
gravestones and memorial stones commemorate martyrs and scholars, including Gershom ben
Judah (ca. 960–1028-40), one of the first scholars active in Mainz, venerated to this day as the
‘Light of the Exile'.
Worms' cemeteries and gravestones
The cemetery of the Jewish community in Worms that was situated immediately adjacent to the
southwest of the city wall and established at the latest in the early 11th century – although
plundered and destroyed on many occasions – served continuously until the creation of the new
Jewish cemetery in 1911 as a ‘House of Eternity' and a ‘House of Life'. Of the 1,300 gravestones
on the original site, around 600 are from the Middle Ages, with the oldest dating from 1058-59. On
the adjacent site to the west are 1,200 more gravestones dating from the 18th century to the early
20th century. The systematic surveying and exploration of the site of the cemetery in Worms and its
gravestones, which was resumed several years ago, has unearthed some significant new findings,
including details about the community's buildings. Indeed, to this day the cemetery in Worms is
visited by Jews from all over the world because of the prominent Jews buried there.
Speyer's cemeteries and gravestones
In Speyer, where a Jewish settlement was established no later than 1084, so far about 50 of the
gravestones in the cemetery that stopped being used in the 16th century have been recovered.
Some of them are exhibited in the SchPIRA Museum.
Justification de la Valeur Universelle Exceptionelle
Criterion (ii): In the centres of Speyer and Worms, some unique Jewish buildings of outstanding
universal value have survived. They document in unique detail the creation and emergence of
exemplary structural forms that influenced the architecture of the Jewish communities of mediaeval
cities for several centuries.
The synagogues, women's synagogues and ritual baths are outstanding early examples of
architectural styles that were recreated in Jewish ritual buildings in Central and Eastern Europe for
several hundred years and which reflect the changing needs and ideas of the Jewish minority in
Germany (e.g. notions of cleanliness and uncleanliness and of gender segregation or integration).
The synagogue in Speyer is a prominent example of how these newly developed principles were
applied in practice. Its outstanding universal value also lies in its evidential value in terms of the
various phases of development of synagogue architecture from the start of the 12th century to the
mid-15th century.
The monumental ritual baths in Speyer and Worms are the oldest remaining examples of a
structural form that was unknown in Europe until that time. Moreover, they represent innovative and
outstanding technical solutions for their age. Furthermore, the ShUM communities of Worms and
Speyer were the first to build dedicated synagogues for women.
Criterion (iii): The universal value of the Jewish cultural heritage of the ShUM communities is
based on the direct link between the surviving monuments and the outstanding importance of the
ShUM communities in the Middle Ages, and the effects on religion, law, scholarship, poetry,
customs and other areas of Jewish culture that radiated from them and have persisted for over a
thousand years. The monuments that have survived to this day bear unique witness to the creative
struggles lasting for centuries experienced by a Jewish minority grappling both with its own
traditions and with the culture of the Christian environment surrounding it.
The importance of the synagogues and the other buildings as religious, social and political centres
of the Ashkenazi communities can be clearly seen in Worms und Speyer. To this day the cemetery
in Worms, largely preserved in its original state, is a site that is also visited by many Jews from all
over the world for individual and collective remembrance at the graves and epitaphs of scholars,
martyrs and other distinguished figures and is therefore a place of living Jewish tradition of
universal significance. It is also sought out by many Christians who are aware of the extensive
similarities between Judaism and Christianity. The same goes, but to a more limited extent, for the
memorial cemetery in Mainz.
Despite the massive and irreversible disruption caused by the Holocaust, the legal principles and
traditions of the kehillot ShUM remain evident to this day in many parts of the world and are gaining
new importance even in the 21st century in the ShUM cities. In the New Synagogue in Mainz (‘Light
of the Diaspora', 2010) the architect Manuel Herz creatively took up ShUM traditions and adapted
them to the contemporary era.
Criterion (vi): The ShUM communities were the cradle of Ashkenazi Judaism, the influence of
which can be seen worldwide to this day. Since the 10th century, the colleges established in the
kehillot ShUM have attracted teachers and learners from afar.
The ShUM cities can be regarded in many respects as exemplary of the whole of Judaism in the
Christian diaspora. For many fruitful years characterised by positive tolerance, Judaism flourished.
The most important scholars since the Talmud was written studied and taught here. The global
influence these distinguished Jewish figures have had on Judaism to this day can be illustrated with
a selection of examples:
The famous scholar Rabbi Gershom Me'or Hagola (‘the Light of the Exile' - ca. 960-1040, Mainz)
has enjoyed global recognition and his takkanot (religious enactments) still apply to this day. For
example, not only did he introduce the principle of the privacy of correspondence, but the ban on
polygamy in the Jewish faith can also be traced back to him and continues to hold true today. His
memorial stone still stands in the Jewish cemetery in Mainz.
To this day, in their religious education all Jewish children grow up with probably the most famous
Torah und Talmud commentator Rashi (1040-1105), who studied and taught for many years in
Worms und Mainz. But for seasoned scholars, too, his preeminent teachings continue to be an
invaluable source of knowledge. His legacy was borne out of the then still new Ashkenazi ShUM
tradition, a tradition he ultimately went on to shape. To this day, he is considered the most
important Bible and Talmud commentator. The tomb of his teacher Jakob ha-Jakar can be found in
the old Jewish cemetery in Mainz.
Similarly, the grave of the famous Tossafist and Talmudist Rabbi Meir ben Baruch – MaHaRaM –
(ca. 1215-1293) is one of the most popular sites for visitors to the Jewish cemetery in Worms. This
important scholar died in captivity due to his refusal to be freed in return for payment of a ransom
by the Jewish community.
Rabbi Yaakov haLevi – MaHaRiL – (born in Mainz in 1375 and died in Worms in 1427) was a
famous Talmudist and Halakhist (scholar of Jewish law). His Sefer Haminhagim (Book of Customs)
laid down Ashkenazi customs for the first time in the Halakhah and so formed the basis for all
subsequent legal rulings pertaining to Jews in central Europe.
The religious liturgical compositions (piyyutim) of the ShUM cities are used to this day worldwide for
Jewish prayers on Jewish holy days. While the famous elegies of mourning (kinnot), which were
mostly written in connection with and under the influence of pogroms, are still recited worldwide to
this day on Tisha B'Av (the Jewish day of mourning in commemoration of the destruction of the
temple in Jerusalem) and the High Holy Days, happy and uplifting verses are also commonplace in
almost all Ashkenazi communities. Many of these piyyutim arose in ShUM. Among the most
famous writers are Kalonymos ben Yehuda, Eliezer ben Nathan, Baruch ben Samuel and Simon
ben Abbun (Mainz) and Rabbi Meir bar Yitzchak (Worms).
The most prominent representatives of the mystic and ascetic Hasidic Ashkenaz movement
included Speyer's Rabbi Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (1140-1217) and Worms Rabbi Eleazar
ben Judah ben Kalonymos, also known as Eleazar Roke'ah, (1176-1238).
All the ShUM communities were continually plagued by pogroms, expulsions, damage and
destruction. This makes the retention and preservation of the relics of Jewish life, some of which
are over a thousand years old, even more important. Aside from their literary legacy of prayers,
writings and exegeses that continue to be observed worldwide and to have an active influence on
the everyday life of religious Jews, it is the buildings they used which provide the most vivid insight
into the vicissitudes of the communities' history. The synagogues destroyed and rebuilt on their old
foundations and the gravestones stolen and used for purposes other than those intended, and later
reassembled in a memorial cemetery are living proof of the extremely changeable circumstances in
which Jews lived – Jews who, despite all this ongoing upheaval and change, nevertheless
managed to develop and refine a sophisticated system of laws and values that is still applicable
and significant to this day.
Déclarations d’authenticité et/ou d’intégrité
In Speyer the basic Romanesque fabric of the ritual bath has been preserved virtually unaltered.
The main parts of the synagogue have survived through the centuries despite the radical alterations
made to the building since its time as an armoury serving the city and surrounding area (1490). The
Gothic conversion that took place around 1250 is clearly recognisable in the preserved basic
structure of the building.
In Worms the mediaeval cemetery stands out as an unusually complete burial site. The vast
majority of the gravestones continue to stand in their original position, and on the newer site the
modern burial plots with their memorial stones or 'steles' have survived almost without exception.
The ritual bath has largely remained as it was in the Middle Ages. The Worms synagogue complex
which was in constant use as a place of worship for more than 900 years and burnt down in 1938
was reconstructed after the Second World War, building on the remains of the historical masonry
and reusing the original stones and rescued architectural components.
In Mainz the graves in the mediaeval cemetery have survived. The recovered gravestones there,
some of which had previously been used for purposes other than those intended, have been put
back in place. In the modern part of the cemetery, many of the graves with their steles have been
preserved.
Comparaison avec d’autres biens similaires
To date, Jewish cultural heritage has only been recognised insofar as it forms part of the historic
value of old cities that have been awarded World Cultural Heritage Site status, e.g. in Regensburg,
Vienna, Prague, Krakow, Córdoba, Toledo and Granada. In Třebíč in the Czech Republic this
status has been awarded to the Jewish quarter that has been documented since the late Middle
Ages along with St Procopius Basilica in special recognition of the ties existing between Jews and
Christians for many centuries, i.e. not primarily because of its value as a place of Jewish heritage in
its own right. On other continents too, Jewish heritage has not been recognised in its own right
under the World Heritage Convention and has also only rarely appeared in the Tentative Lists from
UNESCO's Member States.
Accordingly, with its focus on Jewish heritage the application for recognition of the ShUM
communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz represents a departure from the norm. The triad of the
three nearby Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz which have shaped Ashkenazi
Jewish education through the centuries is a particularity that has not been replicated in this form
anywhere else in the world.
The lasting influence of the ShUM communities on Ashkenazi Judaism is attested to this day by
major monuments – e.g. the excellently preserved religious buildings (the synagogue and the ritual
bath) in Erfurt and the mediaeval Jewish monuments in Regensburg, Vienna and Andernach.
The monuments which survive today in the ShUM cities are living testament to the outstanding
collective significance of Speyer, Worms and Mainz , a unique and universal significance for which
this application is seeking to secure recognition under the World Heritage Convention.