Mainz - Magenza
Mainz, the mother community of SchUM
In the second half of the 10th century, Mainz offered favourable conditions for the establishment of a Jewish community. It was able to develop economically at a rapid pace in this trading city on the Rhine. Archbishop Willigis and the Ottonian imperial family granted the Jewish community protection and freedom of trade. When a Talmudic college, a yeshiva, opened around the turn of the millennium, Magenza became a centre of learning for students and scholars from across Europe. It was here that new liturgical poetry and legal opinions were produced, which continue to shape Ashkenazi Judaism to this day. Even during the heyday of the SchUM communities, there were outbreaks of anti-Semitism and persecution. Magenza’s parent congregation within the SchUM recovered only slowly from the attack by the Crusader armies in May 1096. To this day, liturgical chants and prayers – the piyyutim from Magenza – commemorate this cruel event, in which hundreds of Jewish men and women fell victim.
Mainz Memorial Book
The Mainz Memorbuch, Sefer Zikaron (Book of Remembrance), documents almost without interruption the history of the Jewish communities in the Ashkenazi region from the Middle Ages right up to the 20th century. It is the continuation of the so-called Nuremberg Memorbuch of 1296. This well-preserved handwritten book contains memorial prayers for the deceased as well as a wealth of information on Jewish history in Mainz. It is a unique testament to Orthodox Jewish traditions in 19th-century Germany. Until the November pogrom of 1938, the Memorbuch was regularly read aloud in Mainz. After the Second World War, the manuscript found its way to Israel.
The Mainz Monumental Cemetery
As the Jewish community was expelled from Mainz on several occasions and the cemetery was desecrated, the original layout of the Old Jewish Cemetery can no longer be fully discerned today. Following a resolution by the town council in 1438, the gravestones were removed from the Judensand and used as building material within the town. In the 19th century, many of the stones were unearthed during construction work. It was largely thanks to the initiative of the local rabbi, Siegmund Salfeld, that these rediscovered gravestones were collected. Salfeld’s successor, Sali Levi, succeeded in establishing a so-called ‘monumental cemetery’ in 1926: He had all the medieval gravestones that had been found re-erected at their original locations. Today, these stones, dating from the 11th to the 15th centuries, stand as an important testament to the once-thriving community of Magenza.
Prof. Dr Siegmund Salfeld (1843–1926), a rabbi and historian, transcribed and translated the inscriptions on the rediscovered gravestones, thereby paving the way for the memorial cemetery. Thanks to his publications on the history of Judaism, he enjoyed an outstanding reputation in Germany. In recognition of his services to scholarship, the Grand Duke of Hesse conferred upon him the honorary title of ‘Professor’. He was thus one of the first German rabbis to be awarded the title of professor.
Dr Sali Levi (1883–1941) researched the history of the Jewish community in Mainz. He came to Mainz in 1918 as a rabbi from Breslau, where he had studied. In 1926, he opened the Memorial Cemetery and the Museum of Jewish Antiquities in the Main Synagogue, which had been built in 1912. He was a highly respected member of Mainz society and the last rabbi of the Liberal Jewish community.
The Takkanot of the SchUM
The scholars from the medieval communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz were well connected and regularly exchanged views on religious customs and legal matters. They passed resolutions on behalf of all three communities – an unusual procedure in Jewish tradition. As the SchUM communities had developed into an authority on legal matters, they set all the regulations down in writing in 1220 at a meeting in Mainz. Known as the Takkanot SchUM, this collection attracted attention far beyond the borders of the SchUM communities. In the 15th century, Jewish emigrants took the Takkanot SchUM with them to Eastern Europe, particularly to Poland, Lithuania and Hungary.
Gershom ben Judah’s fight for women’s rights
Gershom ben Judah (960–1028) laid the foundations for the tradition of the self-assured Jewish woman. His name is still well known in the Jewish world today. One of the most significant of his numerous takkanot (decrees) is the abolition of polygamy.
Although every effort was made to ensure that marriages lasted, divorce was, in principle, already possible in Judaism at that time. In the event of a divorce, the wife’s financial provision remained unresolved. Gershom ben Judah changed this by stipulating that a divorce could only be finalised with the wife’s consent. This gave her greater scope to assert her financial claims.
Gershom ben Judah’s decrees were so groundbreaking that they were incorporated into the Takkanot SchUM (1220) 200 years later.
Strengthening women’s rights through Eliezer ben Nathan
The communities along the Rhine have always played a pioneering role when it came to women’s rights. For example, the Mainz rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan (c. 1090–1170) enabled women to work through his takkanot.
It was also thanks to him that women were allowed to retain their own property within marriage.
Which areas were governed by the Takkanot of the SchUM?
A selection:
- Confidentiality of correspondence (Takkanot 1220 according to Gershom ben Yehuda)
- Transport and handling of meat (Takkanot 1220)
- Relations between Jews and non-Jews:
consumption of food prepared by non-Jews, and the preparation of food on Shabbat by non-Jews (Takkanot 1220 and 1223)
The production of and trade in non-kosher wine (Takkanot 1220 and 1223)
Lending money to non-Jews (Takkanot 1306/1307) - Monogamy and marriage vows (Takkanot 1223 according to Gershom ben Yehuda)
- Rules regarding clothing, hairstyles and beards (Takkanot 1223)
- Prohibition on spouses eating together (sharing a meal) whilst the wife is menstruating (Takkanot 1223)
- Obligation to comply with a summons to court (Takkanot 1223 according to Rabbenu Tam)
- Funding of school education through various foundations (Takkanot 1306/1307)
Vibrant Judaism in Mainz today
The once-thriving community of Magenza made a fresh start after the Shoah. In 1945, around 20 survivors founded a new Jewish community, symbolically on 9 November. After 1990, the community grew to more than 1,000 members. This was due to the influx of Jewish people from the former Soviet republics. Consequently, a larger community centre became necessary. With the support of the city, the state, foundations and associations, the spectacular construction of the New Synagogue finally, in 2010, became a visible symbol of a vibrant and self-assured Jewish community.
In designing the New Synagogue, architect Manuel Herz made scripture the guiding motif of his design. For Jews in the Diaspora, the sacred scriptures have become something of a global home. Through the building’s structure, the architect depicts the Hebrew word ‘Kedushah’ (sanctification). The five letters give the synagogue its shape. Furthermore, the prayer hall is lined with golden Hebrew letters. These are quotations from the Piyutim Mimagenza, liturgical poems from Mainz, intended as a literary echo of the events during the Crusader pogrom of 1096.
