The Jewish Community of Worms (קהילה קדושה ווירמייזא, the "Holy Community of Worms"[1]) was one of the oldest documented Jewish communities in the German-speaking region. Until its destruction by the Nazis, the Jewish community in Worms had continuously existed since the Middle Ages, with only relatively short interruptions. Due to this long tradition, it always held a prominent position in the memory culture of Ashkenazic Judaism.[2]
In the late antiquity, there were Jewish communities along the Rhine. However, their continuity into the High Middle Ages is not verifiable.[3] In the self-presentation of the community, legendary founding stories circulated, which traced the existence of the community back to the time of the first destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.[4]
From the 9th century onwards, Jewish merchants from Italy and France migrated to the area that would later become Germany. The territory was to be developed according to the aspirations of the kings. The immigrant merchants from more advanced and urbanized areas were part of this innovation push. However, due to the scarce sources, it is not certain when local communities formed in the cities along the Rhine.[5] This lack of historical facts was already perceived as a gap in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period and was filled by a series of founding legends.[6]
The two oldest written records that Jews lived in Worms are dated to the years 960 and 980.[7] The oldest evidence of the existence of a Jewish community is the construction inscription for the Synagogue of Worms from the year 1034. It is also the oldest surviving construction inscription of a synagogue north of the Alps.[8] The oldest tombstone in the Jewish cemetery in Worms ("Holy Sand") dates back to the year 1058/59.[9]
Emperor Henry IV granted a tax exemption to the Jews and the other inhabitants of Worms on 18 January 1074.
This is the oldest mention of Jews in Worms in a source from the surrounding majority society.[10] In 1112, Henry V confirmed the charter. In the first half of the 1090s, he granted the Jews and the other citizens of Worms another extensive privilege. The charter guaranteed a comprehensive regulation of the legal relations of the Jewish community towards the Christian majority, an exclusion of the bishop from sovereignty rights over the Jews,[11] and high barriers against conversion.[12] The original of the charter has not been preserved, but there are a number of later confirmations. In one from Emperor Frederick I dated 6 April 1157, it is stated that the original to be confirmed was issued "in the time of Salman, bishop of the same Jews."[13] This is the oldest preserved mention of the Jewish bishop of Worms, an office that was the top function of the political Jewish community until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.[14]
Since the 12th century, the Worms community, together with those in Mainz and Speyer, formed the ShUM federation, an acronym derived from the initial letters of the three cities.[15] These communities adopted a German rite in liturgy very early on, differing from the traditionally Italian-influenced one. All of this was documented early in prayer books and custom. Music also played an outstanding role.[16] Auch Musik spielte eine hervorragende Rolle.[17] From the 13th century onwards, the three communities also formed a federation in the interpretation and application of legal texts. The central document of this federation is the legal collection Taqqanot Qehillot Šum.
Also emerging in Worms since the 12th century was the movement of the Chasside Ashkenaz ("the Pious of Ashkenaz"), whose religious practice was characterized by strict notions of purity, impurity, and penance practices. The Kalonymides family, originally from Mainz, played a central role here.[18]
Due to its relative size, long continuity, and the fact that opponents of the Worms community only succeeded in temporarily expelling it from the city until 1938, it owed its long tradition. From this arose a series of its own customs and prayer orders deviating from those of other communities.[19] In the women's synagogue, there were prayer leaders who conducted the service as long as it was physically separated from the men's synagogue by a wall.[20]
The Worms community was one of the largest in Germany. In the Reich tax register of 1241, it paid the second highest amount after the Strasbourg community.[21] Over the course of the 14th century, the proceeds from this tax were increasingly assigned to various debtors of the German kings.[21]
In 1236, the charter of 1090, the Worms Privilege, was extended to Jews throughout the empire.[22] The interesting formulation "judei et coeteri Wormatienses" (Jews and other Worms residents) is found in the toll privilege of 1074.[23] This shows two things: firstly, Jews and Christians are addressed on the same level by the later emperor, thus not treated as legally inferior. Secondly, Christians are only referred to as "other Worms residents," indicating that the toll privilege was primarily of interest to Jewish merchants, meaning that long-distance trade was in their hands.
However, the legal status of the Jewish community gradually deteriorated. Contrary to the charter of 1090, the bishop did manage to gain significant rights over the Jews as the city lord of Worms.[11] Various kings attempted to impose additional taxes on them or deny them legal protection against debtors. To varying degrees, the city of Worms sought to support the Jewish community in defending against such attacks.[24] Conversely, there were also political constellations in which the king protected the Jewish community from attacks by the city of Worms. The Worms community, along with Frankfurt am Main as one of the few larger communities, successfully resisted the city's attempts to expel it.[25] Furthermore, the family of the chamberlains of Worms and, until the end of the Holy Roman Empire, their branch of the Dalberg family provided protection to Jews in Worms.[26]
The Jewish community was administered by a council of 12 members ("Parnassim"), who co-opted members.[27] The council is said to have originated in the 11th century.[28] From among its members, a community leader was chosen, "the Jewish bishop of Worms".[27] [29] Elections had to be confirmed by the Christian bishop. The Jewish council existed until the transition of the imperial city of Worms to France following the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century.[14] In the city of Worms, there were thus effectively two self-administrations side by side, with the Christian population already numerically predominant. In 1312, an agreement was reached between the Jewish community on the one hand, and the bishop and cathedral chapter on the other, which enshrined the constitution of the Jewish community with the twelve-member Jewish council at the top.[30] Disputes among Jews were settled before the Jewish council, where only Jewish law applied. However, in disputes between members of both groups, the city court of the Christian majority population was responsible.[31]
Jews could acquire citizenship, which meant full tax and military obligations,[32] but not the right to vote. For example, in 1201, Jews participated in defending the city during a siege.[21] The rules governing admission to citizenship were very similar for Jews and Christians. In practice, the Jewish council was almost exclusively responsible for admitting a Jewish citizen. Like Christians, Jews could only hold offices within their own group. Until the development of the ghetto in Judengasse in the middle of the 14th century, Jews could acquire property and reside throughout the city area.[33]
In the course of the 14th century, the revenue from the tax that the Jewish community paid to the German king was increasingly transferred by the kings to various debtors.[21] A low point of this development was the sale of rights on 4 January 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor to the city of Worms. The later emperor left to the city of Worms all Jews living there "with their bodies and goods and with all benefits and rights" that had previously belonged to him.[34] However, the city did not fulfill its duty of protection. A year later, in 1349, about 400 Jews were murdered in the Plague Pogrom. Under pressure from third parties economically damaged by this, especially Elector Palatine Rupert I, the city had to readmit Jews within its walls in 1353.[35] The ghetto dates from this time,[36] shortly thereafter its physical separation from the rest of the city by gates.[37] The triangular relationship between the emperor, bishop and the city of Worms, and the associated competitive situation between the three powers on the one hand and the Jewish community on the other, meant that the Jewish community – alongside that in Frankfurt am Main – was one of the few larger communities in the southern German cities that was never permanently displaced from the city.[38] Emperor Ferdinand I did grant the city of Worms permission to expel the Jews on 17 December 1558. However, this was thwarted by the bishop.[39] Conversely, there were also political constellations in which the king protected the Jewish community from attacks by the city of Worms.[25] In various situations, the city of Worms tried to protect the Jewish community from external attacks.[24]
Since at least 1348, the Jews had only the status of subjects of the city of Worms. Since the late Middle Ages, Jews were theoretically only allowed to stay in Worms for a limited time ("Gedinge"); they had to buy the right again every four years. However, when the city tried to expel the Jews in 1487, Emperor Frederick III intervened and prohibited it.[40] In 1521, Emperor Charles V appointed the Worms Rabbi Samuel ben Eliese Seezum as the supreme rabbi in the German Empire with his seat in Worms, and the same happened on 26 June 1559 under Emperor Ferdinand I with Rabbi Jakob zu Worms.[39] During the Thirty Years' War, the city was forced to quarter large numbers of troops, which ruined it economically. It therefore also tried to extort from the Jewish community, which also suffered terribly from the war. In 1641, a new municipal Jewish ordinance was confirmed by the emperor, which for the first time obliged all Jews to wear a yellow cloth ring sewn onto their clothing.[41] After the Thirty Years' War, attacks by the city on the Jewish community decreased in intensity; they were now less life-threatening and were primarily directed against Jewish property. This ended only with the takeover of power on the left bank of the Rhine by France in 1792.[42]
While in the High Middle Ages Jews were able to acquire properties and live throughout the city area, ghettoization set in after the Plague Pogrom. From Plague Pogrom until the French era in 1792, Jews lived exclusively in the Judengasse and Hintere Judengasse neighborhoods. However, the legal status of the Jewish community deteriorated, as did the legal status of individuals. Various kings tried to impose additional taxes on the Jewish community or to deny Jewish creditors legal protection against debtors. Jews were restricted in their professional activities in order to prevent competition with Christian artisans.[43] But already since the High Middle Ages, the Worms community also suffered under much more massive threats and pogroms:
The stories collected by Juspa Schammes reflect the experience of the Worms community up to the 17th century.[62]
In times when persecution was not prevalent, the community absorbed numerous cultural influences from its environment. The ShUM communities adapted their marriage laws, for example, by abandoning polygamy,[63] or the importance attached to martyrs.In the 17th century, in individual cases, children from the Jewish community attended the municipal school. However, the religious differences were still so divisive that in 1789 the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the city's destruction by French military forces was strictly separated, with each group - Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Reformers and Jews - holding their own event.[64] With the dissolution of the structures of the Holy Roman Empire, the Judrat (Jewish council) was replaced by a community council. This advocated for full emancipation, which could be achieved in 1847/48, more than 40 years after it had already happened under French sovereignty, but years earlier than in many other German states. From the 1830s onwards, Jews increasingly took up residence and established businesses outside of the ghetto. Around 1800 there were about 500 Jews living in the city, around 1850 about 1,000, which was largely the result of immigration from the countryside.[65] In 1849, the Hessian government appointed Ferdinand Eberstadt as the first Jewish mayor in Germany. He served until 1852.In the 1840s, the community split over questions of modernization and adaptation to the rapidly changing culture outside the community into an Orthodox and a more liberal direction. This found architectural expression, among other things, in the removal of the dividing wall between the women's and men's synagogues and the installation of an organ. The Orthodox part of the community then separated and in 1871 erected its own synagogue (New Synagogue/Levy Synagogue) directly opposite the medieval synagogue.[66]
Around 1500, the Judengasse was still not fully built up. Numerous vacant lots and interspersed gardens characterized the townscape.[67] At the end of the 17th century, however, shortly before the city's destruction in the War of the Palatine Succession in 1689, the Judengasse was densely built up, without any gaps in the street fronts.[68] This dense development had not yet been reached again by 1760. Particularly in the area of the Hintere Judengasse there were numerous undeveloped plots and gardens.[69]
| Year | Jewish Residents | Residents of Worms | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600 | 600 | |||
| 1610 | 650 up to almost 800[70] | |||
| 1722 | 600 | [71] | ||
| 1744 | 750 | 5000 |
The institution that made the Worms community famous far beyond its regional area was the yeshiva there in the High Middle Ages. Numerous theologians who were trained there assumed leading roles in communities of Northern Europe.
The community had all the institutions required for community life: synagogue, mikveh, community house and a community building (on the site of today's Rashi House). Around this core, the ghetto had formed by the late Middle Ages. It consisted of the streets Judengasse and Hintere Judengasse and was secured by gates where these streets led into the surrounding town. The obligation for Jews to live in the ghetto was only lifted in the period after 1792, when Worms belonged to France.
In 1924, a Jewish Museum was opened on the first floor of the annex to the women's synagogue.[72] The driving force was Isidor Kiefer, who had set it up and managed it. Most of the museum's objects were lost in Kristallnacht.[73]
Since the Holocaust, there has not been a Jewish community in Worms. The city archivist Friedrich Maria Illert succeeded in rescuing part of the community's cultural assets from destruction. These included the community's archives, medieval manuscripts and early printed works, as well as architectural elements from the medieval synagogue and its annexes. The Jewish part of the Hochheimer Höhe cemetery with its own mourning hall were also preserved.[66] [74] The two synagogues were severely damaged. After World War II, the ruin of the New Synagogue was demolished in 1947, while the old synagogue was reconstructed from 1958 to 1961 on the foundations of the historical building – using recovered architectural elements.
Due to a state law, the legal successor to the former Jewish Community of Worms was the Jewish Community of Mainz, then the only existing one in Rhineland-Palatinate.[75] Initially, however, both the city of Worms and the Jewish Trust Corporation for Germany - Branche Francais also asserted claims to the preservation of the archives or the Worms Mahzor. This led to a settlement, the result of which was ultimately that one part (the community archives and the Worms Mahzor) was handed over to Israel, while another part became the property of the Jewish Community of Mainz but remains on deposit in the Worms City Archives.[76] The synagogue, mikveh, Rashi Yeshiva and synagogue garden, as well as the old Jewish cemetery, are owned by the Jewish Community of Mainz.
The Jewish Community of Mainz, Worms and Rheinhessen is a public corporation. It is a unified community and sees itself as an Orthodox community. It acts on the basis of bylaws adopted by the general assembly. All community members can participate in the general assembly. Every two years, the volunteer board is elected by secret ballot. It determines the guidelines for community policy, conducts day-to-day business, and represents the community externally.[77]
Katharina Rauschenberger, „Hier atmet noch die gute alte Zeit“. Das Heimatmuseum der israelitischen Gemeinde Worms, in Aschkenas. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden 12 = Anette Weber (editor): Thematic Issue. Medinat Worms. Böhlau, Vienna 2002., pages 45–51.