Kassel, Germany

Kassel Hesse-Nassau,Germany. Kassel already had a Jewish quarter (Judengasse) in 1262. Most of the Jews perished in the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49. Until the early 17th century, no Jewish community existed. Jews had to worship privately in the Goldschmidt family home from 1650 to 1716, when a synagogue was opened. A larger synagogue was dedicated in 1755 and Kassel replaced Witzenhausen as the seat of Hesse-Kassel's rabbinate in 1772. Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the banking dynasty, was the landgrave's trusted advisor and helped to protect his interests during the short-lived Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-13). Most other Jews welcomed the arrival of Jerome Bonaparte, who granted them full civil rights, and the number of Jewish families grew from 55 to 203 (1806-12). Established in Kassel, with Israel Jacobson and Rabbi Loeb Mayer Berliner at its head, the Westphalian Jewish consistory (1808-13) modernized religious education, published the first German Jewish periodical (Sulamith), and introduced changes in synagogue worship anticipating those of Reform Judaism. Once the land-grave returned (as Elector William I), Jewish emancipation was annulled and the consistory abolished. Religious radicals who objected to Samuel Levi Josaphat's election as communal rabbi in 1818 nevertheless chose a Reform rabbi as his successor in 1836. Lazarus Levi Adler held office for over 30 years (1852-83) and presided at the rabbinical conference held in Kassel (1868). When he agreed to the installation of an organ in the synagogue in 1860, Orthodox Jews formed a separate congregation and eventually dedicated a synagogue of their own in 1898, without seceding from the main community. To safeguard its educational and economic progress, the community opened new Jewish schools and developed technical and vocational training schemes. By 1850 most Jews were self-supporting. After Kassel became part of Prussia (1866), the civil liberties of the Jews were restored, enabling them to play a major role in commerce and industry. Numbering 827 (3% of the total) in 1827, the community grew to 2,675 (2%) in 1910. Eminent Jews born there included the playwright Salomon Hermann Mosenthal (1821-77), whose three older brothers created the South African mohair industry. Israel Beer Josaphat, the rabbi's converted son, moved to London and, as Baron Paul Julius von Reuter (1816-99), founded the great Reuters news agency. The chemist Ludwig Mond (1839-1909) also emigrated to Britain, establishing the firm which his son, Alfred Mond (Lord Melchett), transformed into ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries). Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929), whose father was likewise an industrialist, gained renown as a Bible translator, theologian (The Star a/ Redemptian, 1921), and organizer of the Freies Juedisches Lehrhaus ( Free Jewish House of Learning ) in Frankfurt (1920). Rebuilt and enlarged (1890-1907), the main synagogue accommodated 730 worshipers. After WWI, Jewish refugees from the east (Ostjuden) augmented the community, which unified its welfare organizations in 1925 in order to assist the victims of inflation. A local Jewish weekly appeared (1924-33) and branches of the Central Union (C.V.), Jewish War Veterans Association, Zionist Organization, Agudat Israel, and various youth (including sports) movements were established. The German Zionist Organization's18th conference took place in Kassel in 1922, and the Union of German Rabbis also assembled there under the chairmanship of R. Leo Baeck (1873-1956). Rudolf Hallo (1896-1933), the art historian, was curator of the State Museum's Jewish art department from 1927. Although Philipp Scheidemann, the Social-Democratic burgomaster (1920-25), endeavored to curb anti-Semitism, the Nazis gained support in Kassel. Their leader, Roland Freisler, became notorious as head of the People's Court in Berlin and two Jewish lawyers who had clashed with him were tortured by the SA after Hitler came to power in 1933. Of the 2,301 Jews registered in 1933, 1,207 had left (372 emigrating) by 1936. On 7 Nov. 1938 Nazis set fire to the main synagogue, but firemen extinguished the blaze. Two days later, the Liberal synagogue was burned down and the Orthodox synagogue's interior was largely destroyed on Kristallnacht (9-10 Nov. 1938). Communal records (such as a Memorbuch dating from 1720) escaped damage, but valuable books and hundreds of homes were looted; 300 Jews (including the rabbi, Robert Geiss) were sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp and over 560 left (mostly emigrating to the U.S.) in 1939. The rest were eventually deported to ghettos and extermination camps, such as Riga, Majdanek and Theresienstadt during 1941-42. Most of them perished there. The postwar Jewish community of (East European) Holocaust survivors opened a modern synagogue center and numbered 106 in 1970.