Jewish community of Hamburg

The Bornplatz Synagogue in Hamburg, viewed from Beneckestrasse

The Jewish Community of Hamburg is one of the larger Jewish communities in Germany, with 2,289 members (as of 2021). It forms an independent state association within the nationwide Central Council of Jews in Germany. The chair of the community is Philipp Stricharz.

In addition to the Jewish Community of Hamburg, there is also the "Liberal Jewish Community of Hamburg" with over 300 members and the "Jewish Educational Center Chabad Lubavitch Hamburg e.V.".

History of the Jewish Communities

Sephardim from 1590 to 1939 in Hamburg and Altona

The Neweh Schalom Synagogue in Altona

Sephardim originating from Portugal settled in Hamburg from 1590 onwards, initially without founding a community. At first, many Sephardim, whose families had converted to Catholicism under threat of death, did not openly practice Judaism. In 1612, the Hamburg Council granted Sephardic Jews equal commercial rights to other Hamburg citizens through the "Kaufmannshantierung". The Sephardim founded three synagogue communities called Kether Thorah, Neweh Schalom and Thalmud Thorah, which they united in 1652 into the Holy Community of the Sephardim Beith Israel. One notable member was Herbert Pardo, who served multiple times as its chairman until 1933. The Sephardic community existed independently until it was forcibly incorporated into the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg in July 1939. In Altona, which had belonged to Hamburg since 1937, Sephardim had lived since before 1647. They founded the Holy Community Neweh Schalom only in 1770, which the few remaining members dissolved in 1887 due to too few members.

Ashkenazim from 1610 to 1945

Hamburg until 1812

Ashkenazim first gained the possibility of residence in Hamburg around 1610, provided they were employed as staff in Sephardic households or businesses. The Sephardim called the Ashkenazi Jews "Tudescos" (Portuguese for 'Germans'). Around 1661/1662 they founded the German-Israelite Community of Hamburg (DIG). The city of Hamburg granted residence permits very restrictively, so the DIG in Hamburg was smaller than its branch communities in Altona and Wandsbek (part of Hamburg since 1937). Ashkenazim without residence permits generally had to spend the night outside Hamburg and therefore officially chose their place of residence in the aforementioned, then Danish-Holstein cities. However, since they earned their livelihoods predominantly in Hamburg, they usually spent their days in Hamburg. From 1671 to 1812, the DIG formed part of the so-called Three Communities AHU (Altona, Hamburg, Wandsbek). From 1812 to 1938, the DIG existed independently and then merged into the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg. In 1710, the city of Hamburg issued the Regulations for the Jewish Community in Hamburg of both Portuguese and High German People. This came about through the mediation of Emperor Joseph I, who thus did not want to give up the old imperial Jewish regalia.

In Altona until 1938

Four Ashkenazim are documented in Altona before 1611. A community, the High German Israelite Community in Altona (HIG), was founded after 1611. Between 1621 and 1812, the HIG operated a branch in Hamburg for Ashkenazim who could not obtain a residence permit in Hamburg and therefore formally had their place of residence in the liberal Holstein-Pinneberg Altona (belonging to Danish-ruled Holstein-Rendsburg from 1640). From 1671 to 1812, the HIG was the leading member of the Three Communities AHU (Altona, Hamburg, Wandsbek). It existed independently from 1812 to 1938 and then merged into the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg.

In Wandsbek until 1938

The Israelite Community of Wandsbek (IGW) was founded in Wandsbek sometime between 1621 and 1650. From 1688 to 1812, the IGW maintained a branch in Hamburg for Ashkenazim who did not receive a residence permit in Hamburg and therefore formally took up residence in the liberal Danish-Holstein Wandsbek. The IGW was also a member of the Three Communities AHU (Altona, Hamburg, Wandsbek) from 1671 to 1812. It existed independently from 1812 to 1938 and then merged into the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg.

The "Three Communities of Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbek" from 1671 to 1812

In 1671, the DIG, HIG and IGW founded a community alliance through a contract, the so-called Three Communities of Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbek (AHU). The umbrella organization provided services for all three communities and their respective branch communities. This included a joint religious court (Beth Din), joint cemeteries, hospitals and other facilities. Through the Napoleonic conquest of 1806 and the annexation of Hamburg as part of the First French Empire from 1811 to 1814, all residence of Hamburg, including Jews, gained French citizenship and thus equal civil rights. In the Empire, all Jewish communities were subject to the central Jewish Consistory of France. Therefore, the DIG had to abandon the community alliance with the non-French communities HIG and IGW, which is why the three communities dissolved the Three Communities by contract in 1812. From 1812 onwards, the residence restrictions that had forced Ashkenazim working professionally in Hamburg to formally reside in Altona or Wandsbek were lifted. The branch communities of the HIG and IGW in Hamburg were taken over by the now independent DIG.

In Harburg until 1938

Ashkenazic Jews lived in Harburg on the Elbe (part of Hamburg since 1937) since 1610. They founded a community before 1718. In contrast to the three cities of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbek, which were easily accessible to each other even on foot and certainly by waggon, one could only reach Harburg from the other three by ship. Accordingly, the Harburg community was not involved in the joint institutions of the Three Communities. Through the Napoleonic conquest in 1803 and the annexation of the Electorate of Hanover (1807), to which Harburg belonged, initially by Jérôme Bonaparte's Kingdom of Westphalia and then as part of Napoleon Bonaparte's First French Empire from 1810 to 1814, all Harburgers, including Jews, gained equal civil rights. With the defeat of the Bonapartes, the previous conditions were restored. New laws in 1842 made Jews in the Kingdom of Hanover (as it was called since 1814) equal to other citizens, and at the same time it obliged Jews to form Jewish communities where this had not already happened. These communities then had to fulfill the state requirements for Jewish religious instruction in private or public schools and ensure all other religious tasks (maintenance of cemeteries and synagogues, holding of services, and conducting weddings). Four regional rabbis were appointed for the entire kingdom, each having to serve their own district. Harburg belonged to the regional rabbinate of Hanover.

The regional rabbis fulfilled both religious and state duties. Hanover was thus one of the few countries in the German Confederation where Judaism, like the Christian denominations, had a state-recognized and monitored organization. The regional rabbis had a semi-state authoritarian relationship with the Jewish communities and their members and employees, similar to how the Lutheran consistories related to their communities in Hanover at that time. The organization of the regional rabbinates remained in place even after the Prussian annexation in 1866, although the Prussian authorities in the old Prussian territories did everything to prevent central Jewish associations and denied them any state recognition. According to the Imperial Constitution of 1919, which separated church and state, the semi-state duties of the regional rabbis (school supervision) were abolished and their function was limited to purely religious matters. Since the unification of the cities of Harburg and Wilhelmsburg in 1927, the Jewish community took the name Synagogue Community Harburg-Wilhelmsburg (SHW). It merged into the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg in 1938.

In Hamburg 1815 to 1938

After the end of the First French Empire, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was restored as a state and the Jewish Regulations of 1710 for the German-Israelite Community of Hamburg (DIG) were reintroduced. This became possible because at the last consultative session of the Vienna Congress on the German Federal Act concerning the regulation of the rights of Jews, the text "The confessors of the Jewish faith shall retain the rights already granted to them in the individual federal states" was slightly but consequentially changed to: "The confessors of the Jewish faith shall retain the rights already granted to them by the individual federal states." Since it was the French and not the Hamburg state that had emancipated the Jews of Hamburg, Hamburg revoked emancipation in 1815 and declared the Jewish Regulations to remain valid. Emancipation in Hamburg then took place on 21 February 1849, in implementation of a resolution of the Frankfurt National Assembly. In the cities of Altona and Wandsbek, the emancipation of Jews took place as in all of Holstein by law on 14 July 1863.

In 1860, freedom of religion was enshrined in the Hamburg constitution. From 1865 onwards, membership in the Jewish community was no longer compulsory. In 1867, the new German-Israelite Community was founded as a religious community with voluntary membership. The DIG was now an umbrella organization for two independent religious associations; the third association founded in 1894, Neue Dammtor-Synagoge, was also statutorily recognized as equal after World War I. The DIG was not committed to one tradition in religious matters, but offered all Ashkenazi Jews the opportunity to be members of the one community that cultivated different religious traditions through internally autonomous religious associations (the so-called Hamburg System). Other German Jewish communities were often organized separately according to religious traditions, so that several Jewish communities of different orientations existed side by side in one place.

The DIG financed services such as education, health care, poor relief and cemeteries from the taxes of community members, which all community members could make use of if needed. In addition, under the umbrella of the DIG, there were religious associations which male community members could join as fee-paying members, but did not have to. These religious associations maintained synagogues, religious celebrations and instruction, and employed trained rabbis and teachers according to the three major religious traditions, namely Orthodoxy, Reform Judaism (founded in Hamburg) and the mainstream position formed in the 19th century, taking a middle position between the two.

One religious association was the Orthodox German-Israelite Synagogue Association, which had 1,200 paying members nationwide; the other was the liberal Israelite Temple Association (founded 11 December 1817), which was close to Reform Judaism and had 700 paying members nationwide. The third association cultivated the mainstream tradition and was called Neue Dammtor-Synagoge, and had the largest number of members. The figures do not include non-paying members such as family members and the poor.