Ohel Jakob synagogue
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Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
Jewish community, located at Sankt-Jakobs-Platz. The synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
was inaugurated on November 9, 2006, on the 68th anniversary of Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
. The opening ceremony was led by Charlotte Knobloch
Charlotte Knobloch
Charlotte Knobloch was elected President of Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland in June, 2006. She is also Vice President of the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress...
, President of Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
The Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland is a federation of German Jews organizing many Jewish organisations in Germany. It was founded on July 19, 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish community and increasing interest in Jewish affairs by the ...
. The building is part of the new Jewish Center consisting of the synagogue, the Jewish Museum Munich
Jewish Museum Munich
The Jewish Museum Munich provides an overview of Munich’s Jewish history and is part of the city's new Jewish Center located at Sankt-Jakobs-Platz in Munich, Germany...
and a community center.
Building
The synagogue was designed by architects Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch who were awarded the contract after an architectureArchitecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
competition on July 6, 2001. The architects had previously completed the new synagogue
New Synagogue (Dresden)
The New Synagogue in Dresden was completed in 2001 and designed by architects Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch. It was built on the same location as the Semper Synagogue designed by Gottfried Semper, which was destroyed in 1938, during the Kristallnacht.The boundary wall of the New Synagogue...
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. The topping out
Topping out
In building construction, topping out is a ceremony held when the last beam is placed at the top of a building. The term may also refer to the overall completion of the building's structure, or an intermediate point, such as when the roof is dried in...
ceremony was celebrated on October 25, 2005. The building is a cubic structure of travertine
Travertine
Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, and cream-colored varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot...
stone topped by a glass cube. The glass roof represents a tent (or Ohel
Ohel
Ohel is a structure built over a Jewish grave as a sign of prominence of the person buried within. Ohalim range from small wooden, brick, or plaster structures to large buildings which include one or more graves and area for visitors to sit and meditate....
), symbolizing Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
' 40-year-journey through the desert. The main portal was manufactured in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
and features Hebrew letters depicting the 10 commandments
Commandments
Commandments is a 1997 romantic comedy-drama which was written and directed by Daniel Taplitz and stars Aidan Quinn, Courteney Cox and Anthony LaPaglia. Its executive producer was Ivan Reitman.-Synopsis:...
. The interior walls are paneled with warm cedar decorated with golden psalms. It seats 550 worshippers. It cost about US$72 million to build and funding was provided by the city of Munich, the state of Bavaria and Munich's Jewish community. Munich's original main synagogue was destroyed in June 1938 and stood a few blocks away from the new synagogue, on ground that is now a parking ramp.
In 2003, German authorities uncovered a plot by a group of neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
s to bomb the ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the building. Security concerns also led to the decision to house a memorial to Jews killed in the Holocaust in an underground tunnel between the synagogue and the neighboring Jewish Community Center.