For the forthcoming symposium on future usage and preservation of the
Synagogue-building in Kuldiga I would like to focus on the different
functions of Synagogue within the framework of urban Jewish
communities in the past rather than on the building itself. I think
that by reviving certain functions once attached to a specific place
in the urban space we can preserve the memory of the deceased, who
had formed a living community.
Taking the scholarly debate on the origins of synagogue / proseuche
in antiquity as a starting point I am going to elaborate the
discussion on „what is a Synagogue?“ and the different concepts of
communal organization connected to possible answers.
As long as the very term synagogue is of Hellenistic origin and not
commonly referred to by Jewish sources during the ages, we have to
take into consideration at least four aspects for our analysis of
„What is a Synagogue?“: Synagogue as an institution; Synagogue as
liturgy; Synagogue as non-liturgical activities; Synagogue as a
building. All those aspects find there expression in the Jewish
terminology used in Eastern Europe for places and institutions which
we today might call Synagogue: beit knesset (hebr. „house of
assembly“), beit ha-midrash (hebr. „house of learning“), beit tfila
(hebr. „house of prayer“), beit ha-din (hebr. „house of justice“),
shul (yid. „school“), kloiz (yid. „small chamber“).
For an institutionalized conjunction of many (if not all) of the
above listed functions in a single and representative building we
certainly need to have an organized and officially recognized
community with the capability of providing certain funds for the
building itself, its maintenance and the associated personal of at
least a Rabbi. And by that we can assume an organizational framework
with a certain hierarchical structure, which is clearly beyond the
religiously required assembly, or minyan, of ten men for the
liturgical prayers.
whole lecture
in latvian as pdf
Die Frage nach der Synagoge als sozialem Raum im Kontext der spezifischen Situation des litauischen Judentums (auch wenn Kuldiga im heutigen Lettland liegt) läuft letztendlich darauf hinaus zu fragen:
"Was ist eine Synagoge?".
Till Grallert is a graduate student of Jewish and Islamic Studies
living in Berlin
Till Grallert ist ein in Berlin lebender Judaist und Islamwissenschaftler.
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