Oude Pekela Synagogue

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История Oude Pekela Synagogue

Oude Pekela lies in the east of the province of Groningen. Jews lived in the Pekela villages from 1683, and the Jews of Oude and Nieuwe Pekela formed a single congregation. A first synagogue was founded in Oude Pekela in 1737, on the initiative of a Jewish woman from Veendam; it was replaced on the same site in 1792 and renovated in 1843. In 1884 the congregation inaugurated a new synagogue on the Hendrik Westerstraat, one of the village's main streets. The new complex combined the prayer hall with a mikveh (ritual bath) and a dwelling for the community's teacher. The community was then near its largest, with more than 350 members in 1869. The building served the Jews of both Oude and Nieuwe Pekela until the Second World War, when it was badly damaged during the occupation. No Jewish community re-formed after the war, and the building was sold in 1950. It was pulled down about thirty years later, around 1980. A façade stone is the only part of it known to survive. No photograph or drawing of the building was found during research for this entry.

МЕСТО

Where it stood for nearly 100 years

Historic: Hendrik Westerstraat, Oude Pekela, Groningen; house number unknown. Today: Hendrik Westerstraat, 9665 Oude Pekela (approximate; pin on a central stretch of the street, not on the plot).

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Еврейская община

The first Jews in Pekela were a tobacco merchant and his sons, who settled there in 1683. When the provincial authorities ordered the expulsion of Jews from the Groningen countryside in 1710, the order was not carried out in Pekela. In 1693 the Jews acquired a burial ground at Draijerswijk, which for a time was also used by the Jews of the city of Groningen. In the early eighteenth century the settlement divided into Oude Pekela and Nieuwe Pekela, but the Jews of both villages formed one congregation. Many members worked as butchers, tanners and textile dealers; after 1850 cigar making and the trade in rags and metals grew, and the Catz elixir factory became a prosperous business. Poverty remained common, and in the early nineteenth century few members could pay the communal tax. The congregation numbered 212 in 1809, 344 in 1840, 354 in 1869, 293 in 1899 and 140 in 1930. A lodging house for travelling Jews existed from 1781, and a Jewish school for poor children was founded in 1838.

Архитектура и дизайн

Very little is known about the building's appearance. The sources consulted say only that the synagogue inaugurated in 1884 on the Hendrik Westerstraat was built together with a ritual bath and a residence for the congregation's teacher, so that the site held a small complex of communal facilities rather than a prayer hall alone. Whether the bath and the teacher's house were under the same roof as the synagogue or in separate buildings is not recorded. The architect, builder, style, materials, seating capacity and interior arrangement are all unknown, and no photograph, postcard or plan of the building was found. The fact that a façade stone was kept when the building was demolished suggests that the front carried an inscribed or dated stone, probably recording the construction or inauguration, but its wording has not been found. The building replaced an older synagogue of 1792, renovated in 1843, which stood on the site of the first synagogue of 1737; whether the 1884 building occupied that same plot is not stated.

Жизнь в синагоге

The synagogue was the centre of an active village congregation that maintained its own institutions. Besides the prayer hall, the 1884 complex provided a mikveh (ritual bath) and a house for the congregation's teacher. Several societies of the congregation looked after the care of the poor and sick, burials and the upkeep of the synagogue. A Jewish school for poor children had been opened in 1838, and in 1781 a private house had been set up as a lodging for travelling Jews. In the early twentieth century the Stoppelman family orchestra, led by a father and his seven sons, was popular in the region; a postcard of the orchestra from about 1917 survives in the Jewish Museum's collection. The congregation's Torah scrolls and archive were hidden in Amsterdam during the war. The names of the teachers, cantors and lay leaders who served the synagogue have not been found in the sources consulted.

Разрушение

During the Nazi German occupation the synagogue and its contents were heavily damaged. The sources consulted do not say when this happened or who was responsible, whether the Nazi German authorities, Dutch Nazis of the NSB or others, and no account of looting or vandalism of the building was found. Because no Jewish community was re-established in Pekela after the liberation, the synagogue was sold in 1950. It remained standing for about thirty more years and was demolished around 1980; the Dutch text of the Jewish Cultural Quarter's encyclopaedia says it was demolished 'a little under thirty years later'. The buyer, the use to which the building was put after 1950, the exact year of demolition and who demolished it are not recorded in the sources consulted. A façade stone from the building was preserved.

Судьба общины

In 1930 the congregation of the two Pekelas still had 140 members. During the Nazi German occupation of the Netherlands the majority of the Jews of the two Pekelas were interned in the transit camp at Westerbork in Drenthe and from there deported to the Nazi death camps in occupied Poland, where they were murdered. Only about a dozen members of the community survived, all of them in hiding. The Digital Jewish Monument records the names and addresses of Pekela residents who were murdered, among them Daniël Meijer, Saartje Meijer-Bloemendal and Kaatje Levie-Bloemendal of Kroonstraat 316 in Oude Pekela, who all died in 1943. Jewish life in Pekela did not revive after the war, and the community was formally merged with Stadskanaal in 1948. The congregation's Torah scrolls and archive, hidden in Amsterdam, survived.

Место сегодня

The exact plot on the Hendrik Westerstraat where the synagogue stood has not been identified in the sources consulted, so it is not possible to say what occupies it today. The Hendrik Westerstraat runs for several kilometres along the canal through Oude Pekela, and the map pin for this entry is placed on a central stretch of the street, not on the synagogue's plot. A façade stone is said to be all that remains of the building; where it is kept now is not recorded. A monument to the murdered Jews of the Pekelas stands in the Jewish cemetery at Draijerswijk. Since 2011 Stolpersteine have been laid in the village.

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