Molenbeekstraat Synagogue, Sittard

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История Molenbeekstraat Synagogue, Sittard

Sittard, in the south of the Dutch province of Limburg close to the German border, had Jewish residents again by the 1720s; the oldest surviving gravestones in its Jewish cemetery date from 1715. In 1725 the town council allowed the Jews of Sittard to open a synagogue, and a prayer house was consecrated in the Molenbeekstraat, a street in the old town centre. It was the community's place of worship for 128 years, spanning the French period and the first decades of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During that time the community grew from 49 people in 1794 to 152 in 1840. By the middle of the nineteenth century the Molenbeekstraat building could no longer hold the congregation, and in 1853 a new synagogue was inaugurated in the Plakstraat, after which the old one went out of use as a synagogue. Nothing found records what the building was used for in the following century. It was demolished in 1963, ten years after the Plakstraat synagogue itself had been pulled down. No photograph, drawing or plan of the Molenbeekstraat synagogue was found, and its exact plot, its appearance and the reason for its demolition remain unknown.

МЕСТО

Where it stood for 238 years

Historic: Molenbeekstraat, Sittard; house number unknown. Today: Molenbeekstraat, 6131 Sittard (Sittard-Geleen), Limburg; pin at the midpoint of the street (approximate).

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Еврейская община

Jews are recorded in Sittard again in the 1720s, and the oldest gravestones in the Jewish cemetery near the town wall at the Fort Sanderbout date from 1715, although the community only bought that ground formally in 1838. The Joods Cultureel Kwartier notes that throughout the eighteenth century Jews were reported among the roving bands of robbers active around Sittard. The community counted 49 people in 1794, 119 in 1809 and 152 in 1840. It reached 195 in 1869 before declining to 173 in 1899 and 125 in 1930. The community was governed by a council and a board and had a treasurer who collected funds for the Holy Land. No rabbi, cantor, teacher or warden who served at the Molenbeekstraat synagogue is named in the sources read.

Архитектура и дизайн

No description, photograph, drawing or plan of the Molenbeekstraat synagogue was found. The sources consulted say only that a synagogue was consecrated in the street in 1725 and that the building was demolished in 1963. Whether it was purpose-built or a room or house converted for worship is unknown, as are its size, materials, seating capacity, the arrangement of the ark and reading desk, and whether it had a women's section. That the congregation outgrew it by about 1850, when it numbered roughly 150 to 190 people, suggests a modest building. Its successor in the Plakstraat of 1853 was extended in 1856 with a caretaker's house, ritual bath, matzah bakery and study room, which may indicate facilities the old building lacked, but that is an inference only. The architect and builder are unknown.

Жизнь в синагоге

Very little is recorded about worship in the Molenbeekstraat synagogue. It was opened in 1725 with the consent of the town authorities, a permission that marks the point at which Sittard's small Jewish population was allowed to hold public services in its own house of prayer. For the next 128 years it was the religious centre of the Jews of Sittard and, according to the population figures given for 'Sittard and surroundings', of families in nearby villages as well. No account, inventory or name of a prayer leader from that period was found. The community's council and board, and its treasurer for charity to the Holy Land, are mentioned only in general terms. The move to the new synagogue in the Plakstraat in 1853 ended its religious use.

Разрушение

The Molenbeekstraat building ceased to serve as a synagogue in 1853, when the congregation moved to its new synagogue in the Plakstraat. It therefore played no part in the events of the Second World War, when the Plakstraat synagogue was closed after the Nazi German invasion of May 1940 and its interior wrecked. The Joods Cultureel Kwartier states that the old building in the Molenbeekstraat was demolished in 1963. No source read explains why it was pulled down, who owned it at the time, or whether the demolition was part of a wider redevelopment of the street; who demolished it is not recorded. What use the building had between 1853 and 1963, and whether anyone at the time of the demolition still recognised it as the former synagogue, is also unknown.

Судьба общины

Sittard had 125 Jewish inhabitants in and around the town in 1930. After the Nazi German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940 the Jews of Sittard were deported between the summer of 1942 and the end of March 1943, by way of the camps at Westerbork and Vught, to camps in Nazi-occupied Poland, where they were murdered. Only a few survived, mostly by going into hiding; one of them, Herman Silbernberg, later wrote a memoir of his time in hiding. A monument in the Ursulinentuin commemorates 160 Jewish victims from Sittard and the surrounding area. After the liberation the Plakstraat synagogue was restored and reopened in 1945, but the community was too small to continue, and in 1947 it was dissolved and merged with the Jewish community of Maastricht. The old Jewish cemetery at the town wall had been largely destroyed, only a few damaged gravestones remaining, and its walls were still unrepaired in 1953.

Место сегодня

The Molenbeekstraat is today a pedestrian shopping street in the centre of Sittard, part of the Baandert district. The house number or plot on which the synagogue stood was not identified in any source consulted, so it is not possible to say which building now occupies the site; the map pin marks the middle of the street. No remains of the synagogue are known. A plaque commemorating it was unveiled in the Molenbeekstraat in 1995. Identifying the exact plot will need the cadastral records or the collections of the Euregionaal Historisch Centrum Sittard-Geleen.

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