Woerden Synagogue

Еврейская община

The Jewish population of Woerden was always small. The Jewish Cultural Quarter gives 36 Jews in 1809, 52 in 1840, 75 in 1869, 70 in 1899 and 18 in 1930; Wout Ultee's study of the community records a peak of 137 at the census of 1879. Most of Woerden's Jews earned their living as traders, shopkeepers and butchers, the same occupations as in most Dutch country towns, and the trade of Jewish butcher is attested in the town as early as 1759. The congregation belonged to the Rotterdam district (ressort) of the Nederlands-Israëlietisch Kerkgenootschap, so its spiritual head was the chief rabbi of Rotterdam rather than a rabbi of its own. Families named at the synagogue's jubilees and in the community in the early twentieth century include Van Creveld, Gans, Loterij, Van Blankenstein, Eckstein, Khan, Hoornstra-de Leeuw, Frank, Izaks and Oppenheimer. Decline set in from the 1870s, as in many small Dutch communities whose younger members moved to the large cities. By 1930 only eighteen or nineteen Jews remained, and the congregation had been joined to Gouda's since 1925.

Архитектура и дизайн

No photograph, drawing or plan of the Woerden synagogue was found, and none of the sources read describes the building. What is known is its location, at the corner where the Groenendaal meets the Hogewoerd, one of the main streets of the old fortified town, and its date of 1856. The architect, builder, materials, style, size and number of seats are unknown. The cost of building was presumably borne by a congregation of between fifty and seventy-five people, which suggests a modest hall rather than a monumental building, but that is an inference from the community's size and not a documented fact. Of its furnishings only the gifts recorded at the jubilees are known. In 1881 the young men's society Tiferet Bachoerim gave a pair of silver Torah finials and the women's society Ezrath Nasim a Torah shield, with a silver pointer and a spice box from individual members. In 1906 the Loterij sisters gave white silk cloths and Mrs Hoornstra-de Leeuw and her siblings a second pair of finials, inscribed to Asher Halevy and Feigele de Leeuw-Cohen.

Жизнь в синагоге

The synagogue was opened with ceremony on 26 June 1856, when Chief Rabbi Joseph Isaacsohn of Rotterdam gave the dedication address in the presence of members of the congregation, among them men of the Van Creveld and Gans families. The congregation celebrated the building's anniversaries in the same way. On 2 December 1881, at the twenty-fifth anniversary, Rotterdam's chief rabbi B. S. Berenstein delivered the festive address, and Isaacsohn, by then leading a congregation in Hamburg, returned to give the sermon. Two associations within the community, the young men's society Tiferet Bachoerim and the women's society Ezrath Nasim, marked the occasion with gifts of silver for the Torah scrolls. The fiftieth anniversary fell in December 1906; Chief Rabbi B. L. Ritter of Rotterdam spoke on 23 December, and new cloths and finials were donated. That jubilee was the last high point. Soon afterwards the congregation could no longer form a minyan, the quorum of ten adult men required for public services, and regular worship in the building came to an end some years before its demolition. The names of the community's cantors, teachers and wardens were not found.

Разрушение

The Woerden synagogue was not destroyed by violence. It went out of use after the congregation, which had been shrinking since the 1870s, could no longer gather ten men for services in the years after 1906. In 1920 the building was demolished: the Jewish Cultural Quarter says it was 'afgebroken' and Wout Ultee's study of the community says it was 'gesloopt', both giving the year 1920. Neither source says who ordered or carried out the demolition, whether the building or plot was first sold by the congregation, or what took its place; who demolished it is not recorded in the sources read. Part of its ritual silver was saved, apparently passing with the congregation's other property to Gouda, with which Woerden was merged in 1925, and it is now displayed in the museum there. The demolition therefore took place two decades before the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and is unrelated to it.

Судьба общины

After the synagogue's demolition a small Jewish population remained in Woerden. In 1930 it numbered eighteen or nineteen people, among them the Van Creveld, Frank, Izaks and Oppenheimer families. During the Nazi German occupation the registration of March 1941 counted thirty Jews in Woerden, and a list of May 1942 named forty-four, many of them refugees from Germany and Jews from other Dutch towns. In 1942 and 1943 they were deported, by way of Amsterdam or the Vught camp according to differing accounts, to Westerbork and on to the death camps. Wout Ultee's study names among the murdered Esther Glaser-Izaks, Eliza Gazan-Izaks and Rijntje Hoornstra-de Leeuw, gassed at Sobibor in 1943; Eliazar Izaks, his wife Henriette Izaks-Glaser and their four children; Marianna Blitz-Oppenheimer; and Roosje Louisa Gazan-Izaks, who died at Auschwitz. According to the Jewish Cultural Quarter about half of Woerden's Jews were deported and murdered. The other half survived, several by hiding: an elderly Izaks couple hid in the Catholic hospital, and the Buchheimer, Van Creveld and Juda families were back in Woerden after liberation. No congregation was re-formed.

Место сегодня

The corner of the Hogewoerd and the Groenendaal lies inside the old town of Woerden, where part of the Hogewoerd is now a pedestrian street. The exact plot of the synagogue and the buildings that replaced it after 1920 have not been identified in the sources read, so the map pin marks the street corner, not a documented footprint. No trace of the synagogue is recorded on the site. The Jewish cemetery laid out in the same year, 1856, survives near the Westdam park; it is maintained by the municipality and was restored in 2013. A Jewish monument was unveiled in Woerden in 2002. Silver Torah ornaments from the synagogue survive in the Museum Het Catharina Gasthuis in Gouda.

Значимые имена