The Worms Synagogue, also known as Rashi Shul, is an 11th-century synagogue located in Worms, Germany. Situated in the northern part of the city center, the synagogue is one of the oldest in Germany. Because of its historical importance and its testimony to the European Jewish cultural tradition through millennia, the Worms Synagogue was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021(along with other medieval Jewish cultural sites in Speyer and Mainz).

History

The first synagogue at the site was built in 1034 and is therefore regarded as the oldest existing synagogue in Germany. The building was destroyed during the First Crusade in 1096 and subsequently rebuilt in 1175 in the Romanesque style. In 1186 southwest of the synagogue a subterranean

mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...

was constructed. During the pogroms of 1349 and 1615 the synagogue was badly damaged: in both pogroms the vaulted ceilings and the walls were heavily damaged. During reconstruction after 1355 Gothic forms for the window and the vault were chosen. Of comparable seriousness was the damage after the fire of 1689 during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

. When the building was restored in 1700, the interior was renovated in period style. On Kristallnacht in 1938 the synagogue was once again attacked and reduced to rubble. It was painstakingly reconstructed in 1961, using as many of the original stones as could be salvaged. The synagogue, open as a museum, continues to be a functioning synagogue used by the Jewish community. In May 2010, the synagogue was firebombed by arsonists, suspected to be

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

s. The firebombs were thrown against eight corners of the stone building and against a window, but no one was injured and no serious damage to the building was reported.

Architecture

Built at the point when late Romanesque style was fading and Gothic rising, the rectangular prayer hall features a pair of Romanesque columns supporting groin vaults. The windows in the thick stone walls are simple gothic arches. The windows in the adjoining study hall, the so-called '' Rashi Shul'', have rounded Romanesque arches. The women’s section of the prayer hall has Romanesque windows in the eastern wall, and gothic windows in the western wall.Meek, H.A. ''The Synagogue''. Phaidon, London, 1995, pp.82-88 V10p325001 Rashi Synagogue.jpg, Pre-1938 interior of the Rashi Shul WormsSynagogeInnen.jpg, Interior Grundriss Synagoge Worms.tif, Plan of the synagogue

References

External links

Worms tourism site on the synagogue
{{Authority control, state=collapsed Buildings and structures in Worms, Germany Gothic architecture in Germany Romanesque and Gothic synagogues Synagogues in Germany 11th-century synagogues Religious buildings and structures in Rhineland-Palatinate Rebuilt synagogues World Heritage Sites in Germany Religious buildings and structures completed in 1034 1030s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire