Königsberg's New Synagogue was one of three synagogues in Königsberg in Prussia, East Prussia. The other synagogues were Old Synagogue and Adass Jisroel synagogue. The New Synagogue was destroyed in the aftermath of the Kristallnachtpogrom in 1938. It was reconstructed and reopened in 2018.
History
In 1508 two Jewish physicians were allowed to settle in the city. 307 Jews lived at Königsberg in 1756. There were 1,027 Jews in Königsberg in 1817. In 1864 there lived 3,024 Jews. In 1880 there were 5,000 Jews at the city. In 1900 there were only 3,975 Jews in Königsberg. The first synagogue was a chapel built in 1680 in Burgfreiheit. In 1704 there was the formation of the Jewish congregation, when they acquired a Jewish cemetery and when they founded a "Chevra Kaddisha". In 1722 they received a constitution. In 1756 a new synagogue in Schnürlingsdamm street was dedicated but destroyed by the city fire in 1811. In 1815 a new synagogue was constructed on the same location, meanwhile called Synagogenstrasse #2. The second constitution of the Jewish congregation was issued in 1811. Some Orthodox congregants seceded from the Jewish Congregation of Königsberg, which they deemed too liberal, and founded the Israelite Synagogal Congregation of «Adass Jisroel». In 1893 the Israelite Synagogal Congregation built its own synagogue in Synagogenstraße #14–15. Soon later the mainstream Jewish Congregation of Königsberg built a new and larger place of worship, therefore called New Synagogue, dedicated in August 1896 in Lomse. The synagogue in Synagogenstrasse #2 was called Old Synagogue since. The New Synagogue, as well as the Old Synagogue, were destroyed in the November Pogrom in the night of November 9–10, 1938. The Adass Jisroel synagogue was terribly vandalised, but spared from arson, and could thus be restored to serve as Jewish place of worship. In July 1939 the Gestapo ordered the merger of the smaller Israelite Synagogal Congregation in the larger Jewish Congregation of Königsberg, which now had to enlist also all non-Jews such as Christians and irreligionists, whom the Nazis categorised as Jews because they had three or more Jewish grandparents. The systematic deportations of Jewish Germans, starting in October 1941, and brought the congregational life in Königsberg to a halt by November 1942.
Reconstruction
In October 2011 the foundation cornerstone of the new synagogue was erected in the same place, where an exact replica of the building destroyed in 1938 was planned. The plaque attached to the cornerstone reportedly was damaged and sprayed with neo-Nazi symbols, but later was cleaned and repaired. The synagogue was reopened in 2018 on the 80th anniversary of its destruction.
Isaac Euchel. Euchel founded a Hebrew literary society. He wrote the periodical "Ha-Me'assef" and the circular letter "Sefat Emet". Euchel defended institutions for the education of the young pupils, like the "Freischule" at Berlin.
Hugo Falkenheim, last Chairman of the Jewish congregation of Königsberg
