I am in the southwest of Germany inspire
the city of 50,000 inhabitants is located on the Rhine and is best known
for this building
speyer cathedral the city's main landmark 1,000 years old and a unesco
world heritage site
Christianity has set great monuments in the city but Judaism has also left its
mark here in the Middle Ages Sofia was one of the most important
Jewish settlements in Central Europe along with mines and homes the three
cities were even called Jerusalem on the Rhine spire warms and mines are
considered the cradle of European Judaism Jewish life has shaped these
three cities for more than 900 years and I want to know what remains of it so
today's show is not just a city trip but also a journey through Jewish history
in the old town of spire in the Univ the Jewish courtyard is the spealler Museum
in the Middle Ages spire was called Spiga in Hebrew which is how the museum
got its name warmth was called hua meisa and mines magenta for this reason these
three cities are called shown communities stands for stiva for Lavazza
and M for magenta the turn truth is like a logo it is familiar to Jews all over
the world the importance of spire becomes clear when you go outside the
museum here you can see the remains of the medieval synagogue it dates back to
1104
next it was the so called foul an shouid the synagogue for women in general women
and men set apart in synagogues well and this bench here used to be for the women
they were able to follow the service by least listening slots here this week v
is particularly noteworthy a ritual bath from the 12th century in acknowledgement
of their important Jewish past the three shown cities are now seeking to be
listed as a unesco world heritage site my next stop is warmth forty minutes
away from spire I have an appointment at the heilige zant holy sand symmetry with
Susan Robin she's the managing director of the association shoosh theatre which
is responsible for the preservation and communication of Jewish history inspire
warms and minds men must wear headgear in the cemetery how old is the cemetery
dates were around 10:30 or 10:40 the same time as the Jewish community
settled here so it's a really old jewish cemetery you can also see that from
looking at the stones it's a sea of stones - here are of course particularly
eye-catching not only right at the entrance of the
cemetery but also covered with notes and with stones so that you can see this is
a living memorial the reasons as under woman tells me is that a famous rabbi
from Lorton book is buried here what's the tradition of placing stones on
tombstones if you look around here you can see stones lying everywhere on
individual graves or tombstones and the important thing is simply that you honor
the memory of that person you don't have to know them this whole area contains
about 2,500 visible gravestones from many many centuries if we briefly stop
here and look at this small green island you will
the two oldest gravestones we know of 12,000 years old 3,000 years old one is
an unknown young man and the other on the left is a Jakob probably a time word
student we don't know for sure on our way to the synagogue we pass many
stumbling blocks I've seen stones like this here in many other cities what is
this all about this is the largest decentralized Holocaust Memorial in
existence there are tens of thousands of stones all over Europe this was inspired
by an artist from Cologne who in the 1980s 90s asked how can you actually
best memorialize someone and the best thing is actually to stop as you did and
ask what is that disturbance on the ground that's something different and
there are names on it and numbers and places and suddenly you realize that
there are stories behind these stones
they tell of the victims of the Nazi regime and are embedded in the ground in
front of their former homes during this time the Jews from here were harassed
deported and murdered as in many parts of Europe we also find stumbling blocks
in the Union Gaza the course of the street today is the same as it was in
the 12th century and in the centre shishu it the warm synagogue desk aboard
a building may not be large but it has an incredible history it dates back to
the 11th century was burned down several times in the wars the Crusades attacked
again and again and the Jews and forms always said we will rebuild it we belong
here and we want to stay here this is of course testimony to an extraordinary
resilience and a desire to be respected on our council zone
the building was also destroyed during the Nazi era and later rebuilt in 1961
services are held here again today I had North again 40 minutes to mines there
are hardly any remains of the Jewish past left but there is a new synagogue
an architectural exceptional building
the Jewish journalist and leaseback volunteers to guide visitors through the
synagogue which was inaugurated in 2010 the building is an unusual shape why is
that the whole thing is a word sculpture and the word is kedusha I've brought the
architects Draft with me Kato Shah stands for holiness it's the name of an
important prayer observant Jews say three times a day and the letters of the
Katyusha evoked the outer silhouette unfolded like that it's folded out like
that right around the corner and here's another special thing this folio the
remains of the pillars of the old synagogue which stood here until 1938 it
was one of three inner-city synagogues this one here was the liberal main
synagogue which had close to 1,000 members it's a wonderful testament to
the old days which shows that minds once had a great Jewish tradition it's or not
yeah he's indeed these are the key paws or caps that people always put on when
they go into the synagogue or while praying in everyday life almost why do
we wear one it's a mark of humility towards the Lord that one simply cannot
go bareheaded it's a mark of reverence to the Lord
this place of worship is impressive the gold-coloured walls are decorated all
over with Hebrew characters they reach up to the top of the tower even the
benches form a letter lammott the Hebrew letter L in front of the Torah scrolls
with the five books of Moses you read the Torah with the ritual point to the
yard that's very important because the ink is vegetable-based so in summer if
you rub your sweaty finger over the Torah scroll that would smudge the
writing but it's also a sign of respect for God not to just point a finger
directly at the biblical word instead you use the ritual pointer to travel
along the line
yes definitely the Shoom cities are unique three wonderful places with a
Jewish history that goes back hundreds of years and that is still visible today
Shalom and see you next time