Oranienburger Str. 28

The synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse that is a popular destination for Berlin tourists today was dedicated in September 1866 during the Jewish New Year festival. It was designed in the Moorish style by the Berlin architect Eduard Knobloch. In the press reports of the day, it was celebrated as one of the most beautiful synagogues in the world.

With seating for 3,200 people, it was the largest synagogue in Germany. The congregation was Reform-oriented and installed an organ in 1868. The golden dome, rising more than 50 meters in the air, symbolized the strong Jewish presence in Berlin.

Under the Prussian Law on the Status of Jews, all foreign Jews automatically became members of the unified Jewish community (Einheitsgemeinde) when they moved to Berlin. Nevertheless, there were considerable social, cultural, and religious differences between German and Eastern European Jews. German Jews, the majority of whom were liberal and middle-class, regarded their Judaism as a religion, while the Eastern European Jews, who were predominantly poor and lived traditional lives, viewed themselves as members of the Jewish people. The two groups had different ideas about the tasks of the community, which led to bitter conflicts between long-time residents and immigrants in the 1920s.

Many of the institutions that were founded by the different religious and cultural branches of Judaism in 1920s Berlin were located near the New Synagogue. The synagogue of the Orthodox congregation on Heidereutergasse was just a ten-minute walk away and there were around thirty prayer rooms on Grenadierstrasse (now Almstadtstrasse) which were frequented by Eastern European Jews. The oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin lay just two blocks away on Grosse Hamburger Strasse. Finally, the College of the Science of Judaism, where Eastern European and German Jews studied together during this period, was located on Tucholskystrasse in the building that today accommodates the main office of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

To the left of the synagogue stood the hospice of the Jewish community. Berlin’s first Jewish Museum was opened there on January 24, 1933, after its rooms had been remodeled.

In addition to ceremonial objects and archaeological artifacts, the exhibition featured works by Jewish artists, which made it something of an exception among the Jewish museums of the day. Just one week after the opening, the Nazis took power and began issuing numerous anti-Jewish regulations that excluded Jews from public and cultural life. The Jewish Museum soon became the last institution where Jewish artists could present their works.

After the November Pogrom of 1938, the Nazis ordered the museum to be closed and confiscated its collection.

In the 1930s, the Jewish Museum in Berlin bought three paintings by Leonid Pasternak (1862–1945).

Leonid Pasternak, the father of writer Boris Pasternak, came to Berlin in 1921. Well established as a key figure in Russian Impressionism, he was deeply rooted in the Russian art and literature of the nineteenth century.

Although he never denied his Jewish origins, Pasternak did not believe in a national Jewish art. Nor did he want to make a radical break with the art of the past, as the avant-garde did. His creative work was anchored in the study of the human individual.

In Berlin, Pasternak became a sought-after portrait painter. Among his subjects were artists and writers from his circle of friends.

He emigrated to England in 1938, before he could be expelled by the Nazi authorities.