Old Synagogue Ohel Jakob

During the 19th century, the sometimes fierce religious disputes on reform and tradition in the Jewish community led to a schism between liberal and orthodox Jews in Munich and elsewhere. This took on various manifestations, among them the construction of synagogues. The split was caused by a dispute over the introduction of an organ to the divine service, a development that was rejected by the community’s orthodox minority and had already led to the resignation of the presiding committee in 1870. Since the organ was put to use in divine services from 1876 on, the orthodox Jews formed their own associations and used separate prayer rooms to hold services according to traditional rites. There were houses of prayer at Fürstenfelder Straße 13, Hartmannstraße 3, the ‘Hundskugel’ inn, and Kanalstraße 29 (later Herzog-Rudolf-Straße 11). The house of prayer on Kanalstraße later became the site of the Ohel Jakob synagogue. A prayer room was opened on the first and second floors of the building in 1874, moving to the second and third floors in 1879 following building renovations. In 1887, members of the orthodox community applied to the Israelite Religious Community for permission to build their own synagogue; however, this request was denied and it was suggested that they should rent a prayer room in the community building being constructed on Herzog-Max-Straße. This plan fell through.

After the predominantly liberal main synagogue opened in 1887, the orthodox community submitted an application to the City of Munich’s local building commission requesting the construction of a new building at Kanalstraße 24 (from 1903: Herzog-Rudolf-Straße 3). The Association for the Advancement of Jewish Scholarship founded by members of the prayer room, also known as Ohel Jakob (Jacob’s Tent), purchased a plot of land on which the synagogue was built in 1891/92. Designed by the architect August Exter, it was constructed in the neo-Romanesque style that was popular for this kind of building at that time. From 1924, the neighboring plot housed an Israelite school.

The situation was in fact not easy for the orthodox community, since the Bavarian Jew edict of 1813 only allowed one Israelite religious community in each place. The separate orthodox services therefore had to be approved by Munich’s liberal religious community. However, the orthodox community was strengthened by an influx of Jews from eastern Europe. In 1907, the Israelite Religious Community and the Ohel Jakob Association agreed that the latter could retain their own order of service and would receive two percent of community contributions. Although the community’s Chief Rabbi remained in overall control of religious affairs, he passed this responsibility on to the orthodox rabbinic judge, Rabbi and Talmud scholar Heinrich Ehrentreu, who was appointed in 1885. The Weimar Constitution abrogated the obligation to form a single community. In 1922, the Israelite Religious Community and the Ohel Jakob Association concluded another agreement granting further rights to orthodox Jews.

The eastern European Jews who had found new homes in Munich split from Ohel Jakob, in 1931 establishing their own synagogue in a rear courtyard on Reichenbachstraße. During the pogrom of November 1938, the interior of the Ohel Jakob synagogue on Herzog-Rudolf-Straße was demolished and the building set on fire. The blaze completely destroyed the ritual objects, although Rabbi Ernst Ehrentreu (son of Heinrich Ehrentreu) tried to rescue the Torah scrolls. Like many other male members of the community, he was sent to Dachau Concentration Camp after the pogrom. The Jewish elementary school was also demolished. Lessons did not resume in another part of the building until January 1939. The ruins of the Ohel Jakob synagogue were torn down and removed in March 1939 by order of Munich’s local building commission. Another building was erected on the site in the 1950s. The synagogue is now commemorated by a memorial plaque.