Temple on Poolstraße / Synagogue of the New Israelite Temple Association 1844 – 1931

IGdJ Picture Database, NEU00040, photo: Katrin Antweiler, 2013.

© Silvie Bomhard, https://silviebomhard.de/.

Hofgebäude Poolstraße 12 / 13

On September 5, 1844, the New Israelite Temple was consecrated in the backyard of Poolstraße 12 / 13. Since the founding of the Temple Association in 1817, the number of members had increased to such an extent that the previous prayer room had become too small. The new rooms now had 380 seats for men and 260 for women. Many of the founding members and chairmen of the Temple Association were educated and wealthy Hamburg Jews such as the banker Salomon Heine. The association felt it belonged to Reform Judaism, which practiced an approach to the ritual laws of Judaism adapted to modern life. The desire for reform was reflected in the design of the temple, which differed from conventional synagogue buildings by, among other things, a common entrance for men and women and the relocation of the Torah lectern to the east side. This also included the choice of the term temple instead of synagogue. In 1931, the last service was held in the New Temple in Poolstraße; the building, which was constructed in the neoclassical architectural style, was thereafter only used by the members as a magazine. In the meantime, many Jews had moved to the area around the Grindelviertel, near which the association was able to inaugurate the New Temple in Oberstraße in the same year. Apart from some parts of the building (apse and front), the temple in Poolstraße was destroyed by a bomb in 1944. In 2020, the city of Hamburg bought the site on which the walls of the temple are located. Since 2004, a Liberal Jewish Community has been existing in Hamburg, which sees itself as the successor institution of the Temple Association.
Philipp Lenhard, The Hamburg Temple Controversy. Continuity and a New Beginning in Dibere Haberith
hamburg-tempel-poolstrasse.de historia-app.de/juedische-geschichte-in-hamburg/

See also: Israelite Temple Association - Liberal Jewish Community Hamburg (Flora-Neumann-Straße 1), Temple Alter Steinweg (Alter Steinweg 42), Temple (Oberstraße 120)