Despite the pandemic, last year saw wide-ranging restoration and maintenance work on a score of historic Jewish heritage sites in the Bas-Rhin department of Alsace.
A newly published report by the Heritage Department of the Jewish administrative umbrella Consistoire of Bas-Rhin (CIBR) summarizes work on 15 Jewish cemeteries, four synagogues, and a Jewish community building.
A centerpiece of the operations was the ongoing fullscale restoration of the elaborately decorated 19th century synagogue in Benfeld, which we wrote about in detail in January.
Less extensive work was carried out at the synagogues in Balbronn and Brumath, and at the Grand Synagogue de la Paix in Strasbourg.
Various operations were carried out in the cemeteries of: Bischheim, Cronenbourg, Fegersheim, Gundershoffen, Haguenau, Ingwiller, Koenigshoffen, Marmoutier, Oberbronn, Quatzenheim, Sarre-Union, Saverne, Schirrhoffen, Trimbach, and Westhoffen.
They ranged from repairing walls to creating 3-D documentation, to restoring gravestones and gates, to clearing vegetation and carrying out ecological landscaping.
“Our new ecological policy has led us to gradually stop treatments with pesticides in the maintenance of our centuries-old cemeteries,” Yoav Rossano, head of the Heritage Department, said in an introduction to the report.
Ecological and economical turf has been sown in Cronenbourg, Koenigshoffen and Fegersheim. Other cemeteries will be treated in this way in 2021. Numerous old gravestones, witnesses to our presence for centuries in the Alsatian countryside have been straightened, for example in Ingwiller, Fegersheim and Gundershoffen.
There are 45 Jewish cemeteries and 27 synagogues — only a very few used for worship — in the Bas-Rhin, and the CIBR established its Heritage and Culture Department in 2016 to deal with their preservation, maintenance, restoration, and promotion as heritage sites.
“It is customary to associate heritage with lifeless stones or with places stuck in an almost forgotten era,” Jean-Paul Kling, then-president of the CIBR, said when the Heritage Department was founded.
Today more than ever, our society needs to dive back into its history to better understand contemporary challenges. Heritage and culture are great vectors for transmitting this history and provide meaning and knowledge. In addition, they are great grounds for experimentation and innovation that transcend the ages.
A key aim, he said, was underscore that the heritage of Jews in Alsace was a common heritage of all Alsatians.
It is essential that this heritage be shared by the whole of society because this history is also that of our Region.
Some Highlights of the Heritage Department’s operations in 2020 include:
— Synagogue in Balbronn, built in 1895 (no longer in use for worship)
Roof repair; building an enclosing wall; work on water and gas lines
— Synagogue in Brumath, built in 1846
Work included the renovation of the facade
— Grand Synagogue de la Paix in Strasbourg, built in 1954.
Creation and installation of a sculptural monument representing the Grand Synagogue that was destroyed in WW2
— Jewish cemetery in Cronenbourg
Restoration of the Holocaust monument; restoration work on the ceremonial hall; landscaping work; installation of benches
— Jewish cemetery in Bischheim
3D photo inventory of the gravestones; repair of the Holocaust monument to deportees
— Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim
Repair of the wall and gates; re-erection of 30 matzevot.
— Jewish cemetery in Fegersheim
Restoration work on the 830 matzevot; preparation of information plaques to be placed in the cemetery
— Jewish cemetery in Trimbach
Complete clearing of the vegetation; installation of a new gate
— Jewish cemetery in Koenigshoffen
General cleaning of the cemetery and ecological lawn sown; replacement of gutters in the caretaker’s house
Read the full Heritage Dept. Report in the CIBR April 2021 magazine (scroll down to page 43)
Read Jean-Paul Kling’s statement about founding the Heritage Department
Consistoire du Bas-Rhin web site
Read our article about the Benfeld synagogue