The synagogue in Schirmeck, France, will be the centrepiece of the official kick-off of the European Days of Jewish Culture on Sunday, September 4. The theme of this year’s EDJC is “Renewal,” and the ceremony will celebrate the current restoration work on the synagogue as well as a milestone: the return to the synagogue of a Torah scroll that was rescued there during World War II and ended up in Jerusalem.
As we noted last year, the synagogue, which was built around 1906, was designed by the architects David Falk et Émile Wolf. It was devastated by the Nazis but is one of the only synagogues in Alsace to have survived World War II largely intact. It was in at least sporadic use until 1978. Now owned by the municipality, it was listed as a historic monument in 1999 but stood abandoned for many years.
Its exterior was renovated in 2007. The Foundation for Heritage has been targeting it as a current project for restoration of its interior, saying that “the paintings are peeling, and the floors and furniture face humidity problems.”
In October 2021 it received a “Committed to Heritage” award of €100,000, presented by the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities, the Ministry of Culture and the Foundation for Heritage.
Restoration work began in January 2022 — and a first phase of interior renovation was successfully completed in early June.
In recent months, the Friends of the Synagogue of Schirmeck-La Broque, a civic association founded in 2016 with the aim of restoring the interior of the building, preserving the furnishings, and organising cultural events there, has been sponsoring regular guided tours of the synagogue.
The Torah will be brought back to the synagogue with a ceremony September 4. EDJC organizers described what it called the scroll’s “epic journey” across three continents:
[It] began with a story of friendship between two young neighbours in Schirmeck, one Jewish and one Christian. When the war came, the two friends were separated. The young Jew did not survive the war, and his friend, Ernest Bohn, was wounded. Seeing how the Nazi troops continually desecrated the synagogue, turning it into a herd of pigs, [Bohn] decided to rescue the Sefer Torah, which he had had the opportunity to see at his friend’s bar mitzvah.
In early 1945, Schirmeck was liberated and Ernest Bohn had the opportunity to hand over his treasure to an Algerian rabbi serving in the French army, Isaac Rouche. This rabbi had joined the French Resistance soldiers, who organised themselves in Morocco under Leclerc’s orders. Since then, the rabbi carried the Sefer Torah wherever his destiny took him. His journey crossed Morocco, Algeria, Switzerland and Israel. It is through his son in law, who lives in Jerusalem, and who is a member of the Bnai Brith, that they came into contact again with members of the Jewish community of Alsace. The return of the Torah began to take shape, 77 years later.
The return ceremony was organised under the auspices of Schirmeck Mayor Laurent Bertrand and the Schirmeck Synagogue Association President Jacques Ruch. Local and national authorities, including the Chief Rabbi of the Lower Rhine, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr. Bjørn Berge, and Catherine Trautmann, the former Mayor of Strasbourg, French Minister of Culture and MEP, are expected to attend. Relatives of Ernest Bohn will also be in attendance.
Read the EDJC announcement about the event
Read our October 2021 post about the restoration work and €100,000 grant
Facebook page of the Friends of the Schirmeck Synagogue Association