Alfred Jacobi began his lecture on the construction of new synagogues in Germany, the country most affected by the persecution of Jews, from the very beginning - with the Old Testament Temple in Jerusalem. He showed the audience a reconstruction made by historians. According to Jacobi, it combines the features of two cultures - Greek and Babylonian, but also carries the specific features of Jewish culture - it manifests itself in the organization of a system of access to the temple, which, as you know, consisted of several courtyards - the sequence of these courtyards reflects the structure of Hebrew society.
The Jerusalem Temple, the center and embodiment of the Old Testament faith and culture of the Jewish people, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, leaving only the western wall - the "Wailing Wall", so named because Jews mourn the destruction of their first temple. Since then, the Jews did not have the right to live in Jerusalem and scattered across Europe: through Greece along the Rhine Valley, they entered the territory of modern Germany. This is how the history of Jewish communities in this country begins, and the first prayer houses - synagogues - appear with them.
To trace the history and typology of the synagogue in Germany, Alfred Jacobi proposed to consider, for example, a separate German city - Nuremberg. In a 15th century engraving, Nuremberg is represented as a typical feudal city, around which stretches fields sown by peasants, artisans live inside the walls, and two main forces dominating the city - the church and the feudal lord - rise on the hill. In a medieval German city, a church and a synagogue coexisted peacefully next to each other. In the 19th century, German society met Jews halfway - and as proof of this, the domes of the main synagogue can be seen from afar in the photographs of the city.
The Nazis, having come to power, crossed out the entire Jewish cultural tradition that had developed by this time in Germany - almost all synagogues were destroyed or burned. In the 1960s. the construction of synagogues in Germany is resumed, but they are acquiring a rather strange look, according to Alfred Jacobi, "they are becoming not like prayer buildings, but like residential buildings with an extension in the form of a cafe." This paradox occurred as a result of Nazi persecution and extermination of Jews in Germany. Even after several decades, Jews were still uncomfortable living in this country, they did not want to build prominent synagogues and resorted to disguising their structures inside the urban area.
The next stage in the development of the synagogue in Germany was its "rehabilitation" - which, in particular, is currently being dealt with by the architect Alfred Jacobi. The first project that the architect spoke about was the rebuilding of the synagogue in Offenbach. Initially, the building was a small building in the depths and thus hidden from the city, designed for 80 people. But by 1998 the Jewish community of Offenbach had grown from 80 to 1,000 and the synagogue needed to be rebuilt.
Jacobi's idea was to build something like an ark around the old building: he preserved the core, removing all of its interior, and in the center he organized the space in the form of a ship - the place where the torus is placed.
The next project was created for Aachen, which was almost destroyed during the Second World War. Alfred Jacobi won the competition for the construction of a synagogue, in which about 80 workshops participated - due to the fact that the program of his project included the improvement of the urban environment and the restoration of the city through the construction of a synagogue, as well as the construction of new housing. The peculiarity of this prayer house is that the synagogue opens up into the urban space - it no longer hides, but occupies an important place in the building. The interior space is a multifunctional hall where common benches are installed, and not separate chairs - as A. Jacobi explained, “people here should feel community when they come together.” There are also 5 pillars in the hall to mark the place where the Pentateuch of Moses should be kept.
In the next building - the synagogue in Kassel, Alfred Jacobi sought to embody the idea that the Jewish people are the people of the Book, not only religiously, but also culturally. The fact is that a private collector donated 1000 books to the community of this city by a private collector - and he wanted the new synagogue building to triple, among other things, a library for them. The building consists of two volumes, united by a glass foyer, which, according to the architect, "symbolizes the holy Book and at the same time the book as literature." The altar space, which should be the most crowded place, is empty here, which is the deep meaning: a person comes here and prays, being alone with himself.
Another project by Alfred Jacobi is in Bremen. This is a Jewish cemetery designed in collaboration with landscape architects. It consists of a square in front of the entrance, a building for ceremonies, technical buildings and a huge ellipse, symbolizing an endless road.
Alfred Jacobi also won the competition for the creation of a semi-sacred - semi-museum building in Cologne, a city with a long history that begins with the Roman conquest - now in the center of the city there is a large archaeological site where many Roman foundations have been found. It was decided to build a Jewish museum over the remains of an ancient synagogue found during these excavations. In his project, Alfred Jacobi sought to both recreate the ancient synagogue and pay tribute to the Roman ruins located five meters below ground level. The architect's idea was to organize a gradual transition from the past to the present, from the Roman Empire to modern Germany, from the bottom up. The building of the museum was not supposed to be a synagogue in it. However, over the place where the ruins of the old synagogue were located, a prayer space was arranged for 10 people.
Three years ago, Alfred Jacobi won a tender to build a Jewish community building in Park City, Utah, USA. The building had to be located outside the city limits, in a magnificent natural environment, so the main task that the architect set himself was to design the building as part of the landscape. To do this, he used the most environmentally friendly materials - light wood and dark brick, which created a spectacular contrast in the decoration of the facades and interior. The building of the Jewish community consists of two connected volumes that can be transformed into one large hall, as well as classrooms and offices for the administration of the community. In the section of the building, the architect wanted to imitate landscape forms - hills, mountains, water. Curving wooden ceilings emerge from here, contrasting with similarly wooden but flat ceilings.
The Jewish Center building is the only Jacobi building that went beyond the lecture on the new synagogues in Germany. Probably, the architect intended to compare the architecture of Jewish buildings by comparing the fate of the same people in different countries: America became a haven for Jews during the Nazi regime, Germany became one big concentration camp for them. But in the modern world, through the efforts of many people, including Alfred Jacobi, Jewish culture in Germany has been restored and exists on an equal footing with everyone else, just like in America.
