Book Description

"Strongly recommended for people interested in history who would also like to go on a journey of discovery."-Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur According to the Talmud, the doors of return are always open, and the restored and preserved synagogues, cemeteries, and mikvehs in Germany await visitors-both Jew and Gentile-with wide open doors. This important work, complete with full-color photographs, describes significant sites mentioned in no other guidebook. With more Jewish historical points of interest than any country outside of Israel, Germany contains not only the relics of the past but also the origins of rituals and traditions that continue to the present day. Anyone researching family names, the Yiddish language, or Ashkenazi traditions may find their beginnings here. Germany offers many noteworthy Jewish sites, somber and sacred, even for those not interested in scholarly or personal investigation. In the Jewish cemetery on Ilandskoppel in Hamburg is a memorial to the Nazis' victims that includes an urn from Auschwitz. In Augsburg remains what is probably the only surviving German Jugendstil synagogue. A museum located in the synagogue complex contains a rich collection of ritual and secular objects from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Whether travelers are searching for history, religion, or their roots, they will not be disappointed by the countless discoveries to be made with this key to the doors of Jewish Germany.