Former schoolhouse of the "Hascharath Zwi" Halberstadt (1797-1881)

As in other communities, schooling for Jewish children in Halberstadt was still limited to traditional religious content (Talmud Torah) until the end of the 18th century. They were taught in private homes or in the Klaussynagoge in Rosenwinkel 18. On the basis of a private foundation of the respected Halberstadt merchant Hirsch (Zwi) Köslin (d. 1795), also called Hirsch Isaac Borchert, the general education Jewish school "Hascharath Zwi" was finally founded in May 1796. Its main purpose was to provide children from poor families not only with a religious education but also with the necessary knowledge of arithmetic, the German language and social manners. Under the motto "Tora 'im Derech Erez" took also other neo-orthodox communities - in demarcation to the dominant reform movement - this Halberstädter concept from the middle of the 19th century again.

The search for a suitable premises turned out to be difficult at first. The front house in Rosenwinkel 18 was ruled out due to unclear ownership. In the fall of 1797, the Jewish community acquired the Joseph Jacob House at Judenstra&szlig 27, which had already been used as a schoolhouse and teacher's quarters since March. After the establishment of a class for girls in 1827, a second school building was moved into opposite, in Judenstra&szlig 18.

The location in the middle of the Halberstadt Jewish quarter was favorable, and so the house at Judenstra&szlig 27 continued to be used, even after the school moved to the converted site of the Klaussynagoge in Rosenwinkel 18 in 1858. It was not until 1881 that it was sold, having become dilapidated. 1899 moved the "Hascharat Zwi" finally in the new school building Westendorf 15.

As by a miracle üsurvived the old half-timbered "Reihenhhäuser" on the west side of the Judenstraße (including the No. 27) survived the air raid on Halberstadt on 8.4.1945 - and the systematic destruction of the crumbling old town in GDR times...