Baumweg 5-7

The building at Baumweg 5-7 housed the Moritz and Johanna Oppenheim Kindergarten for Israelites from 1907 to 1938. During the Second World War, the "Aryanized" property housed the kindergarten of the Nazi People's Welfare Association. Immediately after the liberation of Frankfurt by the US Army in March 1945, the property was made available to the Jewish community and a care center for Jews was set up. After renovation and conversion of the building, the Baumweg Synagogue in the front part of the building was inaugurated on March 10, 1949. The architect Hermann Zvi Guttmann designed the extension, which was inaugurated in 1956 as the "House of the Community". The municipal administration was located on the second floor, as were the offices of the rabbi. In those years, the cultural program of the re-established community was massively expanded: Regular lectures on political, historical and religious topics were held as well as concerts and cabaret. Rabbi Isaak Emil Lichtigfeld conducted a shiur (Hebrew for "lesson") on Tuesday evenings. A special festive get-together was organized for children on Shabbat evenings. From 1958, the Jewish community's youth center was also located at Baumweg 5-7. At the invitation of the Jewish student association "Israela", Theodor W. Adorno gave a lecture on anti-Semitism at the community center on February 10, 1963. In the same year, director Günther Goebel and youth leader Naftali Carny founded the Haskala Theater, the first Jewish theater group in Germany. Last but not least, meetings of the municipal council were held in Baumweg. Parts of the municipal administration, in particular the social services department, later moved to the former Philanthropin in Hebelstrasse. With the inauguration of the new community center in Savignystraße (today: Ignatz Bubis Community Center), the "Haus der Gemeinde" in Baumweg largely lost its function.