Löb Elias Reiß's Synagogue

Under the name Löb Elias Reiß'sche Synagoge, a house of learning with a synagogue was established in the building "Zum weißen Schwan" in Judengasse in 1782. The donation of 28,000 guilders (originally 70,000 guilders were planned) was made by the court factor and silk merchant Löb Elias Reiß (1734-1811); he was one of the wealthiest Jews in Frankfurt from the middle of the 18th century. The purposes of the foundation included the financial support of Talmud studies for teachers and students, the maintenance of the house of learning and the synagogue, known as the "Altschul", as well as general charity. In the course of the 19th century, the Judengasse was demolished; in 1883, the house "Zum weißen Schwan" became the property of the city of Frankfurt and was demolished.

In 1887, a Löb Elias Reiß Synagogue was reopened in the new building of the Israelite Religious School at Hermesweg 27 (later Hermesweg 5-7) in Frankfurt's Nordend district with further proceeds from the foundation. The inauguration was celebrated by Rabbi Dr. Markus Horovitz, director of the Israelite Religious School, on September 11, 1887. The building was planned by an architect named Kuzniczky. The magazine "Der Israelit" reported the following day: "Yesterday afternoon, the ceremonial inauguration of the new Löb Reiss Synagogue, built in the religious school building on Hermesplatz, took place. The beautiful rooms of this prayer hall were filled to the last seat on this occasion and all visitors were delighted by the simple and at the same time dignified way in which this building was constructed. It has a total of about 160 seats, and the fact that most of them are already sold out shows how much the construction of a place of worship in the north-eastern part of the city met the need." Only the valuable marble Torah shrine had been preserved from the old synagogue in Judengasse and moved to Hermesweg; Hannah Mathilde Baroness von Rothschild had financed its restoration. 

During the November pogrom of 1938, a mob broke the windows of the synagogue, but otherwise the building remained undestroyed. It was still possible to hold services and celebrations until around fall 1941. From May 1942, the building was used as a Jewish old people's home after the "Versorgungsanstalt für Israeliten" at Röderbergweg 77 was moved to Hermesweg. The residents were deported to the Theresienstadt camp in August 1942. After the mass deportations were completed in the fall of 1942, Ernst Holland, Commissioner of the Secret State Police for Jewish Welfare, declared the building to be a prison-like "communal accommodation for Jews". At the same time, the Hesse/Hesse-Nassau district office of the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany", formed in 1942 partly as a result of the forced dissolution of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, took up residence there. There were further deportations from Hermesweg in 1943. Löb Elias Reiß's foundation had existed until 1939, when it was forcibly incorporated into the Reichsvereinigung. The building was completely destroyed by bombs at the beginning of October 1943. The site is now occupied by an apartment building. There are no reminders of the former Israelite religious school with the Löb Elias Reiß synagogue or the old people's home.