Rosenwinkel 18
38820 Halberstadt
Germany
The so-called Klaussynagoge was founded around 1700 [in older accounts usually the year 1703 is mentioned] by the Halberstadt court factor Berend Lehmann (1681-1730) as a Jewish study and teaching house. The prospective teachers and rabbis were to be released from community service in order to be able to devote themselves entirely to Torah and Talmud study "in seclusion". Previously, Berend Lehmann had already financed the first printing of the Babylonian Talmud in Germany (Frankfurt/Oder) in 1696-99.
In the 19th century, Halberstadt's Klaussynagoge developed into a center of so-called neo-orthodoxy - in distinction to the mostly Reform Jewish communities in Prussia. In 1857, the Hirsch family of entrepreneurs in Halberstadt had the old "Klaus" modernized. The stone, three-story synagogue extension (facing south) was now recognizable as such from the outside. The first floor of the renovated half-timbered house had housed the Jewish school "Hascharat Zwi" from 1858-99.
In the November pogrom of 1938, the Klaussynagoge remained largely unscathed, but the teaching and study activities were forcibly terminated by the National Socialists. The building and property were "Aryanized" and used as a "Jewish house" until the deportation of the Jewish citizens of Halberstadt in 1942, after which it was used as a forced labor camp.
After 1945, the Klaussynagoge was converted into a Wonhaus, a false ceiling was inserted in the synagogue room and the parapet of the women's gallery was demolished.
Only from 1990, after restitution to the Jewish Claims Conference, were the structural changes reversed and the Klaussynagoge returned to its original purpose as a place of teaching and learning. Since 1998, the international meeting place of the "Moses Mendelssohn Academy" (MMA) has been based here, since 2001 also in cooperation with the "Berend Lehmann Museum for Jewish History and Culture" in the Mikwenhaus (Judenstraße 26).
