As long as the Jews had to live in the Judengasse, they lived according to the rules and regulations of the ghetto. The political and social changes wrought by the Enlightenment had had a far-reaching influence on Jewish religious practice and on the attitude of the individual towards the Jewish community as a whole.
Many Jews had called since the early nineteenth century for a modernization of the religious service and a more liberal approach to practising their faith. Liberal principles such as personal freedom, individuality and rationality were accorded greater importance than the traditions that had been binding in the days of the ghetto.
Participation in business life and gradual integration often led to conflicts between observance of religious laws such as the keeping of the Shabbat and the Christian-influenced everyday life and work.
Seder plate for Passover. Plate with six sections in the style of an oyster plate. The inscriptions on each section specify the required symbolic foods; a lamb is depicted in the centre. Karlsbad, late 19th/early 20th century; gilded porcelain
The extent to which Jewish identity had become separate from Jewish tradition is reflected in a number of household objects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A particularly distinctive example of this is the seder plate shown here, which an enterprising businessman sold in the spa town of Karlsbad.
He simply added the Hebrew terms for the various symbolic Passover foods to an ordinary oyster plate, apparently not realizing that oysters cannot be eaten according to Jewish dietary laws. It may be assumed that the plate was displayed as a souvenir and was not actually used at Passover.
The seven panels shown here present different scenes of upper middle-class life. The third panel shows a family at a festive meal.
The outer panel shows several tabernacles, though these look very different from the simple wooden structures used by German Jews for the festival of Sukkot.
Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, recalls the years spent in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. “Tabernacles” or booths in the form of temporary shelters are built on the balcony or in the garden, and meals are eaten there during the festival.
From the early 19th century onwards, tableaux of this kind became popular gifts for such occasions as a birthday, bar mitzvah or wedding, and usually integrated Jewish festivals and rituals into fashionable non-Jewish portrayals.
Torah shield of the Börneplatz synagogue. Donated by Abraham and Recha Arnsberg on the bar mitzvah of their son Paul, according to the Hebrew inscription. Frankfurt 1913, silver
Different degrees of interest in religious practice triggered serious conflict in the larger Jewish community, with the result that different religious forms emerged. In some cities, Orthodox Jews separated from the community and founded a community of their own.
This also happened in Frankfurt, where, in 1876, Orthodox Jews split away from the community with Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch to found the Israelite Religious Community (IRG: Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft), which was to gain considerable importance.
The IRG had its own synagogue (initially on Schützenstrasse, and later on Friedberger Anlage), two schools and a number of social and cultural facilities.
Within the Jewish community itself, there were two tendencies – a liberal grouping with a synagogue on Börnestrasse (the former Judengasse) which was instrumental in shaping the Philanthropin school, and a conservative grouping with a synagogue on Börneplatz. Both groups ran a number of cultural social institutions.
The synagogue on Börneplatz, consecrated in 1882, was the synagogue of the conservative members of the community. Like the other synagogues, it was set ablaze on 10 November 1938 and in 1939 the city council ordered its demolition.
The precious religious objects, most of them donated by members of the community, were stolen. The few that came to light again after 1945 have been returned to the present-day Jewish community.
This margarine, based on almond milk, was acceptable to not strictly observant households as kosher.
Orthodox and conservative Jews continued to observe religious regulations and dietary laws.
Keeping a kosher household was a fundamental requirement. Jewish newspapers ran many advertisements for kosher businesses and mail order companies. The shops and businesses were supervised by Frankfurt rabbis.
