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85 years after Kristallnacht, Germany to begin rebuilding grand synagogue in Hamburg
(JTA) — More than 80 years after one of Germany’s most prominent synagogues was destroyed on Kristallnacht, the Jewish community of Hamburg has taken ownership of the building’s site and is set to begin rebuilding it.
The site of the Bornplatz Synagogue, a neo-Romanesque building dedicated in 1906 that had a 1,200-seat sanctuary and was once the largest synagogue in northern Germany, was officially handed over to leaders of the city’s Jewish community on Wednesday. At the ceremony marking that restitution, officials from the city of Hamburg cut up a copy of the Nazi-era Aryanization document that ordered the demolition of the synagogue.
“We apologize for coming to the decision so late to give them back their property,” Dirk Kienscherf, a local official from the center-left Social Democratic Party, said to representatives of the Jewish community at the ceremony.
The synagogue was burned during Kristallnacht, the series of pogroms in 1938 when Nazis destroyed synagogues and Jewish-owned stores across Germany. Its remains were later forcibly sold to the city and demolished, and an air raid bunker, for use only by Aryans, was built next door. At present, the empty site features a mosaic outlining the synagogue’s architecture, including its vaulted ceilings, that was laid in 1988 by artist Margrit Kahl.
“The Bornplatz Synagoge will rise again and become a monument of remembrance, serving as the visible center for the vibrant Jewish life in our city,” Rabbi Shlomo Bistrizky, a Chabad-Lubavitch movement emissary and chief rabbi of Hamburg, said in a statement.
The quest to rebuild the synagogue, more than eight decades after its destruction, began in the shop of a local antique dealer in the summer of 2020. Daniel Sheffer, an Israeli-born entrepreneur now based in Hamburg, was in the shop when he discovered a silver Torah crown engraved with a dedication to Markus Hirsch, the first rabbi of the Bornplatz Synagogue — which left him feeling “overwhelmed,” he told the Jewish Chronicle.
“But I also felt embarrassed and ashamed and angry, because I was being asked to buy back what was stolen from my ancestors,” he added. “That feeling lasted for days.”
Sheffer eventually bought the crown and brought it with him to more than 50 meetings with public officials and other potential supporters of his campaign, titled “No to antisemitism. Yes to the Bornplatz Synagogue.”
That effort led to the formation of the Initiative for the Reconstruction of the Bornplatz Synagogue, which Sheffer leads. The project secured more than $600,000 in German government funding to conduct a study evaluating the feasibility of rebuilding the synagogue. The construction itself will be funded by the Hamburg municipal government, the German government and private donations.
The pledges of public support for the project came following two more recent attacks on Jews in Germany: the 2019 shooting at a synagogue in the city of Halle, and an attack almost exactly a year later at the Hohe Weide synagogue in Hamburg during Sukkot, in which a Jewish student was seriously injured.
The Torah crown Sheffer bought is now housed at Hohe Weide synagogue. One of the Torah scrolls from the Bornplatz Synagogue, meanwhile, found its way to the United States in 1940 via Italy, rescued by a congregant, Joseph Bamberger. The Torah scroll continued to be used in the synagogues Bamberger and his family attended in Manhattan, and as of 2021, it is in the permanent collection of the city’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Some have argued that rebuilding the synagogue would lead the public to forget the atrocities of the Holocaust, while memorials like the one that currently exists in the square are a reminder of the community’s loss and destruction. “The mosaic communicates and commemorates the open wound of the building’s absence, and through it, the absence of what was once one of Western Europe’s most thriving Jewish communities,” Galit Noga-Banai wrote in Haaretz criticizing the reconstruction initiative.
Because of the unusual way the synagogue was destroyed — all of its rubble was pushed into the basement — some surprises have turned up during the excavation process. Those include colorful glass shards from the synagogue’s windows, which give a sense of what the building — whose image has been preserved in black-and-white photos — looked like, Northern German Broadcasting reported.
When the excavation is completed, an architectural competition for the design of the new synagogue will be held, and the bunker standing next to the synagogue will be demolished.
“This moment today is a turning point for our Jewish history in Hamburg,” Sheffer said, according to a local radio station. “It is the victory of justice and Jewish life in Hamburg over the barbarism of the Nazis.”
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The post 85 years after Kristallnacht, Germany to begin rebuilding grand synagogue in Hamburg appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.