1913: From Bürgel to Missouri - The history of a Jewish cult device
In 2007 and 2008, Offenbach drew attention to the 300th anniversary of the establishment of a Jewish community. The fact that today's Bürgel district already had a Jewish community much earlier was not left unmentioned: since 1608. In the Electorate of Mainz, to which Bürgel belonged, Jews enjoyed the right to freely practise their religion earlier than in Offenbach, which belonged to the Electorate of Eisenburg.
A work by the late town councillor Dr. Hermann Gehrlein mentions around 40 Jewish families in Bürgel at the beginning of the 19th century, almost a third of the entire population. Their burial ground near the Schultheiß pond bears witness to their long history. There is evidence that a new synagogue was built on Bürgerstraße in 1824.
Its ornament was an ornate nine-armed Hanukkah candelabra made of copper, a cult object commemorating the annual dedication of the second Jerusalem temple in 164 B.C. It had been donated by a wealthy member of the community as early as 1776. Hermann Gehrlein has recorded how this candlestick later came to the United States, where it is probably still kept. It is a remarkable story.
It began in 1913, when the chandelier broke into pieces for reasons that are no longer known. This plunged the community into deep mourning, but this was healed by Dr. Siegfried Guggenheim, who later became an honorary citizen of Offenbach, a respected lawyer and patron of the arts in his day. He donated a new Hanukkah candelabra to the community, this time in silver. He took the fragments of the shattered candelabrum and had them reassembled.
This repaired candelabra was in his luggage when the Guggenheims emigrated to America in the mid-1930s. It then made its way from their house to the Jewish Museum in New York. It was not the last city on this strange journey.
When David Ben Gurion, then president of the young state of Israel, visited the USA in 1951 to celebrate the 67th birthday of American President Truman, he asked the museum for a gift that could express his gratitude for American support in achieving independence. The museum experts chose the chandelier from Bürgel.
The Harry S. Truman Library in Truman's home town of Independence in the US state of Missouri became the next stop. It can be assumed that the candlestick is still there.
When Jews and non-Jews publicly kick off Hanukkah celebrations at Offenbach Town Hall on December 9, there will hardly be any talk of the Bürgel community. It is extinct. Only an old cemetery and a candlestick in Missouri still remind us of it.
By Lothar R. Braun