The B'nai B'rith magazine · 1927-06-01 · 9 (6.1927) · p. Seite 375

The Holy City of Frankfurt By E. David Goitein F YOU speak to a Frankfurter you will come away with the impression that Moses was found in the River Main and that the Law was given amidst thunder and lightning on the Taunus Mountains. It seems perfectly clear to your Frankfurter that if Zion does not mean Frankfurt and Jerusalem does not mean Frankfurt—-then words have lost their meaning. Indeed, this patrotism of your dweller on the Main goes much further than that. There are times when, with a sweep of the hand—no Frankfurter can speak without his hands—he will brush aside the rest of Jewry and proudly boast that the only true and pure Jew, the only Jew who has the right to call himself Jew, is the man who has been born in the shadow of his town. "You English call yourselves Jews," said a contemptuous Frankfurter to me one Saturday afternoon, as we strolled through the Palmer Gardens. "You have no idea what Judaism is. Yours is a patchwork, an ignorant patchwork. I once heard one of your ministers give a lecture. Och! What a lecture! He muddled everything. . . . And the congregation. Like a crowd of dummies. They didn't speak to each other the whole time. Sat still and quiet." "Well, surely you don't go to a place of worship to talk?" I said, aghast. "If you can't meet your friends in shool, where can you meet them? It is not to become a dummy that you go to synagogue. You English, ach!" and he shrugged his shoulders. I had met many Frankfurters in London, and their love for the Fatherland in general and for Frankfurt in particular was only equalled by their consistent practice in keeping away from both. Nevertheless, I was interested. I very much wanted to see whether, in fact, Judaism still persisted in an unadulterated form somewhere in Europe. It would be well worth while to see the Holy City Right, the Reform Synagogue, and below, the Breuer Synagogue, Frankfurt. ■B JttlfMf ii W Jija, where the fire of Judaism still burned with so pure a flame. An opportunity presented itself; I booked my ticket. In Frankfurt I discovered many things. There, one can as little live without religion as one can in England without sport. Religion is a sine qua non of good breeding; it is a subject of continual conversation; it gives rise to the most heated discussion; it arouses the most bitter animosity; it is not a matter of "perhaps" and "possibly," but of "is" and "certainly" and "without doubt." Yet it would be very difficult to discuss religion if everyone held the same views regarding it. That is where Frankfurt Jewry is unique. It presents every shade and colour of Judaism and yet each is tinged with a Frankfurtian infallibility, before which the outsider stands aghast. For, such a variety of certainty is an unique phenomenon. Still more peculiar, more noteworthy I should say, is the fact that in 375 Frankfurt, Judaism is not a matter for riff-raff. It is a millionaire's occupation, and many a high financier humbly prays for "bread to eat and clothes to wear." Even a bank will close on a festival, and a wealthy stockbroker will sit bootless on a little chair on the ground and weep over the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B'ab. The City of Frankfurt itself offers, perhaps, an explanation of this noteworthy Jewry. There are two Frankfurts," the old and the new. The Fifteenth-Century Frankfurt is but a hundred yards from the Twentieth- Century. They do not clash. They keep to themselves. More than that, Frankfurt has for long been a great financial and banking center. And millionaires are necessarily no rare birds. The Rothschilds, of course, were not so long ago peddling in and out of the Judengasse of Frankfurt. The Frankfurter makes millions as easily as he puts on his t'fillim. As you stand on the bridge and watch the Main flow contentedly beneath, you can see mirrored in the water century after century of Jewish history . . . the ghetto . . . and the throwing of sins on New Year's Day into the river . . . and the river receives them . . . the terror, of expulsion . . . harsh taxes . . . villainous charges . . . study . . . intellectual movements . . . the same Main but different water . . . and the ghetto has gone . . . but the same Jewry, if different Jews . . . the ghetto has gone ... there is no Judengasse . . . but there are streets of Jews and districts of Jews . . . and the names on