The Synagogue of Laa an der Thaya
by Mag. Magdalena Müllner
There has been a Jewish community in Laa since the middle ages. Pogroms and the displacement in the 17th century did not end the existence of a Jewish community in the city. After difficult periods new communities were formed and new places were found for prayer. The first prayer-room that is known of existed in the first years on the 20th century in the Kirchengasse (letter of Edith Fischbach, 6. January 1994). One can conclude that this must have been a larger room in a Jewish owned house, big enough to provide room for the praying (like in other places of the area, e.g. in the village Poysdorf).
The later synagogue of Laa an der Thaya, which existed till 1938, was located at Burgplatz 1. It is not totally correct to speak of a synagogue since the house was connected to the surrounding houses and it was not fully dedicated to this aim. The first floor could be entered through a separate door, but there always was a restaurant at the ground floor that had nothing to do with the Jewish community. To insist on calling it a „prayer-room“ therefore, does not make sense though, since the Jewish and the non-Jewish citizens of the town referred to it as synagogue.
Here you can see the entrance of the synagogue. Right behind it is a stairway that leads you to the first floor. The picture was taken in October 2008.
It is remarkable that the front-decorations under the windows show a plant with seven leaves. It is not known if this was picked consciously because the house was supposed to be a synagogue. The number seven also being the number of the tribes of Israel could be coincidence as well as choice. The picture was taken in October 2008.
I want to quote now a few people who were born and raised being Jewish citizens of Laa an der Thaya, to give you an idea of the interior of the synagogue and the prayer:
“The synagogue was quite modest, just light-brown benches forming rows, in the front a curtain and behind it the holy Torah scrolls, which were read from according to the holidays. At a platform was the place of the cantor. A little more in the back was a separate place for women. In our times I only saw Christians come to the synagogue to switch on and off the lights and keep the room tidy, otherwise there were no visitors.” (Letter of Karola Zucker, 27. October 1992)
„Christians were allowed to visit the synagogue. But I don’t recall that we ever had such visitors. I myself visited the church a few times – weddings and funerals of friends.
I have already written that our synagogue was at the first floor. The furnishing was very modest. Benches like at school, so that people could put in their praying books. Over the altar, which we call Bimah, there were the 10 commandments. The rent was partly paid by the members, partly by the Jewish community Vienna, that was the same with the salary of our cantor.“
(Letter f Hilda White, 27. October 1992)
„The services usually took place:
1) During the high holidays
2) Friday evening
3) Saturday morning
4) When somebody had the anniversary of his death
5) When a 13-year old boy celebrated his Bar Mitzvah
At my time Mr. Fischhof was our cantor, rabbi, taught us religion and slaughtered the poultry.“
(Letter of Ernst Neumann, 27. February 1994)
A woman from Laa, who has lived all her life in the close neighborhood of the synagogue told in an interview that the balcony-door of the synagogue was opened on hot summer-days and then the prayers and songs of the cantor and the community could be heard across the square. She described it as something familiar from her childhood. I think, it is important to mention here that the synagogue as well as the Jewish community of Laa is deeply rooted in the town’s history.
The following pictures are privately owned and show the synagogue when she sill was in use.
What happened to the synagogue in 1938 is unclear. It is possible that the furnishings were destroyed or probably to a later point in time even brought to Prague, where the Nazis wanted to make a „museum of an extinct race“.
After the war the first floor of the house was turned into apartments. When a high school teacher rented a flat there, he got the nickname „temple-professor“.
Time passed and the house tumbled down. Nobody lived in it. It was sold and re-sold constantly. What seemed to be a building-spot in a great location soon turned out to be a project that was to expensive to be continued, particularly since the front of the house is landmarked. In these years the collecting box was found.
I took a few pictures back then, which give you an impression of the condition of the building. The synagogue looked like this in the early 1990s:
The painting in the rooms in the first floor had vanished enough to uncover some of the previous painting. Here you can see two pictures of the ceiling:
This picture shows an ornamental strip, which decorated the sidewalls about a meter from the bottom and in a vertical way.
Finally the synagogue came into private hands that could finance the renovation. Ever since the building has been shining in its old glory. Again there is a restaurant in the ground floor. The following picture was taken in October 2008.
Today the first floor is no longer open to the pubic since it was turned into a private apartment. Nevertheless, one must be glad that the building was saved from total damage. The memorial stands not next to the house that looks from the outside just as it did when the house was still a place o prayer.