The New Synagogue was built to serve the growing Jewish population in Berlin, in particular, immigrants from the East. It was the largest synagogue in Germany at the time, seating 3,000 people. The building housed public concerts, including a violin concert with
Albert Einstein in 1930. With an organ and a choir, the religious services reflected the liberal developments in the Jewish community of the time. One of the concerts that occurred here was a
Sabbath evening service composed by Jacob Weinberg (1879–1956) and conducted by esteemed conductor Chemjo Winawer. Winawer had been looking for a religious piece to conduct here and he discovered Jacob Weinberg's work. According to the Jewish Telegraph Service article of 26 October 1934, the Sabbath eve liturgy was performed in front of a packed house of 3,000 in this synagogue on 25 October 1936. It was met with an enthusiastic ovation. The work comprises twelve different musical compositions, all based on the prayers recited during the Sabbath Eve religious service. The collaboration was such a success that Winawer collaborated with Jacob Weinberg again on 5 September 1938 when he conducted Weinberg's prize-winning opera "The Pioneers of Palestine" (aka "Hechalutz" or "Die Chalutzim"), the first opera on
Hebrew/Israeli themes (composed in 1924). It was performed on 5 September 1938, at another Berlin synagogue on Prinzregentenstrasse, as part of the Kulturbund. The Kulturbund was a program that permitted performances of Jewish works in Germany as the
Nazi regime escalated. The Nazis did not allow Jewish works to be performed in regular concert halls attended by Aryans, but it did allow such works to be performed in other spaces such as synagogues. It was administered by Kurt Singer. The New Synagogue (the Neue Synagogue on Oranienburger Street) survived Kristallnacht, the pogrom of 9–10 November 1938. Unfortunately the equally-grand synagogue on Prinzregentenstrasse did not survive Kristallnacht. It was plundered of its valuables, torched, and ultimately destroyed; only a bronze plaque at the site remains of this magnificent structure. Both Jacob Weinberg and Chemjo Winawer went to the United States to avoid Nazi persecution. During
Kristallnacht (9 November 1938), a Nazi mob broke into the
Neue Synagoge, desecrated the
Torah scrolls, smashed the furniture, piled up such contents as would burn in the synagogue interior, and set fire to them. Lieutenant
Otto Bellgardt, the police officer of the local police precinct on duty that night, arrived on the scene in the early morning of 10 November and ordered the arsonists to disperse. He said the building was a protected historical landmark and drew his pistol, declaring that he would uphold the law requiring its protection. This allowed the fire brigade to enter and extinguish the fire before it could spread to the fabric of the building, and the synagogue was saved from destruction. Senior Lieutenant Wilhelm Krützfeld, head of the local police precinct, and Bellgardt's superior, later covered up for him. Berlin's police commissioner
Graf Helldorf only verbally reprimanded Krützfeld for shielding his subordinate and, partly in consequence, Krützfeld has often mistakenly been identified as the rescuer of the
New Synagogue. The New Synagogue, like the
synagogue in Rykestrasse, remained intact and was subsequently repaired by the congregation, who continued to use it as synagogue until 1940. Besides being used for prayers, the main hall was also used for concerts and lectures, since Jews were banned from other venues. The main prayer hall was last used by the congregation for a concert on Sunday, 31 March 1940. The concert was the last of a series of benefit concerts in aid of the
Jüdisches Winterhilfswerk (Jewish Winter Aid Endowment), a charity helping poor Jews, who had been excluded from government benefits. On 5 April 1940 the
Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt was required to announce that services in the New Synagogue would not be held until further notice; In 1958 the Jewish Community of East Berlin was prompted by East Berlin authorities to demolish the ruined rear sections of their building, including the soot-blackened ruin of the main prayer hall, leaving only the less-destroyed front section. Together with the New Synagogue, the whole
Spandauer Vorstadt neighbourhood (lit. "suburb towards Spandau", often confused with the
Scheunenviertel) experienced a revival. Chic restaurants and
boutiques opened up in the area, catering to an increasingly bourgeois clientele. In 2007
Gesa Ederberg became the first female pulpit rabbi in Berlin when she became the rabbi of the New Synagogue. Her installation was opposed by Berlin's senior Orthodox rabbi, Yitzchak Ehrenberg. ==Today==