"Light of the Diaspora" The New Jewish Community Centre, Mainz by Manuel Herz Architects

  The stunning New Jewish Community Centre in Mainz, designed by Manuel Herz Architects, is an instantly intriguing and mesmerising structure, but it is the deeply thoughtful and historically minded story behind the design that truly sets it apart as a beautiful and articulate piece of architecture.

 Mainz is perhaps best known as the home of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor the printing press and creator of the famous Gutenberg Bible. The city, in Germany’s Rhineland, has also long been a city of importance for Jewish communities. During the Middle Ages Mainz was an important hub of religious teaching and home to a series of important and influential Rabbis, most notably Gershom ben Judah, who was given the name “Light of the Diaspora,” and whose teachings had an impact on Judaism at large. The city has also been a place where Jewish people have been persecuted. Since Jews first settled in Mainz in the tenth century, Jewish communities have tragically been regularly eradicated.

The new centre is built on the site of the former main Synagogue Hindenburgstrasse, built in 1912, which was destroyed by the Nazis during Kristallnacht in 1938. It was at this time that a large part of Mainz’s Jewish population was transported to the concentration camps in Eastern Europe. After the atrocities of the Holocaust only a very small number of Jewish people remained in Mainz, yet this changed in the 1980s, when there was a surge of immigration from Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Republic. The expanding Jewish population in Mainz meant that a new facility for religious, social and cultural activities became necessary. In 2008 work began on the new centre, which was to incorporate both a synagogue and community centre, after Manuel Herz Architects won a public competition to design the new building. Herz sees the history of the Jewish community in Mainz as simultaneously representing hope and destruction; “Mainz embodies hope, learning and an unshakable belief in the future, and at the same time the destruction of Jewish culture and people over more than one millennium.” It is this history that makes the “Light of the Diaspora” so important. The building is tied inextricably to a history of unspeakable destruction, but its form points to another history – of learning and teaching and an illustrious intellectual and religious past, and it is this history that most obviously informs the design of the building.

Herz notes that, unlike other religions, Judaism never developed a strong tradition of building or a specific architectural style. He points, instead, to writing as, “A replacement for spatial production in Judaism.” Herz suggests that, “The dimension of the architectural traverses throughout the whole Tamud” and this dimension is also present in individual letters and words through, “An object quality” in the writing. This object quality has become literally embodied in the design of new centre which looks to language and inscription for its inspiration. The profile is an abstracted articulation of the five characters in the Hebrew word for “raising” or “blessing.” The pronouncing of a blessing exults a profane object and makes it special, and so it is with the new community centre. In Herz’s words, “It is this act of making special that the building, in its every day use, should allow for.” The striking glazed ceramic façade, with beautiful transparent green glazing and it’s three-dimensional rippling form, also points to the act of inscription and, symbolically, to writing and scripture. The exterior of the centre combines the ancient Hebrew script with contemporary architecture to dazzling effect.

This symbolic use of the Hebrew script continues in the interior of the Synagogue where Hebrew letters form a mosaic relief, occasionally forming legibile text. These carved ‘Piyutim’ (religious poetry) were written by rabbis in Mainz in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when it was a centre of religious teaching and learning in Europe. They tell of the love for the Torah and events surrounding Jewish communities in Mainz, including their destruction. Here the twin histories of Judaism in Mainz – of hope and beauty and also of destruction and persecution – are again articulated.

The layout of the building means that there are two open squares; one is an internal garden for the community, the other, in front of the main entrance, provides an open public space within the densely urban district which is for the use of the neighbourhood as a whole. Germany is a country where Jewish communi- ties try not to raise attention with their activities. For the architects behind the new centre, the building is about developing a different kind of consciousness. The unusual, confidant and remarkable building is an important new landmark in the neighbourhood and is designed to attract all of the city’s inhabitants, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, to participate in its activities and enjoy its surrounds. Instead of avoiding attention the building proudly seeks it. According to Herz, “It is a building that will raise attention, maybe questions, doubts, interests or maybe even anger, but also hope.” This role is one the beautiful and intriguing building is already fulfilling. For Herz the new centre is, most importantly, “A building that will help make the Jews of Mainz into a visible and active part of society and link them with their rich history.” +

PHOTOGRAPHY Images courtesy of Manueal Herz Architects

1. The glazed ceramic facade of the new centre is an articulation of the Hebrew word for “blessing.”

2. The interior of the Synagogue is oriented towards the east and Jerusalem. The reading of the Torah is performed from the centre of the space, which has been illuminated from above and falls exactly where this performance occurs.

3. A model of the centre, showing the articula- tion of abstracted Hebrew script.

4. The centre is a boldly striking addition to the neighbourhood.

5. The centre houses a Synagogue as well as office spaces, school- rooms and two apartments.