Synagogue

The Mutzig synagoge is the oldest synagoge in Alsace, located on the Alsace wine route about 30 kilometres from Strasbourg

The synagogue, the oldest in Alsace, was built in 1787 on the initiative of Aaron Meyer (1710-1795), General Commissioner of the Jewish Nation from 1746 to 1788. There must have been an even older synagogue, as there is a mention of an "old temple of the Jews" transformed into a carpenter's workshop at the time of the Terror. Mutzig was the seat of a rabbinate until 1915. It was here that the Beith Dîn (rabbinical court) of the Jews of the Bishopric of Strasbourg was located in the 18th century. In 1784, the Jewish community of Mutzig had more than 300 members

This building, which is listed in the supplementary inventory of Historic Monuments, has come down to us in its original state. Seen from the outside, it looks like a large bourgeois house. Only the high windows and the facade with Tuscan columns are reminiscent of a place of worship. Inside, there is a square main room, illuminated by beautiful stained glass windows from the 20th century and occupied in its centre by the almemor, the tribune where the service was held, and by a gallery, facing the Holy Ark, intended for women, which is now used as an oratory. The curtain of the Holy Ark of the time is kept in the Alsatian Museum in Strasbourg

In 1793, under the Terror, the synagogue was confiscated to serve as a meeting place for the patriots and in 1794 it was used as a carpenter's workshop. In 1896, an anti-Semitic campaign had developed in the form of anonymous letters to the non-Jewish population which were particularly virulent against Jews. By 1936 there were only 54 people, half as many as in 1910, not even thirty years later. The construction of a Jewish school in the building next door was carried out in the mid-nineteenth century, but was closed in 1922. During the Occupation, the synagogue, after having been looted and ransacked, was transformed into a garage and repair shop. The damage to the interior was particularly severe and the magnificent original paving had to be covered with a cement slab. The place of worship, for reasons of convenience, was installed on the first floor until the 1980s
In the forest of Mutzig, there is a place called "the hut or hut of the Jews", which can be reached by taking a path called "the path of the Jews" near the Mutzig rock. 2 hypotheses for this name either because the Jews took refuge there in case of anti-Semitic demonstrations, or the Jewish cattle merchants or peddlers who left very early in the morning rested there for the morning prayer at dawn.

The entrance is from the High Street in a district called "Judehofft", the court of the Jews

Closed to the public

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