On Friday, November 9, 
exactly 63 years after the 
destruction of the stately 
Semper Synagogue on 
Kristallnacht, Dresden’s new 
synagogue was dedicated.
The solemn two-hour ceremony 
saw the moving in of the 
Torah and Law Books, and the 
lighting of the eternal 
flame (Ner Tamid).
400 invited guests 
participated in the 
ceremony, while Paul 
Spiegel, the President of 
the Jewish community in 
Germany said: “This new 
synagogue is a symbol made 
of stone of the will of the 
Jewish people to stay in one 
place”.
For the approximately 400 
members of the Jewish 
congregation in Dresden, the 
new synagogue means a new 
home. Until now the 
congregation held its 
services in the former 
Funeral Hall at the Jewish 
Cemetery, which was 
converted into a synagogue 
after World War II in 1950.
The construction of the new 
synagogue was finished in 
only 17 months at a cost of 
about $11 million. $4 
million came from the State 
of Saxony and the city of 
Dresden. The rest was raised 
through private donations.
The building’s architecture 
is unique, in that it shows 
the contrast between temple 
and tent through its use of 
massive outer stonewalls and 
an interior draped with fine 
metal fabric. The architects 
hoped to use these materials 
to symbolize the conflict 
between the eternal (temple) 
and the temporary (tent) 
that runs throughout the 
history of the Jewish 
people.
	A brief history of the 
Dresden synagogue is on pg 
7. For more information see 
www.synagoge-dresden.de
 

The synagogue’s interior