Ohel Jakob Synagogue (transliterated from Hebrew as "Jacob's Tent") is a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at the Sankt-Jakobs-Platz in Munich, Germany. It was built between 2004 and 2006 as the new main synagogue for the Jewish community in Munich. The synagogue was inaugurated on 9 November 2006 on the 68th anniversary of the Kristallnacht.[1]
The building is part of the new Jewish Center consisting of the synagogue, the Jewish Museum Munich and a community center.
The building is a cubic concrete structure clad with travertine stone in its lower part and topped by a glass cube. The glass roof represents a tent (Ohel), symbolizing Moses' 40-year-journey through the desert. The main portal was manufactured in Budapest and features Hebrew letters depicting the Ten Commandments. The interior walls are paneled with warm cedar decorated with golden psalms.
The synagogue can seat 550 worshippers. It cost about €57 million (around US$72 million) to build and funding was provided by the city of Munich, the state of Bavaria, Munich's Jewish community and private donations.[3]
Munich's original main synagogue was destroyed in June 1938 and stood a few blocks away from the new synagogue, on ground that is now a parking ramp.
Antisemitic attack
In 2003, German authorities uncovered a plot by a group of neo-Nazis to bomb the ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the building. Security concerns also led to the decision to house a memorial, to the more than 4,000 Jews of Munich who were killed in the Holocaust, in a tunnel between the synagogue and the Jewish community center.[3]
