Inauguration of the new Weill Synagogue in Dessau-Roßlau

The new Weill Synagogue in Dessau-Roßlau will be inaugurated on Sunday with a ceremony attended by, among others, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, SPD, and Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, CDU.

The new synagogue complements the rabbi’s house in the city center, built in 1908 and now a listed building, where Kurt Weill (1900-1950), who was born in Dessau, spent his childhood years. The rotunda of the synagogue is in the city center, about 300 meters from the town hall.

The inauguration of the new synagogue in Dessau-Roßlau had recently been repeatedly delayed. The synagogue was originally scheduled to be completed in September 2022. Then the date was postponed to March.

At the beginning, state rabbi Daniel Fabian said a prayer and brought the Torah scroll, the holy scripture in the Jewish faith, into the synagogue. At the inauguration, the head of the Jewish community in Dessau, Alexander Wassermann, welcomed the guests and called for a minute’s silence for the victims of the Hamas attack.

Wassermann said: “As of today, our state has the first newly built synagogue after the Shoah. We as the Jewish community are very proud that it was built in Dessau-Roßlau.” The synagogue will not only be a place for Dessau’s Jews, but also a meeting place for cultural exchange for all interested parties, said Wassermann.

Due to the opening of the synagogue in Dessau-Roßlau, there will also be traffic disruptions in the city on Sunday. The background is the increased security measures due to the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and because Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is expected. As the Dessau-Roßlau police station announced, it will regulate traffic around the synagogue on Sunday. Several streets will therefore be closed.

Affected are Askänische Strasse between Ludwigshafener Strasse and the museum intersection in both directions, Kantorstrasse from Georgenstrasse in a northerly direction, Steinstrasse and the “Am Muldewehr” parking lot. According to the information, the roads will be closed from 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

However, the originally planned construction work on the Elbe bridge between Dessau and Roßlau had to be canceled. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the bridge was actually supposed to be closed in both directions from Friday 9 p.m. to Monday 4:30 a.m. However, because the construction work could not be carried out as planned due to problems that arose on site, the route is passable again.