Einweihungszeremonien als Übergangsriten in jüdischer Aufklärung und Reformbewegung. Drei Fallbeispiele

Abstract

The opening of the Jewish Wilhelm School in Breslau (Wroclaw) in 1791 was celebrated with a large public ceremony, which was attended not only by the newly admitted pupils, their parents and teachers, but also by high state officials and well-known scholars. Similar large-scale and publicly announced celebrations took place in 1810, when the first German Reform synagogue, the so-called Jacobs Temple, was solemnly inaugurated in Seesen. Two years before this event, the Westphalian Consistory of Israelites in Kassel had been opened also with a public celebration. Both institutions now held “confirmations,” which replaced the traditional bar mitzvah. The admission to the Wilhelm School in Breslau and the participation in the Reform services in Seesen and Kassel meant for the Jewish pupils and “confirmands” not only the transition into another phase of life. These entries also marked the transition from traditional Judaism to a Judaism of modernity. Accordingly, these newly created institutions were primarily concerned with forming entirely ‘new humans’. The Breslau School aimed at a balanced perfection of the intellect, emotions and morality of its pupils. Analogously, the worship services and confirmations in Seesen and Kassel were directed toward “thinking, feeling, and acting religiously”. Drawing on the descriptions of the opening ceremonies and the inauguration speeches in Breslau, Kassel and Seesen, the rites of transition, the terminology associated with the transition and the conceptual content of the envisaged new type of education and instruction are outlined.