Die Greifswalder Lehrsynagoge Johann Friedrich Mayers

Between 1706 and 1708, the University of Greifswald theology professor and General Superintendent of Swedish Pomerania Johann Friedrich Mayer commissioned a young Jewish convert to Christianity named Christoph Wallich to set up a "teaching Synagogue" in his vast private library. Auctioned off after Mayer's death in 1712, this most peculiar of synagogues then made its way via Leipzig to the Dresden Zwinger, where it was on view until 1836 as part of the "Juden-Cabinets" in the Wallpavillon. While all physical trace of the synagogue disappeared for good soon thereafter, Wallich's thrice-published description, "Die Mayerische Synagoga in Greiffswalde," has preserved its memory down to the present. Die Mayersche Lehrsynagoge in Greifswald, the result of original archival research and careful textual study, brings together for the first time all known information concerning the Mayer Synagogue and places it in its historical, cultural, and theological context. It also reprints Wallich's treatise for the first time since the early eighteenth century and offers the first ever commentary on this invaluable presentation of Jewish liturgy and practice. Documenting in detail a fascinating, little-known episode of German-Jewish history, this volume will be of interest to scholars of Jewish studies, German studies, and Jewish-Christian relations.