1954The Alsfeld Exile Community in Haifa

On September 5, 1954, the museum received an extraordinary letter from Haifa, Israel. Haifa, a port city, was the first thing Jewish immigrants saw upon arriving in Israel by ship. Several Jews from Alsfeld and the surrounding area had settled here as early as 1933 and founded a congregation, the Hevrat Adat Yeshurun (also: Adei Yeshurun). The name means “Congregation of the Upright.” At the beginning of the Second World War, they built a synagogue in the Hadar district, on Massada Street. Crucial to the founding of the congregation was the emigration of Adolf Steinberger (1886–1947), owner of the Strauss & Steinberger clothing factory, who emigrated to Haifa in August 1933, taking not only his family but also several Jewish employees with him.

The letter contains the request from the Alsfeld exiles for the return of the ritual objects from Alsfeld. This request was signed by 15 former Alsfeld Jews, specifying their former residential addresses in Alsfeld and the surrounding area, as well as their functions within the Jewish community. On October 28, 1954, 20 ritual objects from the Alsfeld synagogue were handed over to the congregation in Haifa. A German-language newspaper in Israel had already reported exuberantly in advance about the rescue of these objects from destruction. In gratitude, the Jewish congregation in Haifa presented the museum in Alsfeld with several silver items from Israel in 1955.

The silver items were crafted by Eliezer Aharon Stanetzky (1897–1948), who had studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and was a renowned silversmith in Jerusalem. This arts and crafts school was founded in 1906 and attempted to develop its own distinct Jewish/Hebrew design language. Stanetzky’s style fused Oriental elements and techniques with Art Deco. As a result, at first glance, one might think these objects date from the 1920s. However, they were likely created after the Second World War. Stanetzky died in 1948, but the firm continued to exist.