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"Living ShUM Monuments: The Jewish Heritage of Mainz, Worms and Speyer Germany"

“Living ShUM Monuments” is a pictorial edition documenting the most prominent remaining and newly constructed memorials of the region’s present day Jewish heritage in central Germany. Originating from the tenth century, the middle Rhine River cities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer would establish some of the earliest Jewish colonies documented in Central and Eastern Europe. The three communities created a unique cultural cluster that influenced the religion, architecture, scholarship and administrative justice of the era, the Ashkenazi Diaspora.

The ShUM community name was coined from the initial letters of Speyer, Worms and Mainz in Hebrew. During an ancient assembly in 1223, the legal status was affirmed.

Globally Jewish communities and particularly the ShUM have historically endured persecution, dispersal and unfounded blame for historical calamities including the pestilence that decimated Europe during the Middle Ages. They have survived the ravages of mob violence, religious intolerance and grinding ignorance that has pervaded civilization despite eras of educational and artistic enlightenment.

Throughout all, notable ShUM monuments have endured. Most have undergone massive renovations and even recreations for the present living. The historical resilience of the ShUM has been coupled by contemporary innovation. Jewish populations were never numerous within the three cities, but a recent period of exodus from Eastern Europe countries since the 1990s has reversed a previous post-World War II population vacancy. The dissolution of communism opened the portals to previously suppressed religious expression. The recently constructed synagogues in Mainz and Speyer rival the most innovative modern clergical architecture proliferating a progressive energy of growth and expansion.

The cities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer are once again embracing vibrancy in their economic climates, diversity of cultural expression and recognition internationally. It appears appropriate that the foundations of this renaissance should include one of its important cultural and religious components. The edition details the background, history and showcases in photographic detail the following historical and cultural treasures:

Worms:
Jewish Quarter, Ancient Synagogue and Mikveh (ritual bath) and the Heiliger (Holy Sands) Cemetery

Mainz:
Light of the Diaspora Synagogue and Judensand historic cemetery.

Speyer:
Jewish Quarter, Mikveh (ritual bath), Ancient Romanesque hall synagogue east wall and Beit Shalom Synagogue.

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