Current:Home > InvestUNESCO names Erfurt’s medieval Jewish buildings in Germany as a World Heritage Site -FutureFinance
UNESCO names Erfurt’s medieval Jewish buildings in Germany as a World Heritage Site
View
Date:2025-04-17 12:32:59
BERLIN (AP) — A U.N. committee on Sunday named a group of medieval Jewish sites in the eastern German city of Erfurt as a World Heritage Site, the second time Jewish heritage in Germany has been added to the list in recent years.
Among the buildings included in the new designation are Erfurt’s Old Synagogue, a 13th-century stone building that illustrates Jewish family life in the medieval era, and a traditional ritual bath, or mikveh.
The decision was made at a meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.
Erfurt’s Jewish heritage sites have a long history, but had been largely forgotten until relatively recently. After pogroms in the 14th century drove much of Erfurt’s Jewish population out of the city, the Old Synagogue was used as a storehouse and then a restaurant and dance hall. Its historical importance was only rediscovered and established in 1988.
The ritual bath was filled in and used as a cellar for centuries and was only recognized for its historical and cultural background in 2007.
“The Jewish monuments of Erfurt were nearly forgotten for centuries,” said Maria Boehmer, president of the German UNESCO commission. “Their rediscovery is a great gift.”
Paris-based UNESCO began the World Heritage List in 1978. It includes a broad array of over 1,000 sites — from the Acropolis in Athens to the Great Wall of China — nominated by their respective nations.
Sunday’s news comes two years after UNESCO first recognized Jewish cultural heritage sites in Germany. That year, it added the so-called ShUM Jewish sites in the Rhine river cities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer to its list of World Heritage Sites.
UNESCO’s choice to also add Erfurt “makes a further important contribution to making the common roots of Jews and Christians in Germany and Europe visible and preserving them for the future,” Kerstin Puerschel, Germany’s ambassador to UNESCO, said in a statement.
The inclusion of Erfurt brings the total number of World Heritage Sites in Germany to 52.
veryGood! (774)
Related
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Climate Change Makes a (Very) Brief Appearance in Dueling Town Halls Held by Trump and Biden
- In a Race Against Global Warming, Robins Are Migrating Earlier
- Don’t Gut Coal Ash Rules, Communities Beg EPA at Hearing
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- Two New Studies Add Fuel to the Debate Over Methane
- Top Democrats, Republicans offer dueling messages on abortion a year after Roe overturned
- Untangling the Wildest Spice Girls Stories: Why Geri Halliwell Really Left, Mel B's Bombshells and More
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Lawyers fined for filing bogus case law created by ChatGPT
Ranking
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- Be a Part of Halle Bailey and Boyfriend DDG's World With This PDA Video
- Get $91 Worth of MAC Cosmetics Eye Makeup for Just $40
- What to Make of Some Young Evangelicals Abandoning Trump Over Climate Change?
- Intellectuals vs. The Internet
- New U.S., Canada, Mexico Climate Alliance May Gain in Unity What It Lacks in Ambition
- New federal rules will limit miners' exposure to deadly disease-causing dust
- New Leadership Team Running InsideClimate News
Recommendation
Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
American Climate: In Iowa, After the Missouri River Flooded, a Paradise Lost
Muscular dystrophy patients get first gene therapy
They tried and failed to get an abortion. Texas family grapples with what it'll mean
The 401(k) millionaires club keeps growing. We'll tell you how to join.
Inside the Love Lives of the Stars of Succession
On Baffin Island in the Fragile Canadian Arctic, an Iron Ore Mine Spews Black Carbon
New U.S., Canada, Mexico Climate Alliance May Gain in Unity What It Lacks in Ambition