Cantor Leo Gollanin sings Kol Nidre, New Synagogue Berlin 1932

Inside the richly decorated interior of the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße, Cantor Leo Gollanin sings the Kol Nidre accompanied by a women's choir, with the camera capturing the bimah and a general view of the sanctuary. Consecrated in 1866, the Moorish-style building with its golden dome was the largest synagogue in Germany and a center of liberal Judaism in Berlin. The Kol Nidre traditionally opens the holiest day of the Jewish year and remains one of the most moving moments of the liturgy. The footage was shot only months before the Nazi seizure of power, which would devastate Jewish life in Germany within a few years; the synagogue itself was damaged during the November pogrom of 1938 and largely destroyed in the war, its site now home to the reconstructed Centrum Judaicum.

Period

c. September 1932–December 31, 1935

Credit

The March of Time (Outtakes)US National ArchivesPublic Domain (NARA) · Digitalisierung und Bearbeitung: © zb Media GmbH