Rosh Hashanah in the Hengelo Synagogue

On September 7, 1956, during the second day of Rosh Hashanah (5717), the Rehovot delegation was hosted by the Jewish community at the Marktstraat Synagogue in Hengelo. The younger people in the background are likely the team members. In the room, a bright, linear fluorescent fixture is mounted vertically on the wall between the diamond-pane windows, while a tall, slender white candle sits in a decorative metallic holder right next to the Holy Ark. A festive welcome banner reading 'ברוכים הבאים' (Welcome) in Hebrew is draped near the Ark. Though difficult to decipher, the permanent inscription carved atop the Ark reads: 'זִכְרוּ תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה עַבְדִּי אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אוֹתוֹ בְחֹרֵב' (Malachi 3:22), which translates to: 'Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb' (Malachi 4:4).

The picture above is taken from the Jewish Cultural Quarter (Joods Cultureel Kwartier), which details Jewish history in Hengelo. In 1837, the Jewish community built a wooden synagogue here, which was replaced in 1848 by a stone structure complete with an attached school and a ritual bath. To accommodate a rapidly growing congregation, the grand brick synagogue was constructed on the same premises in 1883.

In August 1941, the Hengelo synagogue was vandalized and damaged by the German occupiers and Dutch members of the collaborationist NSB party, though its sacred contents had thankfully been removed and hidden beforehand. Following the war, the sanctuary was repaired and reconsecrated in 1951. However, just nine years later in 1960, it was razed as part of a major urban renewal project in downtown Hengelo.

Today, the former site of the synagogue sits directly within the plaza of the Hengelo Town Hall (Stadhuis), located at Burgemeester Jansenplein 1, which was built squarely over the old urban grid where the Marktstraat once ran. A glass-triangle Holocaust Memorial erected there in 2005 now permanently commemorates the community.