Name Artist: MICHAL FUCHS
*1983 in Israel
lives in Halle/Saale
Title: "GRÜNEBERGS ARE CRAZY", 2023
Location:
Old Synagogue, Lippstadt
The garden house of the former Lippstadt synagogue was not destroyed during Kristallnacht in 1938. Like the old synagogue, it is a listed building. In 2022, numerous Sütterlin scribbles were discovered on former privy doors dating from before 1938. Among other things, the enigmatic phrase “Grünebergs are crazy” was found, referring to the Jewish Grüneberg family from Lippstadt. The garden house can be visited today; further wall carvings and scribbles were discovered, including a caricature of the former teacher of the Jewish school, Isaak Rosenfeld. During renovation work in 2024, a genizah, a repository for sacred Jewish writings from the mid 19th century, was found under the roof.
The artist Michal Fuchs, who comes from Israel and lives in Halle/Saale, has enlarged the tiny scribble “Grünebergs are crazy” into a neon sign. When the drywall construction on the east wall of the former synagogue, where the neon work was to be installed, was removed, part of the former Torah shrine became visible, where the writing is now located. The enlargement, exposure and accentuation of the Sütterlin manuscript, which today must be counted as one of the last traces of Jewish life in Lippstadt, appears as a menetekel through its placement in the Torah niche and is enhanced by an almost sacred dimension.