{"id":126008,"date":"2022-09-21T10:25:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=126008"},"modified":"2022-10-02T12:58:46","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T09:58:46","slug":"lbh_kol_nidre_german_1870","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/lbh_kol_nidre_german_1870\/","title":{"rendered":"A Kol Nidre Prayer on the German Warfront in 1870"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Franco-Prussian War broke out in the summer of 1870 and ended about six months later with the defeat of France. The war brought about the unification of the many German states and the establishment of the Second Reich.<\/p>\n
These were not the first Jewish soldiers to fight for their country, far from it. Years before, Jews were drafted into the Austro-Hungarian and French armies. Jewish soldiers also took part in the American War of Independence, and the Russian army forcibly took Jewish children from their homes for military service as early as the 1820s, following the Cantonist Decree. In 1870, German Jews saw the war against France as an opportunity to show their gratitude for the equal rights they had been granted not long before. Against this background, about 4,700 Jews joined the German army to fight for their homeland.<\/p>\n
On August 19th<\/sup>, 1870, the French Army of the Rhine retreated to the fortresses of the city of Metz and the Prussian army imposed a siege on the city.<\/p>\nOne of the Metz fortresses after the war<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The German Jews who were among the soldiers maintaining the siege must have hoped that it would end before the Jewish High Holidays. But Rosh Hashanah came, and the siege of Metz remained in place. The Jewish soldiers were allowed to hold prayers, but there were no chaplains to handle the preparations and lead the ceremonies. A young rabbi named Isaac Blumenstein took up the task, arriving at the military camp on September 30, just before Yom Kippur. The prayers were to take place at the First Army headquarters in the village of Sainte-Barbe, about eight kilometers from the battlefield.<\/p>\n
The rabbi was offered to hold the Yom Kippur prayers in a local Catholic church. He refused and instead turned his and his neighbor\u2019s personal quarters into a makeshift prayer space. Two candles were placed on a table that substituted as the bimah<\/em>, and some 60 to 70 soldiers gathered there for the prayer.<\/p>\nRabbi Blumenstein\u2019s description of the event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Rabbi Blumenstein described the extraordinary event in an article that was published in the press after the holiday. A few days later, a soldier who had been there described it in a letter, adding that some officers and members of the command had also come. The soldier described Rabbi Blumenstein\u2019s stirring sermon and how it even moved some to tears.<\/p>\n
The German artist Hermann Junker (who was not Jewish) created two paintings commemorating the Yom Kippur prayer during the siege of the city of Metz in 1870. Not having been present at the event, the artist had to imagine both scenes, although the first painting is based on Rabbi Blumenstein\u2019s description. The caption at the bottom of a postcard featuring the painting describes it as the Kol Nidre prayer on the eve of the Yom Kippur holiday. At prayers the next day, since there was no Torah scroll, Rabbi Blumenstein recited the Torah reading and Haftarah <\/em>from memory.<\/p>\nPostcard based on Junker\u2019s painting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The second painting documents the Yom Kippur-day prayers being held outdoors in an open field. The painting shows dozens of soldiers, most of them wrapped in their prayer shawls and holding prayer books, gathered around a rock that is being used as a bimah<\/em>. At the center are three soldiers reading from the Torah scroll. Piles of weapons and even a cannon are shown at the ready. A number of civilians are also included in the picture.<\/p>\n
This painting is based on a description written by an anonymous soldier before Yom Kippur that was published in the Jewish press after the holiday. His description noted that 1,174 Jewish soldiers from Silesia and Pozna\u0144 were planning on attending the prayer. The soldier wrote that, with God’s grace and in the hopes that the French commander \u2014 that is, the enemy \u2014 would allow it, the prayer would take place in an open field. The soldiers would wear their Pickelhaubes (the typical Prussian spiked helmet) and wrap themselves in their prayer shawls. During the prayer, their non-Jewish comrades would keep watch from a distance to avoid any disruptions. However, things did not go as planned because shortly before the prayer service was to begin, most of the soldiers were called away on a mission.<\/p>\nYom Kippur prayers in the field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Nevertheless, the painting of the prayer on the battlefield thrilled all who saw it. German Jews viewed it as conclusive proof of their loyalty, notwithstanding their religion and beliefs, to the German people and their readiness to sacrifice themselves for the homeland.<\/p>\n
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