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פתחו שערים ויבא גוי צדיק שמר אמנים

“a pride of the Jewish community in Berlin, an ornament of the city, a fairy-tale building in a rather plain part of the city …”
This is how in 1866 the National Newspaper (National-Zeitung) describes the newly inaugurated synagogue in the Oranienburger Straße with its Moorish decor inspired by the Alhambra in Granada.
A excellent pulpit orator and until 1938 Chief Rabbi of this grand synagogue was Rabbi Malwin Warschauer, who also held the impressive funeral speech for the famous artist Max Liebermann. The Jewish cementery with Liebermanns family grave in the Schönhauser Allee is one of the most beautiful cementeries in Berlin.
The rabbi tried in vain to win Albert Einstein as a member of the community; he refused referring to his “obstinacy”. in 1930, though, the ingenious physicist came to the synagogue with his violin case – an onlooker described it as “in tatters” – and gave a solo violin concert.