Munich's Ohel Jakob synagogue turns 20, and politicians vow to protect it

Charlotte Knobloch cried when the Ohel Jakob synagogue opened in Munich 20 years ago. On Monday, 9 November 2026, the 94-year-old stood on St.-Jakobs-Platz again, surrounded by some of the country's most powerful people.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder, state parliament president Ilse Aigner and Munich Mayor Dominik Krause all came to honour her. Knobloch leads the IKG, the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria. For her, the synagogue belongs to the city "like the Frauenkirche and the Hofbräuhaus".

What happened?

Munich marked the 20th anniversary of its main synagogue with a formal ceremony. The clarinettist Giora Feidman, who played at the opening in 2006, performed again.

Aigner, who was presented as the conservative candidate for federal president in Berlin earlier that day, told Knobloch: "You gave this city its soul back." She recalled Knobloch's father collecting her, aged 13, from the farm where brave people had hidden her during the Nazi era. His words were: "Charlotte, come, we're going back to Munich."

Merz said the names of Munich's deported and murdered Jews, written on the walls of the tunnel to the community centre, defied his imagination. He added that Germany stands "unwaveringly at Israel's side".

Why is the date so charged?

9 November is the anniversary of the 1938 pogrom night. Nazis destroyed around 1,400 synagogues, prayer rooms, shops and Jewish cemeteries, and deported 30,000 Jews to concentration camps. In Munich they tore down the grand synagogue on Herzog-Max-Straße.

The new synagogue has also known threats. In 2003, a neo-Nazi network was caught planning to set off bombs at the foundation-stone ceremony.

Today, police guard the building around the clock. In February, a threatening letter with a live cartridge was found at the community centre. RIAS, a monitoring body for antisemitism, counts 24 incidents a day. Aigner called the climate of fear "a disgrace for our country".

Knobloch warned against hatred of Israel "disguised as an honest stance".

What's next?

The speakers made one thing clear: protecting Jewish life is a task for everyone, not only for the community. Merz called this the hour in which "never again" has to prove itself.

For Munich's Jewish community, the building at St.-Jakobs-Platz remains what it has been since 2006: a visible home in the middle of the city.