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Podcast
"Jewish lodges in the State of Hessen"

Podcast "Jewish lodges in the State of Hessen"

From the series “Jewish Life, History and Culture in Hessen”
of the Hessian State Center for Political Education in Wiesbaden

From the series “Jewish Life, History and Culture in Hessen” of the Hessian State Center for Political Education in Wiesbaden

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Photo © Jonathan Valesquez on Unsplash Com

Photo © Jonathan Valesquez on Unsplash Com

Episode 6 of the podcast “Jewish Life, History and Culture in Hessen” by the Hessian State Center for Political Education in Wiesbaden deals with the history of the Jewish B'nai B'rith lodges in Hesse, especially in Frankfurt

The podcast tells of the founding of the Jewish “B'nai B'rith” order in the 19th century - the aims, tasks and values of the Jewish lodges as meeting places for Jewish communities and the biographies and fates of their members. We learn about the social and charitable work of the lodges, the persecution during the Holocaust and the current situation of the lodges in Germany.

What values and history have shaped the Jewish lodges in Hesse? What are the structure and tasks of Jewish lodges? Which well-known members have belonged to them over the centuries? What challenges have Jewish lodges faced and still face? What motivates Jewish people in the lodges?

Host Isabel Gathof (presenter, filmmaker and media producer from Hanau) discusses these and other questions with her guests Dr. Birgit Seemann, academic author of the standard work on the history of B'nai B'rith lodges, and Ralph Hofmann, President of the B'nai B'rith Frankfurt Schönstädt Loge e. V., Frankfurt am Main.

Information about the host and her guests

Isabel Gathof

Over the past ten years, Isabel Gathof has developed a core competence in the cinematic realization of Jewish subjects as a young filmmaker on an international level and now deals with the Jewish history of Hesse in a multimedia approach.

For her first feature-length cinema documentary “Moritz Daniel Oppenheim - The First Jewish Painter”, Isabel Gathof was awarded the Hessian Newcomer Prize in 2018, among others.

Dr. Birgit Seemann

Dr. Birgit Seemann, social scientist and historian, has published numerous works on Jewish biographical and institutional history. She was a lecturer in historical-political education, state theory and business ethics at various universities and colleges for many years.

Her book publications include the first biography of the political professor and anti-Semitism researcher Eleonore Sterling (2013) as well as studies on the Frankfurt Jewish nursing home “Gumpertz'sches Siechenhaus” (2019, with Edgar Bönisch) and on the Jewish order B'nai B'rith in Frankfurt am Main (2023) and in Nuremberg (2024).

Ralph Hofmann

Ralph Hofmann, born in Frankfurt in 1952, initially stayed in England after completing his English A-levels and immediately began training as a third-generation smokers' wholesaler - an industry with a long Jewish tradition. Following in the footsteps of his father, Elias Hofmann, sel. A. (twice President of the B'nai B'rith Lodge), he joined the Jewish Order of B'nai B'rith.

As the current president of the lodge, it is an honor for him to do the duty given to people by G'd - in Hebrew “Mitzvah” - to do good. This task fulfills him with satisfaction. Supporting socially disadvantaged or needy people is based on the foundation of humanity, on which the work of the Lodge is primarily based.

The Hessian State Center for Political Education

The Hessian State Center for Political Education was founded in 1954 and is an institution of the State of Hesse. It reports directly to the Hessian Minister President and is an integral part of political life and political culture in Hesse - partisan for freedom and democracy, not party-political.

It is the only Hessian institution to carry out political education work on behalf of the state. The HLZ is free and politically independent in the content of its work. A board of trustees consisting of nine members of the state parliament from all parties guarantees this non-partisan work.

Listen to the podcast (in German)

Duration approx. 51 minutes, file size approx. 45 MB