Jubilee Year
Jubilee Year 2021–1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany
This year, 2021, we are celebrating 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany, with events initiated and organized by the association “321–2021: 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany” under the patronage of Federal German President Frank Walter Steinmeier.
On December 11, 321 CE the Roman Emperor Constantine issued an edict at the request of the city elders of Cologne allowing them as a “general law” to admit Jews to the city council. Transmitted in the Codex Theodosianus, a 5th century collection of laws, the edict is regarded as the earliest written evidence of Jews living north of the Alps in Late Antiquity.
To learn more about the many different jubilee year activities, both virtual and real, in Germany and elsewhere, visit https://2021jlid.de/.
To learn more about the historical background, download the brochure “The Decree of 321: Cologne, the Emperor and Jewish History” (MiQua. LVR-Jewish Museum in the Archaeological Quarter, Cologne)
Germania Judaica, the Cologne Jewish Library, is cooperating in two other exciting projects:
Jewish Cologne on the Right Bank of the Rhine
The Jewish Cemetery in Deutz and its Historical Contexts – in cooperation with the Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
For the event on 29.08.2021 you can find a detailed report with many photos here.