«Not a synagogue, just a prayer room. We called it d’Schul.»

For almost one hundred years, Solothurn’s Jewish com­mu­ni­ty met in a small pray­er room at Obe­rer Win­kel 3. It was estab­lished in 1893 and clo­sed around 1981, when the size of the com­mu­ni­ty had dwind­led to a handful of fami­lies and the house nee­ded a cos­t­ly reno­va­ti­on. Upon clo­sing, the inven­to­ry was given to the Jewish Muse­um of Switz­er­land, along with a Torah scroll, while the Jewish Com­mu­ni­ty of Bern took the other two Torah scrolls. His­to­ri­an Bar­ba­ra Häne inter­view­ed Robert Drey­fus, who has acted as pre­si­dent of the Jewish Com­mu­ni­ty of Solo­thurn sin­ce 1988 and who belongs to a fami­ly which had been acti­ve in the com­mu­ni­ty for generations.

Bar­ba­ra Häne: Mr. Drey­fus, your gre­at-grand­fa­ther wit­nessed the ope­ning of the pray­er room at Obe­rer Win­kel. Why did it close?

Robert Drey­fus: At the begin­ning of the 1980s, the city of Solo­thurn infor­med the Jewish com­mu­ni­ty that the elec­tri­cal instal­la­ti­on of the enti­re buil­ding, which also housed the pray­er room, was no lon­ger up to stan­dard and nee­ded to be reno­va­ted to pro­tect it against fire. The expen­ses were pro­hi­bi­ti­ve for the small com­mu­ni­ty. When an archi­tect from Solo­thurn offe­red to buy the house, the com­mu­ni­ty had no other opti­on than to accept the offer. And so it was deci­ded to sell the house with the pray­er room and to hand the inven­to­ry to the Jewish Muse­um of Switz­er­land (first as a loan, later as a donation).

BH: Among the inven­to­ry is a Jung­hans clock. What can you tell us about it?

RD: Inde­ed, the clock hung on the outer wall of the pray­er room. My grand­fa­ther, Jules Drey­fus, dona­ted it to the con­gre­ga­ti­on in 1908. It was an unwrit­ten rule to start Shab­bat ser­vices on the dot.

BH: Your grandfather’s name is on a label on one of the desks, and next to it, a cou­ple of scribbles. 

RD: There’s a say­ing in Ger­man, «Nar­ren­hän­de beschmut­zen alle Wän­de» (Fools’ hands soil the walls). My brot­her and I, when we were bored, inscri­bed our initi­als on the wood. Jules Drey­fus was my grand­fa­ther, «M.D.» is my brot­her Max, and «R.,» well, that was me.

BH: An unu­su­al object in our coll­ec­tion is a tro­phy from the 1882 Solo­thurn Can­to­nal Marks­man Com­pe­ti­ti­on, appar­ent­ly a gift from Salo­mon Hess-Sri­ber, a tex­ti­le and fur­ni­tu­re mer­chant. Marks­man com­pe­ti­ti­ons were ath­le­tic events, patrio­tic ral­lies and poli­ti­cal stages whe­re Switz­er­land cele­bra­ted its «defi­ance». Why was the tro­phy kept in the pray­er room?

RD: We used it as a kid­dush cup for bles­sing the wine. My boy­hood memo­ries are that my father – or was it Mr. Levy or one of the Leval gen­tle­men – would bring a bot­t­le of wine to the pray­er room on a High Holi­day or on Shab­bat, say the kid­dush and fill it up. When they were finis­hed, we boys also got a sip, then we would «wash out» the cup, mea­ning eit­her Worm­ser or one of the Leval boys or my brot­her Max and I would take ano­ther sip.

BH: Mr. Drey­fus, thank you very much for sha­ring your memo­ries with us.