Meitar Tewel investigates the spatial and cultural layers of the post-World War II urban fabric built on the ruins of the Judengasse — the centuries-old Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt am Main. Her project introduces “a layered local Jewish narrative” that through analysis of postwar urban landscapes, archival study, interpretive reading of diasporic Jewish spatial practices and meticulous design interventions, expands the boundaries of a seemingly complete historiographic record.

Can you (briefly) explain your choice of subject?
My project concerns the modern urban fabric built over the ruins of the Judengasse, Frankfurt am Main’s centuries-old Jewish ghetto. The term Neualtland (German: new-old land), a reversal of Theodor Herzl’s canonical Zionist mass Altneuland (1902), originally emerged as the title for a short graphic novel that I created about a year prior to beginning my graduation project. Initially stemming from a desire to explore my own diasporic Jewish background, this focus of my research soon evolved into a lens through which I could examine pressing contemporary issues in architectural thinking and practice, such as social and environmental sustainability, the decay of postwar urban fabrics, material representation in multicultural societies, and alternative modes of historiographic research.

What or who are your sources of inspiration and can you briefly explain this?
Neualtland offers a conceptual framework which simultaneously holds onto two seemingly disconnected ends of the local Jewish history: The violently segregated and oppressed, yet culturally rich and intricate ghetto, and the urban environment built in the same area in the decades following World War II. Striving to recover erased spatial narratives, I was particularly interested in the material culture and spatial framework of Jewish life in the Judengasse, in the light of diasporic Jewish culture. Alongside productive archival research, I drew inspiration from Rabbinic practices such as Eruv, and subjective depictions of life in the ghetto, as illustrated by the 19th century Jewish-German painter, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim. Throughout my research and design efforts, this cultural and historic baggage served as my ethical, conceptual and aesthetic beacon.

State and (briefly) describe the key moment in your graduation project
Without doubt, the most important decision I made in this project was to regard the anonymous urban fabric built over the ruins of the ghetto as an intrinsic part of the local Jewish history. My immediate emotional reaction to the realization that two utterly ordinary mid-rise office buildings now take up the site of Frankfurt’s 500 years old main synagogue was shock, horror and anger. Instead of removing them in order to undo wrongdoing by designing a new, more “appropriate” building to take their place, my argument was that they must be protected and embraced as a less conspicuous form of Jewish heritage. Unexpectedly, further archival inquiry revealed that one of these office buildings was designed in the 1960s by a non-German Jewish Holocaust survivor for clients of a similar background. While their architectural value can be easily overlooked, the story that these buildings tell reinforces their potential historic value, which can be recognized as the missing link between the pre- and postwar local Jewish communities.

Can you (briefly) explain what design(ing) means to you?
From the early stages of my architectural training, I found myself wandering between what might be rigidly defined as research, and design practice. This outlook became especially evident in my work on Neualtland, where my role as a designer became clearer than ever: Using conventional modes of historiographic research was simply not enough. My design efforts became central to the uncovering of forgotten chapters in the local history, and allowed me to offer ways to reclaim overlooked parts of the city.

What hope / do you want to achieve as a designer in the near and / or the distant future?
The post-Jewish history of Frankfurt’s Judengasse, while remarkable in its desolation, is certainly not unparalleled, and should not be regarded as a unique case of destroyed, replaced and eventually forgotten Jewish spaces in postwar Germany. After a fruitful year where I had the privilege to present my work in Germany in a solo exhibition, panel discussions and through a participatory installation, I am thrilled to continue my research work as a PhD candidate at TU Delft. I am confident that the strong connections that I have established with cultural institutions, architects in the private and public sectors, artists and researchers across different disciplines, and members of Jewish communities in the past two years will only expand and deepen as my research continues.

Project text
Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Neualtland seeks to unearth spatial and cultural layers of its city center, focusing on the post-World War II urban fabric built on the ruins of the Judengasse, the centuries-old Jewish ghetto. Involving a meticulous analysis and archival study of the current spatial conditions around the area of the Judengasse, and contextualized by an interpretive reading of local spatial frameworks and diasporic Jewish practices, Neualtland expands the boundaries of a seemingly complete historiographic record.
Operating across different scales and locations around the former ghetto’s enclave, the project culminates in a proposal for a detailed architectural intervention in the two office buildings currently standing on the site of the Hauptsynagoge (Main Synagogue). Referring to the ambiguous nature of the synagogue, which served not only as a house of worship but also as a venue for non-ritualistic public events, Neualtland rejects the inclination to generate an institution designated exclusively for the Jewish community. Rather than a synagogue, a House of Assembly is proposed to take its place within the office buildings. With special attention to Jewish spatial sensibilities, their new form is unveiled through a surgical process of subtraction and reinterpretation of existing building elements, based on an analysis of the scant data available on the synagogue’s three time-spaced incarnations.
The project’s mission involves the reinterpretation of ordinary, seemingly insignificant buildings and urban environments into places which can carry a layered past, but possibly also a hopeful future. This attempt expands the means through which architectural heritage can be understood and appropriated, and architectural historiography narrated. By doing so, it invites the public to reclaim a lost chapter in the city’s history, and to continue writing its story while fully embracing the complexities and conflicts it might bring forth.
After being exhibited in Frankfurt in April 2023, the project is now part of Frankfurt’s Jüdisches Museum collection, and a recognized benchmark in the future development of the city center in relation to its Jewish history.

name
Meitar Tewel
email
website
graduation period
February 2022 – January 2023
education
Technische Universiteit Delft, Faculteit Bouwkunde