Twelve years of the New Synagogue in Mainz: To mark this occasion, her bat mitzvah, on September 4, 2022, the new brochure "Women's Lives Today in Mainz: The Female Face of the Jewish Community in Mainz" published by the Women's Office and the Office for Migration and Integration of the state capital offers a collection of twelve portraits of female members of the Jewish community. The "female face" of the Jewish community is presented in a variety of text forms – as transcripts of conversations, in interview form, or as self-descriptions. The youngest of those portrayed is in her early 20s, the oldest is almost 100 years old. 

The editors owe this multifaceted insight into the lives of young and older Jewish women in Mainz to Anna Kischner, chairwoman of the Jewish community, and Nina Shpolyanskaya from the community's executive committee. Both sought out female members to interview and were able to recruit them for the project."Without Nina Shpolyanskaya's commitment and knowledge of Russian, it would have been difficult for us to record all the memories of life in one of the former Soviet republics and of the time of arrival here in the city," say the editors. Numerous texts were translated from Russian by Ina Kasemir-Sattler.

For Mayor Michael Ebling, who also wrote the foreword to the brochure, the collection of portraits is an encouraging sign of active Jewish life in the city. "The World Heritage title, which has also distinguished Mainz as a ShUM city since 2021, stands not only for its great historical heritage, but also for the present and the future, and not least for our collective responsibility to combat all forms of anti-Semitism. I am therefore delighted that the city can present the Jewish community with a gift for its Bat Mitzvah in the form of this publication."

For the Women's Office, this look at the lives of Jewish women in Mainz today is a continuation of its extensive historical work on the lives and suffering of Jewish women in Mainz. The Mainz Women's Calendar, which has been published for more than three decades, serves this purpose in particular.

"For the inauguration of the New Synagogue on September 3, 2010, we published our collection of biographies of Jewish women in Mainz from the 14th century to the end of the 20th century for the first time, and have since revised and republished it several times. For the Bat Mitzvah, however, the focus should be on women's lives today. And also about whether Mainz is truly the cosmopolitan and diverse city in which Jewish life is completely natural," says Eva Weickart, head of the Women's Office. "We are therefore very grateful to the twelve women who, despite their knowledge of and experience with anti-Semitism, have given us insights into their lives."

For Carlos Wittmer, head of the Office for Migration and Integration, this includes memories of the time of arrival in Mainz and the efforts to gain a foothold here. "Many of today's community members come from one of the former Soviet republics and had to completely reorient themselves here. This also applies to the female members of the community. Being invited as quota refugees does not automatically mean being welcome." However, it is also important to give a voice to those who were born and raised here. 

The brochure will be available free of charge in the foyer of the Große Bleiche town hall from September 4, 2022, or can be downloaded from the Women's Office website at www.mainz.de/frauenbuerowww.mainz.de/frauenbuero.