Friedrichstrasse 33 is the center of a colorful community life. Children and young people are active in the youth center, athletes in the TuS Makkabi Wiesbaden. People meet to learn. The Jewish community offers language courses, lectures and events on historical topics, among other things. Avidgor Zuker, of blessed memory, and Avraham Zeev Nussbaum shaped community life for many years.
Cantor and teacher Avigdor Zuker, of blessed memory, shaped the life of the community for more than 22 years. Born in Warsaw in 1931, his parents emigrated with him to Palestine in 1935. Zuker received his education in the Talmud Torah School in Bnei Berak and the High Yeshiva “Tiferet-Israel” in Haifa. At the age of 16 he joined the underground movement for the liberation of Israel and after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 he fought in “Zahal”, the Israeli military, until 1950. In 1958 Avigdor Zuker, of blessed memory, came to Frankfurt am Main to take up a position as a cantor. In Frankfurt, Zuker graduated from the Musikhochschule, where he was trained as a private voice teacher. In 1966 he returned to Israel, only to come back to Germany in 1977 to take up the position of cantor and religious teacher in Wiesbaden. He was active here until his retirement in 1999. In addition to his work for and in the congregation, he taught courses at the Jewish Adult Education Center in Frankfurt am Main and at the Adult Education Center in Wiesbaden, and was a lecturer in Jewish liturgy at the College of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg for several years. His go-getting, charismatic, humorous manner made him and his work unique. He played a significant role in the development of the community and the perception of the community in Wiesbaden. Avigdor Zuker died in Israel in 2013.
Avraham Zeev Nussbaum accompanied the community for 17 years
From 2000 to 2017, Avraham Zeev Nussbaum shaped the congregational life of the Wiesbaden Jewish Community – first as a cantor and from 2005 – after graduating from the Strauss-Amiel Institute’s rabbinical program, Ohr Torah Stone and Yeshivat Hamivtar – as a rabbi and religious teacher. Born in Jerusalem in 1972, Nussbaum earned his smicha (conferral of the title of rabbi) in August 2005. In 2017, Rabbi Nussbaum returned to Israel with his family. He and the congregation continue to be closely connected. Since 2017, Dr. Martin Pam has been leading services together with the Gabbaim. U.S.-born Martin Pam also says the prayers at the November 9 commemorations and on Yom haSho’a (Holocaust Remembrance Day according to the Jewish calendar) at the Lucius D. Clay Barracks Wiesbaden. The event is organized each year by the U.S. Army together with the Wiesbaden Jewish Community.
