Emanuel Menachem Ben Aron Kirschner

Emanuel Kirschner was the third of Aron and Berta Kirschner’s eleven children. He was born on February 15, 1857 in Rokittnitz in Upper Silesia. As a child he attended the Jewish school in Beuthen and was a member of the local synagogue choir. At the age of 17 Emanuel Kirschner commenced his studies at the teacher seminar of the Jewish community in Berlin; in 1877 he began teaching there at the Jewish school and from 1879 was second cantor at the New Synagogue. In 1881 he succeeded Max Georg Löwenstamm as first cantor at the Jewish community in Munich. Three years later he married Ida Bühler. Between 1886 and 1894 Ida Kirschner gave birth to three children: Max, Fritz, and Bertha. The early death of their four-year-old daughter Bertha was a devastating blow for the couple. The family lived on the second floor of the Jewish community center in Herzog-Max-Straße 7. With his distinctive voice, Emanuel Kirschner inspired worshippers both in and beyond Munich’s Jewish community during his 45 years in the position. He composed synagogue hymns and performed both with various choirs and as a soloist, while from 1893 he had also taught Jewish music and solo singing at the Akademie der Tonkunst. Even after his official retirement in April 1926 he continued to perform at different ceremonies occasions.
In June 1938 the National Socialists seized the Jewish community center and its residences, which meant that Emanuel and Ida Kirschner were forced to leave the apartment they had lived in for years and move into a room at Jewish retirement home in Kaulbachstraße 65. When Adolf Hitler ordered the demolition of Munich’s main synagogue, Emanuel Kirschner, meanwhile 81, accompanied the removal of the Torah scrolls with his firm voice during the last service held on June 8, 1938. In his own words, the destruction of “his” synagogue broke his heart. On September 28, 1938 Emanuel Menachem Ben Aron Kirschner died in the Jewish retirement home. Unlike her sons Max and Fritz, Ida Kirschner was unable to emigrate to safety. Between 1938 and 1942 she was forced to move from one collection accommodation to another. On June 4, 1942 she died in the Jewish retirement home in Klenzestraße 4. The deportations from Munich to Theresienstadt ghetto, which would have included Ida Kirschner, had begun the day before. (text: Ilse Macek, editor: C. Fritsche, translation: Paul Bowman)