The Federal Government is to provide another 700,000 euros for the building of a new synagogue in the town of Dessau-Rosslau to replace the original building destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. The project, which began in 2019, had already received 700,000 euros in federal funding.

By doubling the amount of funding, the Federal Government has made a key contribution to the completion of the project.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said: "We have a responsibility to protect and support Jewish life in all its diversity. I am therefore very pleased that, thanks to additional federal funding, it will be possible to complete the building of the synagogue in Dessau-Rosslau this summer. For the Federal Government, and for me personally, it is absolutely essential that Jewish life in Germany becomes visible once again – and that Jews are able to practise their faith openly as members of our society."

The financing of the synagogue project had recently looked uncertain as a result of huge price increases in the building sector, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In response to a request from the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt (Reiner Haseloff), Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser managed to secure from the Federal Minister of Finance a further 700,000 euros in funding for the project.

The plan is now to finish building the new synagogue in Dessau-Rosslau by the end of this summer.

The Federal Government is involved in many other construction projects, too, such as the building of the Pears Campus in Berlin, a Jewish academy in Frankfurt, and the Moses Mendelssohn archive in Halberstadt. It has also been helping with the rebuilding/extension of synagogues in Koblenz, Berlin and Cologne. For building projects alone, the Federal Government will provide some 84 million euros in funding by 2026.

The Federal Government also helps to encourage Jewish life in Germany and make it more visible by providing financial support to Jewish institutions and relevant projects.

For instance, the funding provided to the Central Council of Jews in Germany (ZdJ) this year has been raised from its previous level of 13 million euros to 22 million euros. In its budget for 2023, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) has earmarked some 2.3 million euros to support Jewish institutions, including the Central Archives for Research on the History of the Jews in Germany and the International Auschwitz Committee. In addition to that, it has 3 million euros available for relevant projects, of which 1 million euros are set aside for projects of the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism.