his public spirit. He had it built for "the benefit of the general public". Museum and Academy The Berend Lehmann Museum, founded in 2001 by the Halberstadt-based Moses Mendelssohn Akademie in two picturesque half-timbered houses (one containing a former mikveh situated in the grounds of the synagogue destroyed in 1938, document the life of the court Jew and the heritage of colourful later Jewish life in the city. There remains a doorway of a richly decorated baroque building near the museum dating from about 1730 which was taken down in 1986 (although it might have been saved), and is locally taken to have been Berend Lehmann’s Palace, although there is no evidence that it was connected with him. Former Teaching House The Klaus (or yeshiva), Rosenwinkel 18, was founded by Lehmann in a house near the synagogue and moved to its present location in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, as a rabbinical academy it became one of the strongholds of neo-orthodox Judaism. It survived Kristallnacht and the 1945 air raid and is now the seat of the Moses Mendelssohn Akademie. The academy offers information on Jewish life in the form of conferences, exhibitions and lectures. Its lecture hall is the former synagogue of the yeshiva. New religious community attempted There has been no Jewish religious community in the city since the post-war years when, for a short time, survivors from the concentration camps gathered there. There is an initiative to establish a new community for a number of Jews from the CIS countries who have settled in Halberstadt . References External links Berend Lehmann Museum Moses Mendelssohn Academy 1661 births 1730 deaths Court Jews German bankers 17th-century German Jews People from Halberstadt People from the Principality of Halberstadt 17th-century German businesspeople 18th-century German businesspeople