[ Torah mantle, late 18th/early 19th century, Memmelsdorf Synagogue Geniza ]

The term Geniza denotes a place of safekeeping of religious writings or objects of a Jewish community that are no longer in use. "Geniza" means "safekeeping"; archives or libraries were often called "Bet ha-Genisa" (house of safekeeping).

Genizot were often installed in the lofts of synagogues, in some cases just temporarily, before ritually burying the objects. The tradition of safekeeping writings has its roots in the Jewish experience of God. Through the contemplation of the letters, God is directly present. Out of reluctance to carelessly discard holy texts near which God may be experienced, in time all texts written in Hebrew letters were set aside. Religious objects were dealt with in the same manner. Many Genizot fell into oblivion in the course of the migration of Jews from rural areas since the 19th century and the disintegration of many communities, surviving hidden between junk and debris.

The Memmelsdorf Geniza was rediscovered between 1979 and 1982 in cavities between the subsequently installed ceiling and the roof above the synagogue’s main room. The greater part, some of it mixed with debris and damaged by exposure to the elements, was found at the east side, above the Torah shrine. Part of the Geniza was presumably already removed at the beginning of the 19th century during the installation of the flat ceiling.

Exhibits from the Memmelsdorf Geniza formed 20 percent of an exhibition of the Hidden Legacy Foundation, London, which was on show in many German and other European cities, in Jerusalem and in various cities in the USA between 1993 and 1996. In addition to these exhibits that have already been restored, 40 further archive boxes of writings and textiles are stored at the Jewish Documentation Centre in Würzburg, an institution of the region of Lower Franconia and the city of Würzburg (municipal archives).

The majority of the objects in the information room of the Memmelsdorf synagogue come from the Geniza, owned since 1995 by the Träger- und Förderverein Synagoge Memmelsdorf (Ufr.), the Association of Patrons and Friends of the Memmelsdorf (Lower Franconia) Synagogue.