With completion of the Mannheim Synagogue in 1987, Jewish life moved back into the centre of the city. Before the years of the Nazi regime, around 6,000 Jewish citizens lived in Mannheim and played a decisive role in shaping the history of the city. Mannheim can look back on a tradition of religious tolerance, which it maintains to this day. One of the most beautiful new synagogues built after 1945 is today located in the lower west side of the city, where many of Mannheim's Jewish community traditionally lived. Its cubic structure distinguishes itself from the Jewish building tradition in Germany and draws on the tradition of Jerusalem with its central domes.
