Jever

First Jewish presence: 15th century; peak Jewish population: 219 in or around the year 1880; Jewish population in 1933: 98

By 1880, many Jever Jews has established themselves as cattle traders and merchants (of textiles and tobacco). According to records, the town was then home to a Jewish innkeeper and a Jewish farmer. In 1779, the community established a prayer room and a cemetery, the latter of which was located on the road to Cleverns and enlarged in 1841. (Burials were conducted in Neustadtgoedens before 1841.) Built in 1801 on Wasserpfortstrasse, the synagogue was replaced by a larger building in 1880. Jever’s Jewish schoolteacher also served as shochet and chazzan. The Jews of Jever maintained a women’s organization, a charity, a choir, a literary circle and a branch of the Zionist movement. Jewish homes and businesses were looted on Pogrom Night, and 15 local Jews were deported to Sachsenhausen; Jever’s Jewish cemetery was vandalized, and the synagogue was set on fire, after which the building burned down completely. Later, in 1939, the synagogue’s ruins were sold to a contractor and demolished. Several Jews returned to Jever after the war, and we also know that the cemetery was restored. Until 1951, a nearby displaced persons camp housed approximately 1,500 Jewish survivors of Bergen-Belsen. In 1950, a commercial building was erected on the former synagogue site; a memorial plaque was affixed to the structure in 1978. Between 63 and 77 Jever Jews were murdered in the Shoah.

Heike Zaun Goshen

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com

---