Bornheim

Residential - Bornheim, North Rhine-Westphalia

First Jewish presence: 1624; peak Jewish population: 104 in 1888; Jewish population in 1933: 50

It was not until 1843 that enough Jews lived in Bornheim to warrant the building of a small synagogue. The house of worship was not able to accommodate the growing congregation for long, and the community eventually decided to relocate. While the new synagogue was being built, the Jews of Bornheim conducted services in a building owned by a member of the community. Construction of the new synagogue commenced in early 1866. Interestingly, two churches (one Catholic and the other Evangelical) were being built simultaneously and alongside the new synagogue. The three houses of worship were inaugurated at about the same time in 1866. Two decades later, in 1885, the original synagogue building was torn down and replaced by a new school. On Pogrom Night, Nazis set fire to the Bornheim synagogue and made sure it burned to the ground by feeding the flames continuously. The rubble was carted away a few days later, and in 1939 the city built a bunker on the site. After the war, a new building was erected on the site, which today houses a department store. A memorial plaque was affixed to one of the walls in 1986.

Moshe Finkel

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

Notes

Sources: Lexikon der jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschen Sprachraum, Klaus Dieter-Alicke, [publisher] Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008., Feuer in dein Heiligtum gelegt: Zerstörte Synagogen 1938 Nordrhein-Westfalen, Michael Brooke [Ed.], Meier Schwarz [foreword], [publisher] Kamp, 1999., Synagogen Internet Archiv, www.synagogen.info

Details

Date Added	Feb 11, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
City	Bornheim
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

Have additional information, photos, connections, or other resources to contribute?

Help Us in the race against time to time document Jewish history!

Bornheim

First Jewish presence: 1624; peak Jewish population: 104 in 1888; Jewish population in 1933: 50

Moshe Finkel

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

Notes

Details

Have additional information, photos, connections, or other resources to contribute?

Jason Guberman

Executive Director

Jason Guberman-P., A social entrepreneur who specializes in building broad coalitions and melding intellectual and technical innovation, serves as founding Executive Director of Digital Heritage Mapping and is the coordinator of the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Joshua Shamsi

Project Director

Joshua Shamsi, is Project Director for the Atlas of Jewish Life and Lead Photographer/Outreach Director for the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Eddie Ashkenazie

Researcher

Eddie Ashkenazie, is a Yeshiva University PhD student focusing his studies on the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in the modern era.

Avital Hirsch

Avital Hirsch graduated Magna Cum Laude from Binghamton University with a BA in language and linguistics. She has studied in Rome at Istituto Lorenzo de Medici.

Glenn Dynner

Editor

Glenn Dynner. Professor of Religion, Sarah Lawrence College. BA, Brandeis University. MA, McGill University. PhD, Brandeis University. Scholar of East European Jewry with a focus on the social history of Hasidism and the Haskalah.

Chrystie Sherman

Photographer

Born in Chicago, Chrystie Sherman was educated at the University of Vermont, the University of Paris, and New York University Graduate School of Film and Television.

Gentian Xhaxiu

Researcher

Gentian Xhaxhiu, was born in Tirana, Albania, in April 1988. He has attained a Master Degree in “EU Business Law” and has successfully completed the Annual Programme of the School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe.