Haltern

Residential - Haltern, North Rhine-Westphalia

First Jewish presence: early 16th century; peak Jewish population: 76 in 1840; Jewish population in 1933: 30

In Haltern, Jewish settlement began in earnest in the early 1700s. In 1703, local Jews purchased a house and converted it into a synagogue; the condition of the house deteriorated with each passing year, and the building was declared uninhabitable in 1859. The community accordingly purchased a new site and commenced construction work on a new synagogue, which was inaugurated on August 24, 1860. (During the construction period, the older, dilapidated building was temporarily repaired, enabling the community to pray there until the completion of the new synagogue.) The Jews of Haltern suffered anti-Semitic violence long before Pogrom Night: Jewish homes were defaced with anti-Semitic slogans, and the synagogue was vandalized on several occasions. Although the synagogue was nearly defunct by 1938, Nazis nevertheless wrecked its interior and burned its contents on Pogrom Night. The building was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1945. At the site, now a garden, a memorial plaque has been unveiled.

Moshe Finkel

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

Notes

Sources: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., 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 20, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
City	Haltern
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Haltern

First Jewish presence: early 16th century; peak Jewish population: 76 in 1840; Jewish population in 1933: 30

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.