Hemmerden

Residential - Hemmerden, North Rhine-Westphalia

First Jewish presence: 1568; peak Jewish population: 39 in 1843; Jewish population in 1933: 31

The earliest available record of a Jewish presence in Hemmerden is dated 1568, after which records are silent about local Jews until 1728, when the city authorities granted Jakob Isaak a license to trade in priestly garments decorated by wine-staining and bearing the local lord’s coat of arms. It was around this time, too, that Jews were granted the right to conduct services and perform religious rituals. A synagogue was established in 1787 and a cemetery in 1813, but it was not until the mid-1800s that the community was able to build a new house of worship. On October 20, 1859, the Jews of Hemmerden celebrated this accomplishment with a festive inauguration. Although the Nazis had expropriated the synagogue in early 1938, it was nevertheless destroyed on Pogrom Night. Concerned about the safety of a nearby fuel depot, the mayor ordered the rioters not to burn down the synagogue. The building served as a prisoner detention center for the duration of the war. Later reconstructed, it is now a warehouse; a section of the building, however, has been restored as a memorial.

Moshe Finkel

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

Notes

Sources1; Lexikon der jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschen Sprachraum, Klaus Dieter-Alicke, [publisher] Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008., Synagogen Internet Archiv, www.synagogen.info , Feuer in dein Heiligtum gelegt: Zerstörte Synagogen 1938 Nordrhein-Westfalen, Michael Brooke [Ed.], Meier Schwarz [foreword], [publisher] Kamp, 1999.

Details

Date Added	Feb 20, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
City	Hemmerden
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Hemmerden

First Jewish presence: 1568; peak Jewish population: 39 in 1843; Jewish population in 1933: 31

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.