Neubrandenburg

Residential - Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

First Jewish presence: early 1400s; peak Jewish population: 100 in 1900; Jewish population in 1933: 34

Neubrandenburg’s medieval Jewish community was expelled from the town in 1492. Jews tried to return to Neubrandenburg in the early 1700s, but to no avail. Finally, in 1800, the village elders allowed Jews to settle permanently in the town, on condition that they pay a head tax for each Jew; the tax was levied on every individual as well as on his/her belongings. It was not until 1860 that local Jews were permitted to establish an official community, build a synagogue and consecrate a cemetery. The community’s first synagogue was small, but a larger house of worship was built in 1876 and inaugurated in 1877. Neubrandenburg Jews also founded and maintained a school. Beginning in 1937, when anti-Semitism became rampant in Neubrandenburg, Jews started to leave the town in large numbers, so that only 15 Jews lived there by 1938. On Pogrom Night (November 1938), the synagogue was ransacked and set on fire; the arch above the entrance to the cemetery was also torched. A memorial plaque was unveiled at the synagogue site in 1988; as of this writing, the municipality is considering a more elaborate memorial.

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., Synagogen Internet Archiv, www.synagogen.info

Details

Date Added	Mar 26, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
City	Neubrandenburg
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Neubrandenburg

First Jewish presence: early 1400s; peak Jewish population: 100 in 1900; Jewish population in 1933: 34

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

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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.