First Jewish presence: 1590; peak Jewish population: 134 in 1848; Jewish population in 1933: 60
Although Jews lived in Dahn as early as 1590, a formal community was not established there until 1815. In 1820, after obtaining official permission, the community inaugurated a synagogue, next door to which a small school with a mikveh in its basement was built. The synagogue was declared unsafe in 1871, after which the congregation was forced to temporarily relocate until the construction, in 1873, of a new synagogue (built on the same site). Many Jews left Dahn following the Nazis' election victories. The synagogue, which was rarely used after the mid-1933, was defunct by 1937; in 1938, the building was sold to a non-Jewish furniture manufacturer, a fact that did not prevent rioters from vandalizing it on Pogrom Night. The structure was converted into an apartment building after the war, but a close inspection of the wall reveals traces of the destroyed house of worship. A memorial plaque was affixed to the building in 1991.Moshe Finkel
Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com
Notes
Sources: Alemannia Judaica, www.alemannia-judaica.de The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., “und dies ist die Pforte des Himmels”: Synagogen Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland, Will Schmid, Stefan Fischbach and Ingrid Westerhoff [Eds.], publication initiated by Joachim Glatz and Meier Schwarz, [publisher] Phillipp Von Zabern, 2005.
Details
| Date Added | Apr 20, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Category | Residential |
| Country | DE |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| City | Dahn |
| 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!
