Buehl

First Jewish presence: 1579; peak Jewish population: 301 in 1864; Jewish population in 1933: 72

Buehl’s Jews had established a prayer room by 1723. They inaugurated a synagogue with a mikveh in 1823, and opened a cemetery in 1833. Between 1827 and 1937, Buehl was home to a regional rabbinate. The community operated a Jewish school between 1830 and 1876. During the 1850s, Rabbi Leopold Schott introduced the congregation to Reform measures by permitting the inclusion of a harmonium and a choir. The diminished community of 1933 was still employing a teacher and maintaining a chevra kadisha, a women’s association and a charity association. In 1938, on the morning before Pogrom Night, the synagogue was set on fire: the interior was largely destroyed, and ritual objects were stolen; youths shattered the rabbinate’s windows and damaged Jewish-owned stores. By 1940, 21 Buehl Jews had fled the country; 13 had left for other German cities. Twenty-eight were deported to Gurs in October 1940, and an 87-year-old woman was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942. At least 27 Buehl Jews perished in the Shoah. The arsonist responsible for the destruction of the synagogue was later sentenced to five years in prison. At the site, which now accommodates an ice cream parlor, a memorial plaque was unveiled in 1983.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

---