Kirchberg Im Hunsrueck

Residential - Kirchberg Im Hunsrueck (Kirchberg Im Hunsrück), Rhineland-Palatinate

First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 114 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 67

The Jews of Kirchberg established the following communal institutions: a synagogue—the building also housed a school and an apartment for a teacher—in 1817; a cemetery in 1850 (enlarged in 1896); and, in 1882 (13 years after the community was officially founded), a new synagogue at 15 Affengasse. Kirchberg was home to a Jewish elementary school from 1842 until 1846, after which Jewish schoolchildren studied religion with a teacher/chazzan. A Jewish women’s association was active in the community in 1933, and five schoolchildren studied religion with a teacher from Simmern that year. By 1935, however, the community could no longer function due to a lack of feepaying members. On Pogrom Night, SA men from outside Kirchberg, aided by local residents, destroyed the synagogue’s interior and burned its furniture in the market square. During the Nazi period, 19 local Jews emigrated, 46 relocated within Germany and two died in Kirchberg. The town’s last two Jews left in September 1939. At least 34 Kirchberg Jews perished in the Shoah. The Jewish cemetery was desecrated during the Nazi period. The synagogue building (it had been renovated in 1957) was pulled down in 1972 to make room for a new building.

Nurit Borut

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ germansynagogues.bh.org.il

Notes

Sources: Chronik der Verbandsgemeinde Kirchberg im Hunsrueck 1789-1983, Carla Regge, [published] Charivari Verlag, 1983., The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., Führer durch die Jüdische Gemeindeverwaltung und Wohlfahrtspflege in Deutschland 1923-1933, Andreas Nachama, Simon Hermann [Eds.], [publisher] Edition Hentrich, 1995.

Details

Date Added	May 04, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
City	Kirchberg Im Hunsrueck (Kirchberg Im Hunsrück)
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Kirchberg Im Hunsrueck

First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 114 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 67

Nurit Borut

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ germansynagogues.bh.org.il

Notes

Details

Have additional information, photos, connections, or other resources to contribute?

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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