Kirn

First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 109 in 1905; Jewish population in 1933: 78

Jews left Kirn after anti-Jewish riots erupted there in 1287. Another Jewish presence was established in the town in the 1830s, but it was not until 1924, some 54 years after it began to develop, that a Jewish community was officially founded. The 19th-century community temporarily conducted services in a rented gymnasium; in 1888, a synagogue was inaugurated on Amtshofstrasse. Records tell us that Kirn was home to a regional Jewish cemetery in the early 18th century, but we do not know when it was consecrated. We know for certain, however, that the community consecrated its own cemetery in 1867. Jewish children studied religion with a teacher who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. Fourteen schoolchildren received religious instruction in 1933, and several Jewish associations and branches of nationwide Jewish organizations were active in the community, with which the Jews of Becherbach were affiliated. On Pogrom Night, SA men smashed the synagogue’s windows and furniture; the homes of 12 Jewish families were destroyed. During the Nazi period, 27 Kirn Jews emigrated, 38 relocated within Germany, one died in Kirn and eleven were deported to the East, via Kreuznach, in July 1942. Later, in 1944, a local Jew—he or she was, presumably, married to a Christian—was deported to Sachsenhausen. At least 28 local Jews perished in the Shoah. Kirn’s Jewish cemetery was desecrated during the war and in again 1979. The synagogue building was demolished in 1950, after which a movie theater was built on the site. Memorial plaques were affixed to the town cemetery and to a local house in 1978 and 1988, respectively.

Nurit Borut

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

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