Rotenburg an der Fulda

Summary: Jews lived in Rotenburg an der Fulda since its founding in approximately 1200. The Jewish community was massacred during the Black Death pogroms of 1348, and it was not until 350 years later that another was established in Rotenburg. In 1731, 133 Jews lived in Rotenburg. The community established a synagogue in 1738—restored in 1923 and inaugurated in 1924—and a cemetery in 1740. By the end of the 18th century, 200 Jews lived in Rotenburg. Members of this community were required, on the basis of an old ordinance, to give the local church leader a silver spoon once every year. Rotenburg was also home to a district rabbinate and, during the years 1826 to 1913, a Jewish elementary school. (The school offered religious studies only after 1913.) In 1848, a time of great economic distress in the region, the local populace vandalized Jewish property and smashed store windows. Similar violence erupted in Rotenburg soon after the Nazis came to power in 1933. On Pogrom Night, November 1938, Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed; the synagogue was desecrated (its windows smashed, its ritual objects destroyed). The synagogue building was leveled in 1947, after which a memorial stone, commemorating the destroyed school and synagogue, was erected at the site.

Author / Sources: Fred Gottlieb
Sources: AJ, EJL, LJG