Neumagen

General information: First Jewish presence: 1474; peak Jewish population: 109 in 1857; Jewish population in 1933: 74
Summary: The earliest record of a Jewish presence in Neumagen is dated 1674, when a “protected” Jewish resident was robbed and imprisoned. It was not until the 16th (possibly 17th) century that a Jewish community was founded there. The community’s cemetery—it had been consecrated as far back as the 13th century—was located between Neumagen and Dhron. Records indicate that the town was home to a Jewish prayer room in the 17th century, but the earliest record of an actual synagogue (on Bogenstrasse) is dated 1828; a new synagogue was built at 234, Bogenstrasse in 1872, after which the old house of worship served as lodgings for the community’s teacher. Other communal institutions included a mikveh and an elementary school, the latter of which was opened in 1892. We also know that Neumagen hosted Landjudentage (provincial Jewish conventions) during the years 1717 to 1787. In 1909, vandals smashed the synagogue’s windows. That same year, as a result of dwindling membership numbers, the community merged with that of Niederemmel. Seventy-four Jews lived in Neumagen-Niederemmel in 1933; two children received religious instruction. Later, on Pogrom Night (November 1938), when no more than 20 Jews lived in Neumagen, SA men ransacked Jewish homes, destroyed the synagogue’s interior—valuable documents about neighboring communities were lost in the destruction—and stole Torah scrolls and other valuables. At the cemetery, the last burial took place in 1940. On October 16, 1941, two local Jews were deported to a death camp in the East; and on February 26, 1941, two others— Neumagen’s last—were deported to the Minsk ghetto (via Trier). At least 17 Neumagen Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue building was torn down in 1959.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, FGW