Muencheberg

General information: First Jewish presence: 1734; peak Jewish population: 55 in 1880; Jewish population in 1933: 40 or 45
Summary: We know little about this community’s history before 1840, when the regional congregation of Muencheberg was formed. Records do tell us, however, that the cemetery at Tempelbergweg was consecrated in 1756. The community employed a teacher and a community official, and religious gatherings took place in the home of Isaac Bendix. Although the Jews of Muencheberg had applied for permission to build a synagogue in 1847, construction was completed only in 1856. The final product, a synagogue on Hinterstrasse, seated 60 congregants. By 1854, all Jewish children attended the congregation’s elementary school. Two more villages had joined the regional congregation a year earlier, but membership nevertheless started to decline around this time. Jewish properties were destroyed on Pogrom Night: homes were wrecked, the synagogue was burned down and men were arrested and deported to the East. Many local Jews subsequently left for Berlin. Three Muencheberg Jews are known to have survived the war; 30 perished in the camps. A memorial plate was unveiled at the former synagogue site in 1995.
Photo: The synagogue of Muencheberg in a bird’s-eye-view photograph of the town. Courtesy of: Town Archive of Muencheberg.
Author / Sources: Ruth Martina Trucks
Sources: EJL, LJG, YV
Located in: brandenburg