Joehlingen

Summary: The Jewish community of Joehlingen belonged, after 1827, to the district rabbinate of Bretten. Most local Jews earned a living as merchants and cattle traders. The synagogue at Synagogenstrasse, or “synagogue street” (present-day Friedrichstrasse) was built before 1802. Burials were conducted at the nearby Obergrombach cemetery until 1808, when a Jewish cemetery was consecrated in Joehlingen. In 1933, the community employed a teacher of religion who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. The cemetery was desecrated after the Nazis came to power, and in 1935 the licenses of the two remaining Jewish cattle dealers were revoked. On Pogrom Night (November 1938), the synagogue building was damaged, its furniture and ritual objects destroyed. Five Joehlingen Jews emigrated, two moved to other places in Germany, three died in Joehlingen and six, the last, were deported to the concentration camp in Gurs, France, in October 1940. At least nine Joehlingen Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue’s ruins were pulled down in the 1950s. Today, a combined residential and commercial building stands on the site, opposite which a memorial plaque commemorates the destroyed Jewish community.

Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL, HU, PK-BW