Recklinghausen Jewish community
The Jewish community of Recklinghausen is a unified Jewish community in the Ruhr area . She is a member of the regional association of the Jewish communities of Westphalia-Lippe .
history
The earliest mention of Jews in the city of Recklinghausen is documented for the year 1305. Gottschalk von Recklinghausen is known by name, who went about his business from Lochern and was primarily a moneylender. He was killed during the persecution of the Jews at the time of the Black Death 1349-1350. So far, no evidence can be found in the sources for an organized Jewish community in the Middle Ages and early modern times.
It was not until 1828 that a community was founded. A synagogue (1880), a community hall (1930), a school with (1908) mikveh and several Jewish associations were established. As a result of industrialization, Jews moved in from Eastern Europe . At the same time the community grew steadily. In 1880 it had only 72 members, in 1905 there were 298 parishioners. In 1904, a new synagogue was therefore built on Limperstrasse. From 1903 to 1922 and later from 1934 to 1938 Recklinghausen was the seat of a district rabbi. The last district rabbi in Recklinghausen was Selig Auerbach, he emigrated to England via the Netherlands at the end of 1938 and later to the USA.
During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, the Recklinghausen synagogue, which was located directly at the police headquarters and only 150 m from the fire department depot, was set on fire and completely destroyed. Many parishioners fled to the Netherlands. The remaining members of the community were deported from the "Jewish houses" on January 24, 1942, first to Gelsenkirchen and then to Dortmund. On January 27, 1942, the "Dortmunder Transport" left the city and deported the families to the Riga ghetto . Most were murdered; only a few survived. The memorial, erected in 1948 at the Jewish cemetery, lists the names of 215 Holocaust victims from Recklinghausen and neighboring cities.
After the end of the war there were only 16 Jews left in the city. In 1959 there were 83. In 1962 the Jewish community of Bochum-Herne-Recklinghausen was formed with the neighboring communities. This had 76 members in the year it was founded.
In 1990 Jews began to move in from the successor states of the Soviet Union . The church grew. According to plans by Hans Stumpfl and Nathan Schächter, a new synagogue was built next to the parish hall from 1930 and the prayer hall added in 1955 and opened in 1997.
In 1999 the community separated from Bochum and the communities Recklinghausen and Bochum-Herne-Hattingen emerged . In 2004 the ward had 624 members, more than ever before in its history; 557 members were counted in 2018.
Mark Gutkin has been the head of the Jewish community in Recklinghausen since 2006.
literature
- Franz Lorenz, Hans Chanoch Meyer , Wilhelm Michaelis (Hrsg.): Harvest of the Synagogue Recklinghausen. Evidence of Jewish spirituality . 1962
Individual evidence
- ↑ Meyer, HC From the history and life of the Jews in Westphalia , 1962
- ↑ 175 Years of the Recklinghausen Jewish Community , Festschrift 2004
- ↑ Figures from: Maor, Harry on the reconstruction of the Jewish communities , dissertation, Mainz, 1961
- ↑ Jewish Community Recklinghausen Kdö.R. , accessed on February 23, 2019.
