Synagogue (Hohebach)
The Hohebach synagogue at Rathausstrasse 5 in Hohebach was the synagogue of the local Jewish community .
Jewish residents in Hohebach
Until the persecution of the Jews in the plague of the 14th century, Jews lived in Hohebach. However, nothing is known about a church that might already exist at the time. In 1637 the immigration of Jewish families to Hohebach was permitted again, 40 Jewish residents are attested for 1740, and in the 19th century the number rose at times to 181 in 1858. The history of the Jewish community in Hohebach ended in the 1940s with the deportation of the last eight remaining Jewish residents. On some buildings in Hohebach there is still a recess in the lintel where the mezuzah was once attached, and the street name Judenweg , the Jewish cemetery and a memorial plaque on the last synagogue remind of the Jewish citizens.
Previous buildings
There is evidence of a prayer room in a private building in 1685, which was also visited by Jews from Dörzbach, which was initially not officially permitted. In 1752, Jews from Dörzbach were given permission to attend church services in Hohebach in return for an annual fee of two guilders. At the beginning of the 19th century, the prayer hall of the community was in the private apartment of Jud Gumbel and Mänle Mul.
In 1816 the construction of a synagogue for the community, which had now made itself independent of the Ailringen community , was approved by the Ministry of the Interior. The construction costs were estimated at around 3,000 guilders, a sum that was to be raised in part by a collection . The first synagogue was built on a piece of land that the community leader Marx Isaac had initially acquired himself and then sold to the community. However, this one-story structure was already in disrepair in 1838. After it was determined that there was a risk of collapse, the community received 250 guilders in 1839 as state aid for the construction of the synagogue and the establishment of a school. In 1840 the first official synagogue building in Hohebach was demolished or at least partially demolished.
The last synagogue
It is possible that part of the first building was integrated into the successor building. This was multi-story and the arrangement of the rooms was unusual: the upper floor contained the school, the teacher's apartment and a room for the synagogue council . The prayer room was on the first floor and a vaulted cellar below. The prayer room was equipped with a women's gallery and had a clock with a striking mechanism on the west wall. The furnishings also included four candlesticks ; in Torah shrine eight were Torah scrolls stored; also eight ram horns were in the possession of the community. The stalls had a total length of 70 meters (38 for men, 8 for children and 24 in the women's gallery). The building had a gable tile roof and was made of stone and half-timbering. This house, which was expanded in 1850, was financed, among other things, by a loan from a merchant from Bad Mergentheim and a contribution from the municipal treasury.
During the November pogroms in 1938 the building was not set on fire out of concern for neighboring buildings, but the entire interior was demolished and burned. After that the synagogue was used as a warehouse. In 1943, the Hohebach community took possession of both the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. After the Second World War , the building was partially converted into a residential building. This redesign fell victim to the arched windows of the former prayer room, which was initially converted into a communal laundry room and later into a storage room. The women's gallery became a youth center. Only a stone portal, the staircase that once led to the women's gallery, and the memorial plaque that was installed in 1986 are reminiscent of the building's former use. She mentions the year 1818 as the year of construction of the house, so it refers to the community's first synagogue building.
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Berlichingen | Dörzbach | Ernsbach | Hohebach | Künzelsau | Mulfingen | Nagelsberg | Öhringen
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 45 " N , 9 ° 43 ′ 59" E