Odenbach am Glan
General information: First Jewish presence: 1627; peak Jewish population: 139 in 1854 (10 % of the total population); Jewish population in 1933: 27
Summary: The earliest record of a Jewish presence in Odenbach am
Glan refers to a Jewish family living there in 1627. Local
Jews probably congregated in a prayer room during the
17th century, and we know for certain that a synagogue
was built between Kuemmelstrasse and Kirchhofstrasse in
1752. Renovations were carried out there in 1835, during
which a women’s balcony with 30 seats was added (the main
sanctuary seated 50 men); the synagogue was renovated
again in the early 20th century, this time to include elaborate
wall paintings, for which the house of worship would later
become famous. At the cemetery (consecrated in 1845), the
last burial took place in 1938.
In 1932/33, 27 Jews lived in Odenbach. The Jews of
Lauterecken were affiliated with the community. Later, on
Pogrom Night, SA men wrecked the synagogue’s interior,
allowing local children to steal and burn five Torah scrolls;
they did not, however, burn down the synagogue, as the
building was located next to several other structures. The
Jewish community was forced to sell the synagogue in
October 1939.
Odenbach’s last two Jews were deported to Gurs on
October 22, 1940. Two Jewish men, both of whom were
married to Christians, survived the war in Odenbach. Yad
Vashem has the names of at least seven Odenbach Jews who
perished in the Shoah.
The former synagogue was awarded protected monument
status in the 1980s. In 1985, wall paintings and a geniza
(a storeroom for holy books) containing a Torah curtain
and other ritual objects were discovered there. Purchased in
1989 by the Society for the Preservation of the Odenbach
synagogue, which renovated the building thoroughly, the
former synagogue was opened as a memorial in 1996.
Author / Sources: Bronagh Bowerman
Sources: AJ, EJL, FGW, SIA, SG-RHN, YV
Sources: AJ, EJL, FGW, SIA, SG-RHN, YV
Located in: rhineland-palatinate