Reiskirchen

Summary: The Jewish community of Reiskirchen, which belonged to the liberal provincial rabbinate of Upper Hesse (in the town of Giessen), established a synagogue at 9, Schulgasse in 1886. Reiskirchen Jews were able to maintain their own school for religious studies and a mikveh, but conducted burials in Grossen-Buseck and, later, in Alten-Buseck. The Jews of Ettingshausen (13 in 1924) were members of the Reiskirchen community. In 1933, 36 Jews lived in Reiskirchen. That same year, shots were fired next to Jewish homes. Later, on Pogrom Night (November 1938), Jewish homes were razed; the synagogue was burned down during the pogrom, at noon on November 10, 1938. In the years 1933 to 1939, three local Jews died in Reiskirchen, 10 emigrated and 14 moved to other parts of Germany. Eleven Jews still lived in Reiskirchen in 1939, of whom eight were deported in February 1942. At least 16 former residents of Reiskirchen perished in the Shoah, as did between four and six Jews from Ettingshausen.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, YV
www.hgv-reiskirchen.de/heimatbrief/HB200802.pdf