Scheinfeld

Summary: Records from 1649 mention a local rabbi. We also know that this Jewish community conducted services in a prayer room until 1651, when a synagogue was established on what would later become 11 Bogenstrasse. In 1800, a new synagogue was built on the old synagogue’s site. The Jewish school, which housed a teacher’s apartment, was located next door (13 Bogenstrasse). Although the school was closed at some point after 1833, it reopened in 1904; in 1924, after the school was closed for good, the community employed a teacher of religion who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. Scheinfeld’s Jews were able to maintain a mikveh, but buried their dead in Ulstadt. Two chevra kadisha organizations (one for women, the other for men) were still active in Scheinfeld in 1933. On Pogrom Night, the interiors of the synagogue, school, and mikveh were destroyed, as were their ritual objects. SA men imprisoned all local Jews. Forty-nine Jews left Scheinfeld during the Nazi period. Of these, five emigrated and 20 relocated within Germany. Two Jews, the last, left Scheinfeld in December 1941. At least 29 Scheinfeld Jews perished in the Shoah. The former synagogue was later demolished, and the school was converted into an apartment building. A commemorative plaque was unveiled in Scheinfeld in 1990.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK BAV