Floersheim

Summary: The earliest available record pertaining to Jewish settlement in Floersheim is dated 1290. A Jewish cemetery was consecrated there in 1448, but no Jews lived in Floersheim during the 16th century. It was during the 17th century that the forerunners of the modern community established a prayer room; the room burned down in 1672, after which, between 1710 and 1718, a synagogue was built at 2 Synagogengasse (renovated in 1927). Other communal institutions included a school for religious studies; a new cemetery, consecrated near the Wickerbach creek in 1666; and a mikveh. Mr. Kahn, a teacher who served the community from 1870 until 1903, also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. In 1933, Floersheim was home to 52 Jews. A teacher from Bierstadt instructed five Jewish schoolchildren, and two Jewish health care organizations were active in the community. Beginning in April 1933, the anti-Jewish boycott was enforced in Floersheim, as a result of which many Jews left the town. On the morning of Pogrom Night, Jewish stores and homes were vandalized, the synagogue’s interior was destroyed and ritual items were thrown into the Main River. Five Jewish men were arrested that night and sent to Buchenwald. The synagogue’s ruins were torn down in 1939. The remaining Jews were deported in 1942, and we know that at least 25 local Jews perished in the Shoah. The Jewish cemetery was restored in 1946 (desecrated in 1989 and 1992); a commemorative plaque was unveiled there in 1947. Later, in 1968, a memorial plaque was affixed to the wall that now stands near the former synagogue site. The Hauptstrasse mikveh underwent renovations between 1983 and 1988.

Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, EJL, FJG, LJG, SIA
www.historische-eschborn.de/