Hof

General information: First Jewish presence: 1319; peak Jewish population: 98 in 1910; Jewish population in 1933: 96
Summary: Hof’s medieval Jewish community lived in the Jewish quarter (documented in 1412) and maintained a rabbinical court and a synagogue, the latter of which was documented in 1373. Jews left Hof when riots broke out in 1515, and it was not until 1902 that an official Jewish community was founded there. Communal institutions included a cemetery, consecrated in Woelbattendorf in 1911, and a synagogue (1927). In 1933, a teacher/chazzan instructed 19 schoolchildren. Active in the community were a women’s chevra kadisha, a welfare organization for transients, a branch of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith and a cultural society. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue’s furniture and ritual objects were burned on the outskirts of the city; windows in Jewish homes and stores were broken, and 12 Jews were arrested and detained for several weeks in Hof ’s prison. Several weeks later, the synagogue building was demolished at the community’s expense. During the Nazi period, 23 Hof Jews emigrated, 65 relocated within Germany and seven died in Hof. The city’s last Jews left in 1941. At least 25 Hof Jews perished in the Shoah. A commemorative plaque was later unveiled at the former synagogue site. The new Jewish community, founded after the war, counted 300 members in the 1990s.
Author / Sources: Yaakov Borut
Sources: AJ, PK BAV
www.hof.de
Located in: bavaria