Moenchsroth

Summary: In 1761, the community inaugurated a synagogue at presentday 1 Rathausstrasse; the building contained a schoolroom and an apartment for the teacher. The mikveh, initially located in the cellar of the synagogue, was later moved to an outbuilding. Local Jews maintained an elementary school from 1826 until 1890, after which a teacher instructed Jewish children in religion. Burials were conducted in Schopfloch. In 1933, the 23 Jews of Moenchsroth maintained a chevra kadisha and a women’s association. By August 1938, most of the village’s Jews had left; accordingly, the community was dissolved. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue’s interior and furniture were destroyed; the building itself, which was about to be sold to the mayor, was not burned down. That same night, the town’s four remaining Jewish homes were ransacked, and all four Jews (three of whom were women) were detained at the prison in Feuchtwangen. Eight Moenchsroth Jews emigrated and 16 relocated within Germany. The remaining Jews left in January 1939; at least 27 Moenchsroth Jews perished in the Shoah. In later years, the former synagogue was used as gymnasium, as a town hall and as a warehouse. In 1988, a geniza, or storeroom for holy books, (the second-largest to be discovered in Franconia) was discovered under the floorboards of the attic. A memorial stone was unveiled near the synagogue in 2006. Ritual objects from the synagogue are on display at the Jewish Museum of Fuerth, in Germany, and at the Jewish Museum of New York.

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