Neckarsteinach

Summary: The Jewish community of Neckarsteinach—founded, at the latest, in the early 18th century—conducted services in a prayer room or synagogue until 1803, when a new synagogue was built at 9 Hirschgasse. Later deemed unsafe, the building was demolished, after which, in 1889, a new synagogue was opened at the same location. The community maintained a mikveh and, until 1925, a Jewish school, whose teacher also served as chazzan and shochet. Burials took place in Hirschhorn. In 1937, only 13 Jews lived in Neckarsteinach. On Pogrom Night, SA men destroyed the interior of the synagogue and confiscated the ritual objects; all other contents were burned on the banks of the Neckar River. Neckarsteinach’s last remaining Jew, a woman, left for Mainz in September 1939. At least 15 local Jews perished in the Shoah. Siegfried Ledermann, a native of Neckarsteinach who had been arrested on Pogrom Night (he was 16), was among the American soldiers who marched into Neckarsteinach at the end of the war. The synagogue building housed POWs during the war. A Christian family who had lived on its bottom floor since 1938 (maintaining the building and performing workrelated tasks on Shabbat) purchased the building in 1950, after which it was converted into a residence. Members of the family continue to live there, and a memorial plaque was affixed to the building in 2008.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
www.odenwald.de
www.neckarsteinach.com