Ruesselsheim
General information: First Jewish presence: unknown; peak Jewish population: 147 in 1871 (6.4% of total population); Jewish population in 1933: 47
Summary: The Jewish community of Ruesselsheim, established in the
17th or 18th century, was home to 22 Jews in 1713, after
which membership grew steadily (105 in 1817). During the
19th century, the following Jewish communities belonged
to Ruesselsheim: Bauschheim, Bischofsheim (until 1826),
Koenigstaedten (until approximately 1830), Ginsheim (until 1826) and Raunheim. It was only Raunheim, however, that
remained affiliated with Ruesselsheim in the 20th century.
Records from 1822 mention a synagogue. The Ruesselsheim
Jewish community built a new house of worship on Mainzer
Strasse in 1844/45 (renovated in 1895 and again in 1928/29); the
building accommodated a schoolroom and a mikveh, the latter of
which was renovated in 1901. Burials were conducted in Gross-
Gerau until 1923, when a Jewish cemetery was consecrated
inside the town’s general burial grounds.
In 1933, the community ran a Jewish war veterans’
association.
Later, on Pogrom Night, November 1938, SA men
destroyed the synagogue’s door and interior, burned Torah
scrolls and ritual items on the banks of the Main River and
vandalized the teacher’s apartment. The synagogue passed
into private ownership after the pogrom.
During the years 1933 to 1939, many local Jews emigrated
from or relocated within Germany. Ruesselsheim’s remaining
Jews were eventually forced into a so-called “Jews’ house” on
Schaefergasse. Several committed suicide, and six were deported
in 1942. At least 42 Ruesselsheim Jews perished in the Shoah. In 1945, only one Jew, a woman, still lived in Ruesselsheim.
Ownership of the synagogue changed several times before
2005, when a housing association purchased the building,
renovated it (2006) and established the Alte Synagoge
Foundation (“Old Synagogue Foundation”) in 2008. Today,
the foundation and a local branch of UNICEF share the
building, to which a memorial plaque has been affixed.
Photo: The synagogue of Ruesselsheim, probably in the 1930s. Courtesy of: Town Archive of Ruesselsheim.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, DJGH, EJL, SIA, SIH
www.stadt-ruesselsheim.de/
www.main-rheiner.de/ < Found. “Alte Synagoge”
Sources: AJ, DJGH, EJL, SIA, SIH
www.stadt-ruesselsheim.de/
www.main-rheiner.de/ < Found. “Alte Synagoge”
Located in: hesse