Jewish community (Brandenburg an der Havel)

When the Empire was founded in 1871, 255 Jewish citizens lived in Brandenburg/Havel. Their number increased to 469 by 1925. In 1877, the Jewish community built a new community center with rabbi's and cantor's apartment on the street side in Große Münzenstr. 15.

During the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, the synagogue located in the backyard was destroyed, but the community house remained largely intact. After the forcible dissolution of the Jewish community, it was presumably misused as a location for the protective police. Corresponding finds during the extensive renovation of the house in the 1990s suggest this. A memorial plaque commemorating the crimes of the Nazis and the murder of Rabbi Josef Rosenzweig in Auschwitz can be found on the street-side facade of the building.

Probably there were only about 10 surviving Jews in Brandenburg/Havel in 1945, but a new community was not founded. During the GDR period, the building was used by the neighboring polytechnic high school as a janitor's apartment and administration building.

First due to the influx of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, there has been a Jewish community in Brandenburg for the first time since the end of the war since 1996, using the former rabbi's house as a community center and synagogue. The congregation has about 160 members, most of whom are between 45 and 80 years old. The center of the congregation is represented by the two Torah scrolls in the synagogue room in the attic. The larger of the two was donated to the new congregation by the Spielmann American family and is kept in the Aron Kodesh, the Torah closet. In addition to the synagogue space, the community center has a library and an event room. The congregation is affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch Brandenburg and is served on holidays by Rabbi Nachum Presman. Services are held accordingly according to Orthodox rite.