Jewish cemetery (Ermreuth)

The first written evidence of a permanent presence of Jews in Ermreuth dates from 1554, possibly after their expulsion from the imperial city of Nuremberg in 1498/99 some families had settled there. Only in the course of the 18th century did the community's population gradually grow, and in 1740 it established its first synagogue. A cemetery had already been established in 1711, which was expanded in 1797 and 1862. In 1834 followed its own school, which had to be closed due to the low number of students in 1916.

The Jewish population in Ermreuth reached its largest number with 230 around 1825, which corresponded to a good 40% of the village population. By 1875, the community strength had declined to 99 members, or 15% of the population. In 1939 only 15 Jews*Jewesses lived in the village, the last were deported in 1940/41.

The synagogue was vandalized in 1938, but the massive building remained and served as a warehouse for the Raiffeisenbank until 1974. In 1994 it was reopened as a synagogue and cultural and meeting place and houses, among other things, a permanent exhibition on Jewish life in the countryside.

On the cemetery, which lies above the village in a northerly direction at the edge of the forest, there are today about 215 gravestones from the period between 1730 and 1932.

(Dr. Hans-Peter Laqueur, 2020)