Oppenheim

In the former free imperial city of Oppenheim there was already a Jewish community in the Middle Ages. In an imperial tax list from 1242 Jews are mentioned in the town for the first time. They lived mainly from money lending. The most important position was held by a Jud Anselm, who is mentioned in numerous money transactions between 1285 and 1305. A lively intellectual life characterized the community. Oppenheim's scholars were also recognized in surrounding towns. A valuable Pentateuch manuscript from Oppenheim is kept in the Ambrosiana in Milan. At the end of July 1349 the Jews of Oppenheim were also slain in the general persecution of Jews during the plague period. Among the martyrs was Rabbi Joel haKohen. The Jewish residential area was located in Judengasse, first mentioned in 1388. It was located in the southwestern quarter of the Old Town (today Am Stadtgraben and Rathofstraße). 

After the persecution of 1349 Jews probably lived again since 1355 in Oppenheim, certainly since 1366. In 1391 the Jews were expelled for a few years. In 1444 four Jewish families lived again in the town. Even now they were mainly engaged in money trading. The community had several rabbis. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the Jewish community had a lively intellectual life. In 1415 the library of a Jew contained more than 100 manuscripts, among them some philosophical and cabbalistic ones. Between 1543 and 1548 the Jews left the town (perhaps not all of them, forced to do so or voluntarily) and settled in villages in the surrounding area. Jews also lived in Oppenheim in the 17th and 18th centuries (three families in 1674, eight families in 1722, ten families in 1765). At the beginning of the 19th century a census 1804 counted 74 Jews. The Jewish community belonged to the district rabbinate of Mainz.

The period of National Socialist pogroms began in Oppenheim as early as September 1928, when there were severe riots from out-of-town National Socialists in the town. After 1933 most of the Jewish inhabitants moved from Oppenheim to other places or emigrated (including Carola Löw and Emil Löw to Italy in 1937) due to the increasing reprisals and the consequences of the economic boycott. During the November pogrom in 1938 the synagogue was burned down, Jewish businesses were devastated. In 1941 still lived in Oppenheim a Jewish family with four people