Kirchberg 1
67821 Alsenz
Germany
Alsenz is a small town in the Donnersbergkreis between Kaiserslautern and Bad Kreuznach.
From 1650 individual Jews settled in the village. In the middle of the 19th century, the community reached a strength of one hundred people. Due to rural exodus and moving to the cities, the number of Jews constantly decreased. At the time of National Socialism, only individual residents were left in the village.
In the village there was a synagogue with mikvah and school, in front of the village there was a cemetery.
During the pogrom in 1938 the houses of the Jews were devastated, the people were persecuted and tortured. Later the last Jews of Alsenz were deported and murdered.
In 1762, construction of a synagogue began at the present site. The building also had space for a school, a teacher's apartment and the mikvah.
In 1933, the house was sold to a farmer because there were no longer enough Jews to gather for a service. The house was used as a storage shed and thus escaped destruction.
After a long period of vacancy, a family bought the house, lived in it and restored it. During the restoration, a genizah with numerous writings was discovered in the attic. Writings and cult objects may not be destroyed according to Jewish understanding, they are hidden, walled in, buried - in a Geniza.
About the synagogue and the geniza Claudia Keller reports in an article in the Jüdische Allgemeine:
The reappraisal of the finds is being carried out in Jewish Studies (Professor Lehnardt) at the University of Mainz:
