Oldenburg

The first documented mention of Jews in Oldenburg was in a council resolution from 1334, which describes a conflict between the count and the magistrate regarding the repeated demands of the merchants for the expulsion of the Jews. In the town charter of 1345, the protection of the Jews was enshrined with restriction of their professional activities to money trading. This legal status remained until the end of the 18th century. Until the Danish period (1667-1773), there is little evidence of Jews residing here. However, the settlement of royal Schutzjuden from Altona in 1692 marks the beginning of the continuous history of Oldenburg Jews, who were under the protection of the respective authorities until their emancipation in 1848. In 1848, the Oldenburg Diet proclaimed that all citizens without distinction of faith were equal, and the Oldenburg State Basic Law of 1849 confirmed this. In 1822, about 750 Jews lived in the Oldenburg region, and in the city municipality there were 104 Jews in 1855. A later census of 1925 shows, with 1,025 Jews in the Oldenburg region and 320 Jews in the city area, there had been a small increase over the years.

The building of a synagogue with schoolhouse on Peterstraße, inaugurated in August 1855, was extensively rebuilt in 1905; it was completely destroyed in the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938. Between 1933 and 1941 many Oldenburg Jews fled abroad. In May 1939, only 99 of them were still living in the city. Until after 1933 Jewish businesses and actions made an important contribution in the economic life of the city. In the following years, part of the 279 Jewish inhabitants (1933)emigrated due to the consequences of the economic boycott, increasing disenfranchisement and repressive measures and the Jewish community was forced to leave the town. Since 1938 the Jewish community was allowed only the status of an association. Since then it called itself Jüdische Kultusvereinigung - Synagogengemeinde Oldenburg.In 1943 the last of those who remained here were deported to the ghettos and extermination camps in the East. In total, 175 Oldenburg Jews were killed during the Nazi regime. After 1945, a small Jewish community called Jüdische Gemeinde für Stadt und Land Oldenburg was founded, which later changed its name to Jüdische Kultusvereinigung Oldenburg e.V. and existed until the end of 1960. When in the early 1990s a stronger influx of Jewish emigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union became apparent, a new congregation was founded on August 8, 1992.