Based on the work of the "Freundeskreis Neue Synagoge e.V."

founded in 1996, the synagogue building was inaugurated on December 8, 2002 after the foundation stone was laid in October 2001

.

The then Federal President Johannes Rau, the Israeli President Moshe

Katzav and the Chairman of the Central Council of Jews, Paul Spiegel, were present.

The synagogue is located on a former plot of land belonging to the Protestant Gemarker

church congregation and shares the inner courtyard with it.

Last use: synagogue + community center

see description "jüdic community center"

Jews lived in Hagen according to written documents since the beginning of the 18th century. They did not have a religious center, but prayed in various private houses until the year 1819, where, among other things, a synagogue and a school were housed in an older half-timbered building.

It was not until 1859 that the Jewish community of Hagen was able to inaugurate its new synagogue in Potthofstraße. Forty years later, the house of worship was rebuilt and rededicated.