The Jewish community in Görlitz is considered extinct since the 2nd World War. Persecuted, expelled, or murdered in the years 1933-1945, the fates of the former Jewish inhabitants are accordingly changeable.

The merchant Leo Cohen moved in 1929 with his wife and their daughter from their first marriage into the newly built house Goetheplatz 1. In 1933 the family emigrated to Palästina.

The first post-medieval synagogue was built by the emancipated Jewish community in 1847 under the influence of the legislation of the Prussian King in a building in the backyard of the hotel „es Roß“ at Obermarkt 17. On 20.9.1853 the house of worship was occupied. The entrance was made üvia Langenstraße 23, through the school garden of the Bürgerschule built in 1846. The rebuilt rear building at Obermarkt 17 had previously been a society theater.

A Jewish alley was first mentioned in documents at the beginning of the 14th century; there is also said to have been a Jewish bathhouse (mikvah) and a Jewish churchyard in front of the city wall on the outer side. Under King Johann von Böhmen, the Jews living here obtained protection in 1329; since 1344 there is documentary evidence of a Jewish school (prayer room) in Görlitz. As in many German cities, the Jews living in Görlitz were expelled from the city at the time of the plague, but years later they returned.

Emilie Arnstein (née Heller) was born on September 19, 1896 in Greiz, the daughter of Paul (*1866) and Edwig Heller (née Levi). She was the sister of the composer Hans Hermann Heller. Emilie Arnstein married Hermann Arnstein (*1884). The couple lived in Nürnberg and had three daughters, Edwig (*01 May 1923), Irmgard (*24 June 1926) and Marion (*28 March 1928). The family fled to France, where they were arrested and taken to Drancy.

The origin of Elektrotechnische Fabrik Jakob Einstein & Cie was the water and gas installation company founded in 1876 by Jakob Einstein in the same year he moved from Stuttgart to Munich. In 1879/1880, his brother Hermann Einstein (father of Albert Einstein) joined the company as a partner, and in the next five years turned it into Elektrotechnische Fabrik Jakob Einstein & Cie " a factory for electrical equipment, specializing in the generation of direct current and its use for the then new electric lighting of streets, taverns and beer tents.