The dead of the Jewish community in Birkenfeld were initially buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hoppstädten. A separate Jewish cemetery in Birkenfeld was established in 1891/92. In November 1891, the Jewish community asked the responsible authorities for the possibility to establish a cemetery in Birkenfeld. In the course of the year 1892 the cemetery could be handed over to its purpose. The oldest gravestone is from 1895 (for Lazarus Weil, died February 10, 1895). The cemetery was occupied until the Nazi period. The probably last burial was in 1939.

As in other places in Germany, the Jews were driven out of the towns during the plague pogroms in the Middle Ages. The fate of the Jews in Kempen was similar.

Only around the year 1800 Jews again settled in the city and set up a prayer room, which was located in the street that was later called Judenstraße. Not far from this street, a synagogue and a private Jewish school were built.