Online Archive of Jewish Communities

The Spandauer Kaffehaus  is a branch of the very famous Zuntz coffee houses. Founded by Rechel Zuntz and her son Leopold in Bonn in 1837 under the name A. Zuntz sel. Wwe. ("of the blessed Amschel Zuntz widow"), the traditional Zuntz roasting company existed for almost 150 years. It developed from a small grocery store into a nationally active company with locations in Berlin and Hamburg, among other places. The Zuntz coffee shops enjoyed great popularity and developed into an important branch of business, although they had originally been intended only as an advertising idea.

The Judenkiewer Spandau is the oldest known burial place of the Jewish community in Berlin, it was first mentioned in a document in 1314. The name "Kiewer" is most likely related to the Hebrew and Yiddish word קבר kejwer (grave). The Spandau Jewish community developed into the most important community between Breslau and Magdeburg in the High Middle Ages. The first documentary evidence of the existence of Jews in Spandau dates back to 1307, but gravestone inscriptions make it clear that there must have been a Jewish cemetery here as early as the mid-13th century.

The Jewish community "Adass Yisroel zu Berlin" was founded in 1869 in Berlin as a counter-movement to the reform-oriented Jewish Community of Berlin. The tradition-conscious community received official recognition from detuschen Kaiser and King of Prussia in 1885 as a religious community with equal rights to the Jewish Community of Berlin. Since 1940, the center of the community has been located at Tucholskystraße 40 in Berlin-Mitte (formerly Artilleriestraße 31). The community hall as well as synagogue and other facilities of the community are located there.

The Conservative synagogue on Rykestraße is the only remaining Jewish place of worship in the eastern part of the city. It was finally inaugurated in 1904 after a ten-month construction period and served as a meeting place and place of prayer primarily for Jews who had moved to Eastern Europe. Attached to it were several Jewish school institutions. The synagogue, located in the backyard, continued to function as such until 1940, when it was misused by the National Socialists as a storage facility, among other things.

Hamburger & Littauer was a store run by Jewish merchants Simon Hamburger and Nathan Littauer in Brunswick. The ready-made clothing store was founded in 1888 and was located in the house at Kohlmarkt 3-4 in the city center. The fashion store was very successful until the Second World War and Jewish boycott of Jewish stores during the Nazi regime. From May 1, 1933, the company was Aryanized and bore the name "Rosbach & Risse". The owners of the Hamburger & Littauer company were Paula Rosbach and Siegfried Fröhlich.

Chabad Lubavitch, Jewish Educational Center Hanover was founded in May 2005 by Rabbi Benjamin and his wife, Dipl.-Päd. Sterna Wolff. The goal is to strengthen the Jewish identity among the Jewish residents of Hannover. In the educational center lectures and programs for children (Sunday school; preparations for Bar/Bat Mitzvah; mother-child meetings etc.) are offered. 

The Israelite community of Neukalen was able to build a synagogue in Wasserstraße in 1843, thanks to a donation from descendants of Neukalen Jews. Next to the synagogue, the tabernacle for widows was built at the same time. In 1899 both houses were sold due to their poor condition. The Stiftshaus was preserved, but was no longer used by the local Jewish community, which had already dissolved in 1900. The tabernacle house for widows was renovated in 2009.

The Jewish cemetery in Rhaunen was established in 1892 at the latest. The cemetery area covers 8.75 Ar. 
   
The graves are arranged in chronological order in two rows of graves. A large number of the gravestones have been preserved. Some stones have become illegible due to weathering. The cemetery presents itself in a very well-kept condition. 
   

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.