LUEBECK

LUEBECK, Baltic port in Germany. An imperial city and capital of the Hanseatic League, Luebeck did not permit Jews to reside within its gates, although in the 17th century Jewish peddlers were common and their presence highly resented. In 1680 the city, in need of competent money changers, permitted two Schutzjuden to live there; in 1701 their number was restricted to one. Jewish peddlers, dealers in old clothes and secondhand goods, settled in the nearby village of Moisling, and in 1697 received permission to establish a recognized Jewish community. The attempts of the Luebeck authorities to restrict their activities met with little success. From 12 families in 1709 the settlement in Moisling had grown to 70 by the end of the century. In 1724 a rabbi was engaged and a cemetery opened; the community was under the jurisdiction of the Altona rabbinate. Although Moisling was annexed to Luebeck in 1806 the commercial and civil restrictions were not abolished until 1810, by the French occupation forces. A synagogue was dedicated in Luebeck itself in 1812. The downfall of Napoleon and the retreat of the French army threatened the Jews' newly acquired rights. C.A. Buchholz, a Luebeck lawyer, attempted to defend them at the Congress of Vienna (1815) but in vain. After a protracted legal battle, in 1824 they were forced to leave the city proper, returning to Moisling, where they built a new synagogue (1827) and opened a school (1837). Emancipation granted during the 1848 Revolution gave the Jews the right to settle in Luebeck, where a synagogue was opened in 1850; a new one was consecrated in 1880. The last five rabbis who served in Luebeck and Moisling were Ephraim Fischel Joel (1825–51), his son-in-law Alexander Adler (1850–69), his son-in-law Solomon Carlebach (1870–1919), who wrote a history of the Jewish community, succeeded by his son Joseph Carlebach (1920–22), and David A. Winter (1922–38). The Jewish population in the city rose from 522 in 1857 to 700 in 1913, but after the advent of the Nazis, declined to 250 in 1937. The last 85 Jews were deported to Riga in 1941–42. After the war a new community was established, which numbered 250 in 1948; by 1952 only 30 remained. (Jacob Rothschild) In 1960 the Juedische Gemeinschaft Holstein was founded as a federation of the few remaining Jews in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, including Luebeck. The number of members continued to decline, with the Gemeinschaft being dissolved in 1968 and the Jewish community of Hamburg taking responsibility for Jewish life in Luebeck. In 1994 and 1995 two arson attacks on the synagogue were carried out. In 2005 an independent Jewish community with more than 600 members was founded. Almost all the members were immigrants from the former Soviet Union. (Larissa Daemmig (2nd ed.) -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Guttkuhn, Kleine deutsch-juedische Geschichte in Luebeck (Von den Anfaengen bis zur Gegenwart) (2004); idem, Die Geschichte der Juden in Moisling und Luebeck: Von den Anfaengen 1656 bis zur Emanzipation 1852 (Veroeffentlichungen zur Geschichte der Hansestadt Luebeck. Reihe B, volume 30; 1999).