REUTLINGEN

REUTLINGEN, city in Wuerttemberg, Germany. Jews are first mentioned in Reutlingen in a declaration of Feb. 10, 1331, in which Ulrich III of Wuerttemberg waived his right to the pledges in his possession. In 1339 there is a record of Jews from Hagenau and Hessenberg settling in the town, where a major source of their livelihood was pawnbroking; a source dated 1334 notes a loan made by a Jew to a monastery. Jews owned houses in the town, and Jews from outside the town were permitted to own property and to conduct business there. A synagogue housed in a stone building dates from this period. In 1338 the mayor, Albrecht der Rote, successfully protected the Jews during the armleder uprisings. However, on Dec. 8, 1348, many Jews suffered martyrdom during the black death persecutions. Apparently some Jews survived, as is evident from documents dated April 20, 1349, in which Emperor charles iv pardoned the crimes perpetrated against the Jews and distributed the properties of the victims among the rulers of the regions where they had lived at the time of the massacres. The municipal registers of Wuerttemberg mention Jews in Reutlingen in 1371. After they had received authorization to return to the town, they rebuilt their houses and reestablished their institutions. Reutlingen Jews are commemorated in several memorbuecher . At the close of the 19th century there were 45 Jews in the town. At the beginning of the 20th century, their numbers had increased to about 100, but by 1933 they had again declined to 50, while in the official census of 1939 only six Jews were recorded in Wuerttemberg. In 1942 the last Jews were deported to theresienstadt and to riga ; none returned. After World War II a monument was set up in the city cemetery in memory of the Jews who perished during the Holocaust. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 694–6; PK Germanyah. (B. Mordechai Ansbacher)