SAVERNE

SAVERNE (Ger. Zabern), town in the department of Bas-Rhin, in eastern France. The presence of Jews in Saverne is confirmed from at least 1334. The community suffered during the armleder persecutions in 1338. At the time of the black death in 1349 there was only one Jewish family in Saverne, which was compelled to leave the town. By 1622 there were a few Jews again living in Saverne; in 1716, there were seven families and 21 in 1784. The community numbered over 300 persons at the close of the 19th century. It maintained a Jewish primary school (founded in 1857). A new synagogue was opened in 1898. Its population subsequently declined. During World War II, 30 Jews of Saverne died during deportation. The community numbered about 100 in 1970. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Fischer, Etude sur l'organisation municipale de Saverne (1865), 30f.; O. Meyer, La régence épiscopale de Saverne (1935), index; L. Bachmeyer, Pages d'histoire de Saverne (1965), 11, 32, 39; Z. Szajkowski, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer, 1939–1945 (1966), 250; Germ Jud, 2.2 (1968), 937f. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)