TAUBERBISCHOFSHEIM

TAUBERBISCHOFSHEIM (Bischofsheim on the Tauber), town in Baden, Germany. The first documentary evidence for the presence of Jews in Tauberbischofsheim dates from 1235 when eight Jews of Lauda and Tauberbischofsheim, accused of murdering a Christian, were tortured and executed. The city had an established community by the end of the 13th century when 120 Jews were martyred during the rindfleisch disturbances of 1298. The community recovered relatively soon, only to suffer again during the armleder persecutions of 1337. The community was annihilated in the black death persecutions (1348–49). Jews resettled in Tauberbischofsheim in 1373; in later centuries, however, Jews are only briefly recorded. A synagogue is mentioned in the 18th century, but the Jewish community was then very small. It increased from 109 in 1825 to 200 by 1880 (6.51 percent of the total population) but decreased to 106 by June 1933. In 1827 the community was affiliated with the district rabbinate of Wertheim. Until 1875 the cemetery of Kuhlsheim was used by the Tauberbischofsheim community. Jewish industrialists and merchants contributed significantly to the economic life of the city. In 1931 the cemetery was desecrated. On Kristallnacht, Nov. 9–10, 1938, the synagogue was not among those burnt down in Germany because it abutted on houses owned by Christians. The interior of the synagogue was desecrated, although the Torah scrolls were rescued by Christian clergy. Many of the Jews had left the town before the outbreak of World War II. On Oct. 22, 1940, 22 Jews there were deported to gurs , only four of whom survived the war; another ten died in auschwitz . The building of the synagogue was transformed into a residential building after 1950. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Salfeld, Martyrol, index, S.V. Bischofsheim; F. Hundsnurscher and G. Taddey (eds.), Die juedischen Gemeinden in Baden (1968); Germania Judaica, 1 (1963), 372–3; 2 (1968), 815–6; 3 (1987), 1450–53; PK, Germanyah. ADD BIBLIOGRAPHY: F.-J. Ziwes, Studien zur Geschichte der Juden im mittleren Rheingebiet waehrend des hohen und spaeten Mittelalters (Forschungen zur Geschichte der Juden. Abteilung A, Abhandlungen, vol. 1. (1995); F. Gehrig and H. Mueller, Tauberbischofsheim. Beitraege zur Stadtchronik (1997), 285–97. WEBSITE: www.alemannia-judaica.de .