STRAUBING

STRAUBING, city in Bavaria, Germany. A Jewish community existed there by the 13th century. A tosafist, Solomon of Straubing, lived in the town. The tombstone of R. Azariah b. Hosea, with a Hebrew inscription of 1328, was located beside a house in the former Jews' street. In the privilege granted the town by Duke Stephen I of Bavaria in 1307, the Jews along with the Christians were designated as "free inhabitants." They were called upon to build or repair fortifications. In 1338, following a rumor of host desecration, the Jews in Straubing were massacred. The duke pardoned the burghers and awarded them the property of the victims. A new community came into being before 1400. In 1439 the Jews were expelled from the newly created duchy of Straubing-Bavaria. The oath more Judaico is contained in the Straubing Town Book, or Red Book, compiled between 1472 and 1482 from older sources dating back to the 14th century. Straubing Jews are mentioned in Regensburg in 1466. After the emancipation in Bavaria (1872), Jews again moved to Straubing and the adjoining region. By 1890, 253 of them lived in the town and neighboring localities. In 1897 they formed the Lower Bavarian Jewish community. A synagogue and community center was consecrated in Straubing in 1907, and a cemetery was acquired in 1923. The community numbered 141 in 1913 (0.64% of the total population) and 115 in 1925–33 (0.5%), with approximately 110 in the affiliated localities. More than half subsequently emigrated. The synagogue was burned down in 1938. Fifty Jews from Straubing and 41 from the affiliated localities perished in the Nazi deportations. After the end of World War II approximately 700 Jews who had arrived in Straubing on their forced march from concentration camps stayed there; 100 of them remained until 1467. The community was reestablished and in 1968 numbered 112 persons and 119 in 1970. In 1964 a memorial plaque for the Holocaust victims was dedicated in the rebuilt synagogue. In 1988 a commemorative plaque was consecrated by the city of Straubing in memory of the Jewish victims of the Nazi era. The synagogue was restored in 1988–89. The Jewish community numbered 141 in 1989 and 1,729 in 2004. The increase is explained by the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Rosenthal, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der Staedte Landshut und Straubing (1883), 207, 251–4, 318; H. Maor, Ueber den Wiederaufbau der juedischen Gemeinden in Deutschland seit 1945 (1961) 30, 61; R. Straus, Urkunden und Akten zur Geschichte der Juden in Regensburg (1960), no. 168 (22); Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 680, 685–6, 806–8; 3 (1987), 1433–38; S. Schwarz, in: K. Bosl (ed.), Festschrift Straubing (1968), 295–304; I.A. Agus, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (1947), 584 no. 632; Deutsche Reichstagsakten, 13 (1908), no. 24; 14 (1935), no. 142; Handbuch der juedischen Gemeindeverwaltung (1913), 135; FJW, 139. ADD BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Ophir and F. Wiesemann (eds.), Die juedischen Gemeinden in Bayern 1918 – 1945 (1979), 71–73; I. Schwierz, Steinerne Zeugnisse juedischen Lebens in Bayern (19922), 333–34; A. Unterholzner, Straubinger Juden – juedische Straubinger (1995). (Toni Oelsner / Larissa Daemmig (2nd ed.)