Metadata: Jewish Community Neuenkirchen; Jewish Community Rheda
Collection
- Country:
- Germany
- Holding institution:
- New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum Foundation, Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, Archiv
- Postal address:
- Oranienburger Str. 28-30, 10117 Berlin
- Phone number:
- 0049-30-88028-425
- Web address:
- www.centrumjudaicum.de
- Reference number:
- CJA, 1 A Ne 2; 1 A Rh 1
- Title:
- Jewish Community Neuenkirchen; Jewish Community Rheda
- Title (official language):
- Jüdische Gemeinde Neuenkirchen; Jüdische Gemeinde Rheda
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community Neuenkirchen (Synagogengemeinde Neuenkirchen); Jewish Community Rheda (Synagogengemeinde Rheda)
- Date(s):
- 1768/1906
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 0.9 linear metres (65 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the synagogue community of Neuenkirchen comprises 46 files from the years 1768 to 1903. The first series contains files on the legal status of the community, the formation of the community and its statutes. From the time of the Napoleonic administration there are individual orders of the Consistory of the Israelites in the Kingdom of Westphalia. In addition, there are files on meetings of the board of directors and the representatives, 1878-1901, and on the general administration of the community (finances, membership in the Association of Synagogue Communities in Westphalia, appeals for donations and printed items, including of the Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus [Association for the Defense against Antisemitism]). Further files concern the employment of teachers and cantors as well as synagogue sextons, 1809-1873. Regarding real estate there are e.g. files for the purchase of a house for the school, 1826-1858, the planned (unrealised) construction of a morgue, 1837-1838 (with drawings), the construction of the new synagogue and schoolhouse, 1880-1886, and the installation of an organ in the synagogue. Another series contains financial and tax matters, including annual accounts and budgets of the municipality for the period 1833/34 to 1900, contracts, debts and legal disputes. Records of outstanding tax exist for the years 1849-1852, as well as complaints about the amount of council tax from 1848-1875. Further files contain religious and school matters (including synagogue regulations, mitzvot book (around 1830), lists of school-age children 1826/27, 1874) as well as support and collections (including Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung Münster, Israelite orphanage for Westphalia and the Rhineland in Paderborn) .
The collection of the synagogue community Rheda comprises 19 files from 1802 to 1906. These are general administrative files (statutes, meetings of the board of directors and representatives, legal disputes, finances, support), as well as personnel matters (teacher Meyer Danziger, 1835-1848). Interesting is a file on the disputes about the contributions of the community to the salary of the state rabbi Abraham Sutro in Münster, 1817-1853. Other files concern real estate (repairs and expansion of the synagogue, new school building in 1873, legal dispute with the Prince of Bentheim-Tecklenburg regarding property, 1863-1865), finances and contributions to the Verein für Westfalen und Rheinprovinz zur Bildung der Elementarlehrer und Beförderung von Künsten und Handwerken unter den Juden (Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung) [Association for Westphalia and the Rhine Province for the Education of Elementary Teachers and the Promotion of Arts and Crafts among the Jews (Marks Haindorf Foundation)] in Münster, 1840-1848. Numerous files from Rheda are in a very poor state of preservation.
- Archival history:
- The files of the synagogue communities of Neuenkirchen and Rheda were part of the former Gesamtarchiv der deutschen Juden [General Archive of German Jews]. In 1996 the Federal Archives transferred the holdings to the archive of the New Synagogue Berlin Foundation - Centrum Judaicum.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Neuenkirchen was the seat of the Jewish community with a synagogue for the Duchy of Rietberg, which existed until 1807. Jewish families lived in the area as early as the late Middle Ages. Sponsored by the sovereign, Jews moved back to Neuenkirchen at the beginning of the 18th century. In the mid-18th century there was already a synagogue and a mikveh. Under French rule, the area of the duchy belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia. The synagogue, which had been built in the last third of the 18th century, was destroyed in a fire in 1880 and the community built a new synagogue (inaugurated in 1881) and a new school on the main street. The cemetery was established around 1760. Around 1765, eight Jewish families lived in the town, in 1809 there were 145 Jews and in 1843 there were 182 in the entire former duchy (77 of them in Neuenkirchen). The Neuenkirchen synagogue community, which was constituted in 1854, also included the Jews living in Kaunitz, Rietberg and Verl. After 1860, a large part of the Jews left Neuenkirchen; before the First World War there were only 35 Jews in the town (81 in the municipal district).
Rheda was the main settlement of the Herrschaft [dominion] of Rheda, which existed until 1808. From the end of the 16th century, only a few Jewish families lived there - with interruptions - under the protection of the sovereign. A newly built synagogue was inaugurated in 1802. Under French rule the area belonged to the Grand Duchy of Berg. In 1843, there were 78 Jews in the town of Rheda, before 1914 the community (including associated towns) had 180 members, 116 of whom lived in Rheda itself. The synagogue district of Rheda also included the Jews in Wiedenbrück and Herzebrock.
After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, both territories fell to Prussia and then belonged to the newly formed administrative district of Minden in the province of Westphalia. With the Prussian law on the conditions of the Jews of 1847, the Jewish communities became public corporations, which were now called synagogue communities.
Today all of these locations are in the administrative district Detmold in North Rhine-Westphalia. Neuenkirchen has been part of the city of Rietberg since 1970. Rheda, Wiedenbrück and other communities combined to form Rheda-Wiedenbrück in 1970.
- Access points: locations:
- Detmold
- Minden
- Rheda
- Rheda-Wiedenbrück
- Rietberg
- Access points: persons/families:
- Danziger, Meyer
- Sutro, Abraham
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid exists.
- Links to finding aids:
- www.findbuch.net
- Yerusha Network member:
- Centrum Judaicum
- Author of the description:
- Barbara Welker; Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum; 2020
