Fulda, Germany

Fulda Hesse, Germany. The Jewish population became substantial after the First Crusade (1096). A blood libel in 1235 led to the martyrdom of 32 Jews, and nearly 200 perished during the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49. Reestablished in 1367, the community established a synagogue in the Jewish quarter (Judengasse) in 1423 and, despite heavy taxation and restrictions, grew to number 77 families by 1653. Fulda became the seat of a regional religious court, (beit din), one of five in Germany. Its chief rabbis also headed the local yeshiva. Although 2,000 Jews were expelled from the diocese in 1671, some returned shortly afterward and eventually opened one of the first German Jewish schools in 1784. French occupation authorities compelled them to adopt surnames in 1812, but they only obtained civil rights in 1833. Abandoning their former occupations, the Jews became department store owners, textile and paint manufacturers, lawyers, and physicians. The community built a larger synagogue in 1859 to accommodate new members from rural areas, growing from 237 in 1802 to 861 in 1905. As district rabbi (1877-1919), Dr. Michael Cahn transformed Orthodox Fulda Jewry into a bastion of Agudat Israel, denouncing both Liberal Judaism and Zionism (including Mizrachi). Thanks to his initiative, phylacteries (tefillin) made in Fulda were prized throughout Europe. East European refugees founded a congregation of their own during WWI, but soon became an integral part of the community. During the Weimar Republic era, branches of the Central Union (C.V.), Jewish War Veterans Association, and B'nai B'rith were established. At its height the community numbered 1,137 in 1925. The synagogue was further enlarged and a yeshiva was reestablished. While the older generation remained anti-Zionist until 1933, members of the BlauWeiss youth movement left for Palestine in the 1920s. Around that time a training farm (“hakhshara”) was established by the religious Zionist Bahad movement in the borough of Rodges, and its philosophy had a great attraction for Orthodox youth in Fulda. A larger training farm at Geringshof survived until 1938. Most of the graduates of these farms emigrated to Palestine, where they helped found religious kibbutzim such as Yavne and Tirat Tzevi. After Hitler came to power Nazi terror silenced the free press and deprived Jews of their livelihood. Gestapo agents monitored even the rabbi’s sermons. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue was burned to ashes. One Jewish girl was raped and Jewish men were sent to the Buchenwald or Dachau concentration camps. Of 1,058 Jews registered in Fulda at the beginning of 1933, 935 emigrated; virtually all the remainder were deported: 132 to the Riga ghetto (December 1941); 36 to the Lublin district (May 1942); and 76 to the Theresienstadt ghetto (September 1942).