History of the Jews in Speyer

In the Middle Ages, the city of Speyer (formerly Spira), Germany, was home to one of the most significant Jewish communities in the Holy Roman Empire.

The earliest reference to Jewish settlement along the Rhine dates from the year 321 in Cologne, and it is assumed that Jews also lived in Speyer in Late Antiquity.

With the collapse of state and church administration in the Migration Period and the decline of the urban Roman lifestyle, it is also assumed that Jewish communities dispersed.

They possibly came at the instigation of bishop of Speyer Rüdiger Huzmann (1075–1090), who invited a larger number of Jews to live in his town with the expressed approval of emperor Henry IV.

Lest any of my successors diminish this gift and concession, or constrain them to pay greater taxes, alleging that they have usurped these privileges, and have no episcopal warrant for them, I have left this charter as a suitable testimony of the said grant.

The "valley" refers either to a moat-like grove to the north of the Weidenberg (today Hirschgraben) or to the low areas around the stream of the Speyerbach.

[6] Bishops, lords or kings who granted privileges and protection to the Jews were at the same time securing for themselves considerable revenues and protection fees; since persecution of Jews and trade restrictions led to considerable economic disadvantages and loss of revenues, it was in the ruler's best interest to restrain the antisemitic fervor of the lower clergy and the public.

With the aid of bishop Huzmann the Jews of Speyer had their rights and privileges confirmed and even expanded ("sub tuicionem nostram reciperemus et teneremus") by Henry IV as he departed on his third punitive expedition to Italy in 1090.

The regulations concerned various political, legal, economical and religious aspects of life, most prominently free enterprise, the sale of goods to Christians and protection of property.

This constituted a major improvement because it greatly reduced the business risk for the Jews who had often been subject to accusations that they were dealing in stolen goods.

Taking this action, which the Jews paid him for, the bishop of Speyer (Johann vom Kraichgau I, 1090–1104) prevented massacres and expulsions as happened in other cities of the Rhineland, thus saving himself and the town a valuable source of revenues.

[12] Around the time of these events a second Jewish quarter was established in the vicinity of the cathedral along modern day Kleine Pfaffengasse which used to be the Judengasse (Jews Alley) while the settlement with a synagogue continued to exist in Altspeyer.

Around 1100, on the Judengasse (today Pfaffengasse), the Jews built the Judenhof (Jewish courtyard) as the centre of their community containing a mikveh with a pool at groundwater level for ritual baths, a men's and later a women's synagogue.

Members of the Kalonymos family lived in Speyer at that time and took a leading part in the development of Jewish studies in Germany.

One example is Jekuthiel ben Moses, a liturgical poet and author of the reshut יראתי to Kalir's Kerobah for the feast of Rosh Hashana.

It was an important centre for Torah studies and, in spite of pogroms, persecution and expulsion, it had considerable influence on the spiritual and cultural life of the city.

In the 13th century Isaac ben Moses of Vienna Or Zarua wrote: "From our teachers in Mainz, Worms and Speyer the teachings were spread to all of Israel ...", and all the communities in Germany and in the Slavic kingdoms were followers.

On 13 February the daughter of Rabbi and judge Isaak ben Ascher Halevi the Younger (*1130) was accused of ritual murder (blood libel), killed and displayed in the market square for three days.

Riots again occurred in Speyer in 1282 over a blood libel when Herbord, Ritter von der Ohm, accused the Jews of having murdered his grandson.

In the following year Emperor Rudolph approved the decision of this synod and ordered property to be taken from the Jews and reverted to the royal treasury.

On June 24, 1291, Rudolph issued another order for taxes, requiring the Jews of Speyer to maintain the newly established Fort and garrison of Landau.

During the great plague of 1348/49 pogroms swept through France and Germany, especially the Rhineland, and on 22 January 1349 the Jewish community of Speyer was totally wiped out.

Bishop Nicolaus (1390) granted the Jews permission to settle in any city within the Speyer diocese on payment of a yearly tribute of 15 guilders.

[8] One of the refugees from Speyer was Moses Mentzlav whose son, Israel Nathan, founded a printing house in Soncino, Italy.

This included beatings, tortures and killings, imprisonment, robbery, expulsion, closing of schools and synagogues, payment of tolls and duties and the denial of the right to appeal to the imperial or other courts.

The first rabbi of Speyer was Isaac Weil (1750–63), succeeded by Löwin Löb Calvaria, whose salary was provided by a bequest in the testament of a Jew named Süssle.

In the night of 9 November, SA and SS troops looted the synagogue on Heydenreichstraße, taking away the library, precious cloths, carpets and ritual utensils and setting the building alight.

At the recommendation of the German Cities Council, Speyer bought development bonds from the State of Israel worth 2,000 DM in 1961.

[24] There was no majority for a 2007 motion in the council by the Social Democratic Party to have commemorative brass cobblestones (so-called Stolpersteine or "stumbling stones") placed in the pavement in front of buildings where Jews lived until their deportation.

After Jews resettled in Speyer in the 19th century, a new cemetery was built at St. Klara Monastery [de] Street (St.-Klara-Kloster Weg) and remained in use until 1888.