Surbtal

The river drains the northern Wehntal, passing the municipalities of Ehrendingen, Lengnau, Endingen, Unterendingen and Tegerfelden in the Surbtal.

Following the Würm glaciation, during the last glacial maximum about 24,000 years ago, the glaciers pushed again to the lower Glatt Valley.

With the increasing warming period about 20,000 years ago, the glaciers melted away in stages to Zürich, later Hurden and formed the Seedamm at the Obersee lake shore respectively the Ufenau, Lützelau and Heilig Hüsli islands on Zürichsee, and finally the glaciers retreated into the alpine mountains.

In the Early and High Middle Ages the monasteries of St. Gallen and Einsiedeln had possessions in the Surbtal, later particularly the St. Blasien Abbey.

From 1696 all Jewish inhabitants had to buy all 16 years expensive protective shield letters from the Landvogt of Baden.

As the island was repeatedly flooded and devastated, in 1750 the Surbtal Jews asked the Tagsatzung to establish a cemetery in the vicinity of their communities in the Surb valley.

Once a year, the communal chevra kadisha (hevra kadishah, Aramaic: חברא קדישא, Ḥebh'ra Qaddisha, meaning "holy society") visited the graves on the island.

In March 1798 the French revolutionary troops overturned the Swiss regime and proclaimed the Helvetic Republic; the Surb region now belonged to the short-lived Canton of Baden from 1798 to 1803.

This hatred erupted on 21 September 1802 during the so-called Zwetschgenkrieg against the Jewish fellow citizens, who were considered supporters of the new liberal government.

A horde of over 800 residents from neighboring villages fell over Endingen and Lengnau, and enriched themselves from the belongings of those defenseless Jews, while the Christian inhabitants were largely unmolested.

After the repeal of the majority of the legal restrictions on Jewish citizens on 3 March 1862, on 29 March 1862 the Israelitischer Kultusverein (Jewish society) was founded by 12 members in Zürich, and in 1880 its name was changed in the present Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich (ICZ).