About the history of the synagogue

In the early 19th century, the Jewish population of Bischofsheim used a room on the upper floor of the private home of the widow Selig at Sackgasse 2 as a prayer room.

After the foundation of an independent parish, they built a 1 1/2-story building in Frankfurter Straße 48 as a synagogue and school building in 1850/51. It had a floor area of initially only about 35 m² and contained a mikveh. Here the Jewish children received their religious education. In the street-side zone there were two high round-arched windows and in the gable there was a round window. Later, a teacher's apartment was added. The synagogue room had 62 seats. It contained a Torah shrine with altar structure and two candlesticks, a combined lectern for prayer and reading, a marble memorial plaque for the Jewish martyrs of World War I, a chandelier, ten side candlesticks, a runner, a cabinet for cult utensils, and a stove. Of the two Torah scrolls present, one is believed to have been from 1703, the other perhaps as late as the 16th century.

At the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s, services were held around ten times a year. The Rabbi came from Mainz. The children attended Jewish classes there at the time.

On November 11, 1938, the synagogue was sold to Katharina Schnabel for 4,000 Reichsmark, but she had not paid the purchase price by June 1939. However, on June 29, 1939, the Friedrich Schnabel company announced that the building was now finally and legally in their possession.

Despite this, the synagogue was forcibly cleared out on the Pogrom Night, damaged and the interior furnishings smashed in the street. It is unknown whether the religious objects could be removed in time to prepare for sale. After the desecration, the local police station was instructed to protect the property and the building, as it was now in "Aryan" ownership. After World War II, the owner paid DM 6,500 as part of a court settlement, thus legalizing the purchase. Today, the building is no longer recognizable as a former synagogue. An addition on a street sign diagonally opposite indicates this.

(Wolfgang Fritzsche)