The history of the Jews in Luxembourg dates back to the 1200s. There are roughly 1,200 Jews in Luxembourg,[1] and Jews form one of the largest and most important religious and ethnic minority communities in Luxembourg historically.
The first record of a Jewish community in Luxembourg was made in 1276,[3] and, over the next fifty years, the population grew as a result of immigration from Trier. During the Black Death, the Jews were made scapegoats, and were murdered or expelled from the towns of Luxembourg City and Echternach. A few remained, protected by the intervention of Emperor Charles IV. After the death of Charles, the new Emperor, Wenceslaus, took little interest in affairs in Luxembourg. Deprived of Imperial protection, in 1391, Luxembourg's Jewish population was expelled.
After the initial expulsion, the ban was not thoroughly enforced, and a few Jewish families began to return to Luxembourg from 1405 onwards. During an uprising in 1478, Jewish homes were torched. Only two families remained, but this number had grown to fifteen by 1515.[4] In 1530, Jews were again expelled. This ban was enforced stringently, and Jews did not return to Luxembourg until the late 18th century.
After the Napoleonic conquest of the Austrian Netherlands in 1794, Jews were allowed back into Luxembourg, and the community flourished. By 1810, the number of Jewish families had reached 20. The first synagogue was opened in Luxembourg City in 1823, and Samuel Hirsch was appointed the first chief rabbi in 1843. By 1880, there were 150 Jewish families in Luxembourg, mostly in the Gutland. The first Great Synagogue was built in Luxembourg City in 1894, and the first provincial synagogue in Luxembourg was opened in Ettelbruck in 1870, the second one in Echternach in 1899. By 1927, the Jewish community had grown to 1,171, most of whom had fled the Russianpogroms, and, by the outbreak of the Second World War, the population had grown to about 4,200, fuelled by the arrival of 3,200 refugees from Nazi Germany and Central Europe.[5]
The current synagogue in Luxembourg City is the centre of Jewish worship in Luxembourg, having been rebuilt after the Second World War.
Luxembourg was invaded by Germany on 10 May 1940; before and during the invasion, 50,000 Luxembourgers managed to flee the country, amongst which were 1,650 Jews, who escaped into France and Belgium.[5] Other Jews managed to escape thanks to clandestine rescues, carried out by both the resistance and individuals; the most famous of these individuals was Victor Bodson, a cabinet minister and Righteous Among the Nations. On 5 September, Gustav Simon announced the extension of the Nuremberg Laws to Luxembourg.[5] From October 1940, the Gestapo adopted a policy of encouraging Jews to emigrate westwards; in the following year, nearly, 1,000 took this opportunity, although it would not be enough to escape the Nazis' persecution.[5]
On 22 October 1940 the synagogue of Esch was destroyed. In May 1941 the synagogue of Luxembourg City was closed by the Gestapo, vandalised and then razed, which took until autumn of 1943. On 3 June 1941 the synagogue in Esch was also destroyed.
From 7 February 1941 a law mandated the confiscation of all property of those who had emigrated up until 1940. From 18 April 1941 this was extended to Jews remaining in Luxembourg. The confiscated property was either sold off or used by various Nazi organisations. The money was intended to be used towards funding the germanisation policy in Luxembourg, the so-called Aufbaufonds Moselland. In November 1941 all Jewish organisations were dissolved and more than 35,000 Reichsmark were confiscated.
Most Jews that remained in the Grand Duchy were interned at Fünfbrunnen, an internment camp near Troisvierges. From here, 696 Jewish prisoners were deported to ghettos, labour camps, and extermination camps, of whom, 56 survived. More than 500 Luxembourgish Jews that had fled to France or Belgium were also deported to camps, of whom 16 survived.[5] Altogether, 1,945 of the 3,500 pre-war Luxembourgish Jews died, whilst 1,555 survived the Holocaust by fleeing, hiding, or surviving in detention.[3]
At the end of the war, out of six Jewish congregations (Luxembourg City, Esch-Alzette, Ettelbruck, Mondorf, Medernach and Grevenmacher) only two remained, in Luxembourg and in Esch.
Luxembourg government's 2015 report: The "Jewish Question" in Luxembourg (1933-1941): The Luxembourg State in the Face of Nazi Anti-Semitic Persecution.[6] was unanimously adopted in the government and it apologized to the Jewish community.[7]
Luxembourgish Jewry today
After the war, about 1,500 Jews who had fled Luxembourg returned, mostly merchants.[8] Communities were re-established across Luxembourg, particularly in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette. Synagogues were built in both of these cities; whilst the capital's Great Synagogue had been demolished by the Nazis. Over the second half of the twentieth century, Luxembourg's Jewish population gradually shrank, as families emigrated to other countries. In recent years, a wave of immigration by young Jews, mainly from France, attracted by good working conditions, has compensated somewhat the shrinking of the Jewish population.
On West 110th Street in Manhattan, New York City, there is an active congregation, Ramath Orah, founded by Jews who fled Luxembourg in the Nazi period led by Rabbi Dr. Robert Serebrenik, chief Rabbi of Luxembourg. Rabbi Serebrenik and his congregation gave their new synagogue the name Ramath Orah (Hebrew for 'mountain of light', i.e. 'Luxembourg'[citation needed]).
Antisemitism
Unlike many other countries in Europe, including some of Luxembourg's closest neighbours, there is a very low level of antisemitic behaviour and attitude in Luxembourg. In the first half of 2002, there were no reports of antisemitic attacks in the Grand Duchy.[1]Hate speech and verbal aggression towards Jews are also almost unheard of.
No antisemitic political parties exist in Luxembourg. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the National Movement, a far-right and openly xenophobic political party, achieved moderate success by the ballot box. Despite its attraction to neo-Nazis and its opposition to ethnic and religious minorities, most of its rhetoric was aimed at guest workers from southern Europe, and not at the Jewish population. The National Movement folded in the mid-1990s, and no far-right organisation has taken its place.
According to the European Jewish Congress, the Jewish community in Luxembourg has been faced with an "explosion" of antisemitism since October 7th, 2023, and the Israel-Hamas War.[9]
↑ DellaPergola, Sergio (2002). "Population Tables". World Jewish Population 2002. Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2006-07-29.
↑ La «question juive» au Luxembourg (1933-1941): L'Etat luxembourgeois face aux persécutions antisémites nazies. Rapport final remis au Premier ministre le 9 févirer 2015. Uni Lëtzebuerg, 2015. PDF Download at rtl.lu; PDF-Download at gouvernement.lu.
La question juive au Grand-Duché; in: woxx, No. 1210 (12/04/2013), pp. 6-7 (ill.).
Esch-sur-Alzette is a city in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the country's second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, as of 2023. It lies in the south-west of the country, on the border with France and in the valley of the Alzette, which flows through the city. The city is usually referred to as just Esch; however, the full name distinguishes it from the village and commune of Esch-sur-Sûre which lies 45 kilometres further north. The country's capital, Luxembourg City, is roughly 15 km (9.3 mi) to the north-east. Esch was selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2022, alongside Kaunas and Novi Sad.
The German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II began in May 1940 after the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was invaded by Nazi Germany. Although Luxembourg was officially neutral, it was situated at a strategic point at the end of the French Maginot Line. On 10 May 1940, the German Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Luxembourg was initially placed under a military administration, but later became a civilly administrated territory and finally was annexed directly into Germany. The Germans believed Luxembourg to be a Germanic state, and attempted to suppress what they perceived as alien French language and cultural influences. Although some Luxembourgers joined the resistance or collaborated with the Germans, both constituted a minority of the population. As German nationals, from 1942, many Luxembourgers were conscripted into the German military. Nearly 3,500 Luxembourgish Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. The liberation of the country by the Allies began in September 1944, but due to the Ardennes Offensive it was not completed until early 1945.
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The community survived under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades. Accusations of well poisoning during the Black Death (1346–53) led to mass slaughter of German Jews, while others fled in large numbers to Poland. The Jewish communities of the cities of Mainz, Speyer and Worms became the center of Jewish life during medieval times. "This was a golden age as area bishops protected the Jews, resulting in increased trade and prosperity."
Ettelbruck is a commune with town status in central Luxembourg, with a population of 9,965 inhabitants.
Luxembourg's 100 communes conform to LAU Level 2 and are the country's lowest administrative divisions.
The history of the Jews in Denmark goes back to the 1600s. At present, the Jewish community of Denmark constitutes a small minority of about 6,000 persons within Danish society. The community's population peaked prior to the Holocaust at which time the Danish resistance movement took part in a collective effort to evacuate about 8,000 Jews and their families from Denmark by sea to nearby neutral Sweden, an act which ensured the safety of almost all the Danish Jews.
The history of the Jews in Moldova reaches back to the 1st century BC, when Roman Jews lived in the cities of the province of Lower Moesia. Bessarabian Jews have been living in the area for some time. Between the 4th-7th centuries AD, Moldova was part of an important trading route between Asia and Europe, and bordered the Khazar Khaganate, where Judaism was the state religion. Prior to the Second World War, violent antisemitic movements across the Bessarabian region badly affected the region's Jewish population. In the 1930s and '40s, under the Romanian governments of Octavian Goga and Ion Antonescu, government-directed pogroms and mass deportations led to the concentration and extermination of Jewish citizens followed, leading to the extermination of between 45,000-60,000 Jews across Bessarabia. The total number of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews who perished in territories under Romanian administration is between 280,000 and 380,000.
The history of the Jews in Latvia dates back to the first Jewish colony established in Piltene in 1571. Jews contributed to Latvia's development until the Northern War (1700–1721), which decimated Latvia's population. The Jewish community reestablished itself in the 18th century, mainly through an influx from Prussia, and came to play a principal role in the economic life of Latvia.
The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced from the 17th century, when their presence is verified in the baptism records of the Stockholm Cathedral. Several Jewish families were baptised into the Lutheran Church, a requirement for permission to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, 28 members of the families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob were baptised in the Stockholm German Church in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.
The history of the Jews in Finland goes back to the late 18th century. Many of the first Jews to arrive were nineteenth-century Russian soldiers who stayed in Finland after their military service ended. The two synagogues in active use today in Finland were built by Jewish congregations in Helsinki and Turku in 1906 and 1912, respectively. The Vyborg Synagogue was destroyed by Russian air bombings on 30 November 1939, the first day of the Winter War. Today, Finland is home to around 1,800 Jews, of which 1,400 live in the Greater Helsinki area and 200 in Turku. Finnish and Swedish are the most common mother tongues of Jews in Finland, and many also speak Yiddish, German, Russian or Hebrew. Since data collection began in 2008, incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise in Finland. The number of incidents are likely under-reported, as Finland does not have a systematic method for recording specific forms of hate speech that incite violence or hatred.
This is a list of countries where antisemitic sentiment has been experienced.
The history of the Jews in Slovenia and areas connected with it goes back to the times of Ancient Rome. In 2011, the small Slovenian Jewish community was estimated at 500 to 1,000 members, of whom around 130 are officially registered, most of whom live in the capital, Ljubljana.
The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth century, following the Jewish expulsion from Spain. Sephardi Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina, in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies. In addition, many of the Portuguese traders in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata were Jewish. An organized Jewish community, however, did not develop until after Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816. By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina. Argentines of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic heritage have left their mark on all aspects of Argentine culture, including in areas such as cuisine.
Ramath Orah is an Modern Orthodox synagogue located on West 110th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, United States. Located close to Columbia University the synagogue occupies a neo-Georgian building that was built in 1921 as the first stage of a large West Side Unitarian Church.
Antisemitism—prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews—has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.
The history of rail transport in Luxembourg began in 1846 and continues to the present day.
The history of the Jews in Japan is well documented in modern times, with various traditions relating to much earlier eras.
Caspar Mathias Spoo was a Luxembourgish industrialist and politician.
Robert Serebrenik was an Austrian-born Chief Rabbi of Luxembourg who later lived and ministered in the US.
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