Jewish Cemetery
Kreuznach has a long tradition of Jewish life in the city. Most of the Jewish residents were merchants and small craftsmen, and some of them contributed to meeting local capital needs as moneylenders. Jewish entrepreneurs ensured the functioning of the regional cattle and horse trade. From the 19th century onwards, Jews achieved social advancement in the wake of civil equality. They were fully integrated into the community. Outstanding examples are the brothers Julius and Hermann Baruch, who became European champions in wrestling in the 1920s. All this came to an end with the crimes committed during the Nazi era. Of the 713 Jews who lived in the city in 1933, only two returned in 1945. A Baroque synagogue dating from 1737 was destroyed and became the property of a neighboring mill. It was not until 1999 that the community, which had been strengthened by an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, received a new synagogue in a former US Army church.
