Ethnic group
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.
Judaism
is the fifth-largest
religious denomination
in Luxembourg, behind
Roman Catholicism
,
Protestantism
,
Orthodox Christianity
, and
Islam
. By absolute size, Luxembourg's
community
is one of the smallest in the
European Union
; relative to total
population
, it is the sixth largest.
[2]
Judaism is recognised and supported by the government as one of the major state-mandated religions (see:
Religion in Luxembourg
).
History
[
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]
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
Russian
pogroms
, 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]
Luxembourg and the Holocaust
[
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]
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
Funfbrunnen
, 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
[
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]
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
[
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]
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.
External links and further reading
[
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]
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other entities
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