Culemborg
During the seventeenth century, Culemborg was a
Vrijplaats, a locale in which new arrivals of whatever
faith were permitted to settle. The first report of the presence of
Jews in Culemborg dates to 1665. The names of more than thirty Jews
appear in surviving eighteenth century registration books of the
guilds of Culemborg. In 1744, a meat merchant became the first Jew
to become a fully vested citizen of Culemborg. Soon after, a number
Jewish merchants who had come to Culemborg from various places in
Europe were awarded citizenship. Over the course of time, poor Jews
also settled in Culemborg, despite the efforts of the city's
leaders and of local Jews to exclude them.
By the 1760's the Jews of Culemborg had organized themselves into a
community. It is unkown where Culemborg's first Jews prayed prior
but a synagogue definitely existed in the town sometime prior to
the 1780's. In 1791, a building on the Jodenkerkstraat in the new
part of Culemborg was converted into a synagogue. During the first
half of the nineteenth century the Jewish population of Culemborg
rose rapidly. This led the community to construct a new synagogue
next to the one on the Jodenkerkstraat. The synagogue, built in
neo-gothic style, was consecrated in 1868. The old synagogue was
renovated in 1883.
The first Jewish residents of Culemborg probably
buried their dead at the Jewish cemetery in the nearby town of
Buren. In 1764, the Culemborg community established its own
cemetery on Culemborg's Westerborgwal. Beginning in 1869, Culemborg
Jews were buried in a separate section of the town's public
cemetery, located on the Achterweg, as well as in a private Jewish
cemetery on the Parkweg in the nearby village of Beesd, which also
boasted its own synagogue. In the early years of the twentieth
century, the cemetery and synagogue at Beesd were also used by the
three Jewish families who resided in the nearby village of
Rumpt.
During the eighteenth century, most of the Jews of Culemborg worked
as shopkeepers, tailor, market vendors, merchants, or goldsmiths.
Later, Culemborg became a center of textile and cigar
manufacturing, with many Jews active in both fields. Near the end
of the nineteenth century, the Jewish Wijzenbeek family opened a
meat processing and sausage factory on the Marktveld in
Culemborg.
The Jews of Culemborg were active in the social and political life
of the town. They also maintained communal institutions of their
own. These included a burial society as well as societies for the
study of Talmud, the care of the poor, and the furnishing and
caretaking of the synagogue. The Culemborg community also boasted a
theater and debating club, a social and recrecreational club, and,
beginning in the nineteenth century, a chapter of the Alliance
Israélite Universelle.
During the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries the Jews
of Culemborg community also employed a religious teacher of its
own, who invariably also served as the community's ritual
slaughterer and synagogue cantor. In 1858, Culemborg community's
Jewish school was certified by the government as a school for the
poor and thus instituted instruction in secular subjects.
Originally, the Jewish school was located on the second story of
the building housing the community's ritual bath, but its quarters
were expanded following the restoration of the synagogue in
1883.
Social and economic change during the 1880's led to
the gradual decline of the Culemborg community. This process
accelerated during the twentieth century. Eventually, most
community activities were curtailed, although a number of societies
and clubs did remain active until the eve of the Second World
War.
During the German occupation the majority of the Jews of Culemborg
were deported and murdered in Nazi death camps. Roughly a dozen
local Jews managed to hide in safety until the liberation.
Throughout the war, the Germans used the synagogue as a stable. The
contents of synagogue disappeared and were never recovered.
In 1947, the Jewish community of Culemborg was dissolved and
administratively incorporated into that of Utrecht. The synagogue
building was fully restored in 1982 and now houses a Dutch Reformed
church. The cemetery on the Westerborgwal was cleared away in 1959.
The cemetery on the Achterweg contains a memorial stone dedicated
to the murdered Jews of Culemborg and has been maintained by the
Culemborg municipality since 1954.
Jewish population of Culemborg:
| 1770 | 48 |
| 1809 | 98 |
| 1840 | 148 |
| 1869 | 230 |
| 1899 | 167 |
| 1930 | 66 |
Collectie en mediatheek
Behouwen reys der nieuwe / VLUGTELINGEN.....
1763
Rijm geïllustreerd met twee prenten. Op de rechter prent vluchten acht joden met
een schip uit Culemborg waar zij hun kwade praktijken hebben uitgeoefend, ze gaan ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > 07335
Tekening
1907
Studieblad met een schets van het interieur van een kerk (in Culemborg?).
Collectie > Museumstukken > 11413-01
Fotoalbum
Twee losbladige fotoalbums met 148 kleurenfoto's van joodse
begraafplaatsen in Nederland, jaren '80.
Collectie > Fotos > 40006664
meer treffers in Collectie > Fotos
Dossier
Dossiers (158) van de Commissie voor Oorlogsschade mbt 155 joodse
gemeentes (Amsterdam en mediene), 1945-1950.
Collectie > Documenten > 00005954
meer treffers in Collectie > Documenten
[Binnenland] : Amsterdam
Vermelding van benoemingen met betrekking tot de Ned. Isr. schoolbesturen.
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20031385
meer treffers in Collectie > Joodse pers
Joodse oorlogsmonumenten in de provincie Gelderland : alsmede algemene...
2005
Joodse oorlogsmonumenten in de provincie Gelderland : alsmede algemene
oorlogsmonumenten waarop joodse namen voorkomen.
Collectie > Literatuur > 12013463
