A small number of Jews lived in Wageningen during the 1560s.
They were allotted ground for a cemetery and one of their numbers
was permitted to lend money against property taken as security. The
Jews were expelled from Wageningen sometime during 1570 or
1571.
In 1668, a Jew was granted permission to lease the local municipal
lending bank. In the same year, a Jewish cemetery was established
on the Stadsbleek, the present-day Kerkhofpad, near the Veerstraat.
The cemetery was also used by Jews from elsewhere in the
surroundings to bury their dead. The lease for the cemetery grounds
was permanently assigned to the Wageningen Jewish community in
1760; the cemetery was expanded a year later. At the time, the Jews
of Wageningen worked in the tobacco and meat trades as well as
operating the local lending bank.
The Jewish community at Wageningen was officially granted
independent status in 1830; prior to then, local Jews had
officially belonged to the community at Arnhem. In the early years of the
community, Wageningen Jews prayed in a private home. A synagogue
was furnished in a building on the Riemsdijkstraat in 1839. In
1903, this synagogue was replaced with a new one in a building on
the Walstraat. In 1913, the Wageningen community opened a new
cemetery located on the Oude Diedenweg. The old cemetery on the
Kerkhofpad was closed in 1929.
The Jewish community at Wageningen was governed by a board.
Voluntary organizations included a burial society and a women's
society that cared for the interior of the synagogue.
Wageningen was home to the Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen,
Netherlands' leading institution for the study of agriculture, the
present-day Wageningen University. During the 1920s and 30s, a
relatively large number of Jews studied at the school, many in
preparation for emigration to Palestine.
In 1940, the first year of the World War II German occupation of
the Netherlands, the Jewish population of Wageningen increased due
to the arrival of foreign Jews expelled from the coastal districts
of the country. 1940 also saw the expulsion of Jewish instructors
from the agricultural school at Wageningen as part of countrywide
anti-Jewish measures. A number of students at the agricultural
school staged a strike in protest. The majority of the Jews of
Wageningen were deported and murdered during the war. A few dozen,
however, managed to survive the war in hiding. The synagogue was
struck by a bomb in May of 1940, during the first days of the war.
The building and its contents went up in flames.
A small number of Jews returned to Wageningen after the war and
managed to maintain a community until 1987 when the Jewish
community at Wageningen was officially dissolved and the locale
placed under the aegis of the Jewish community at Arnhem.
The Jewish cemetery on the Kerkhofpad was declared a national
monument in 1967 and was restored 20 years later. A monument in
memory of the murdered Jews of Wageningen was unveiled on the
Walstraat in May of 2000. The names of the 72 Jews from Wageningen
and nearby Rhenen, Renkum, and Ede murdered during the Second World
War are also memorialized in the regional museum De Casteelse
Poort.
Jewish population of Wageningen and surroundings:
| 1809 | 78 |
| 1840 | 117 |
| 1869 | 171 |
| 1899 | 145 |
| 1930 | 67 |
| 1951 | 20 |
| 1971 | 26 |
Schild
1863
object, schild. maker, onbekend (JR). materiaal, zilver. datering, 1863. plaats,
Nederland. hoogte, 3.5. breedte, 4.8. collectie, Joods Historisch Museum. ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > 01507
meer treffers in Collectie > Museumstukken
Fotoalbum
Twee losbladige fotoalbums met 148 kleurenfoto's van joodse
begraafplaatsen in Nederland, jaren '80.
Collectie > Fotos > 40006664
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
Buitengewone Zitting der Centrale Commissie op Donderdag 7 Maart 1881.
1881
Verslag van een buitengewone vergadering van de Centrale Commissie over de vraag
van de gemeente te Arnhem de zetel van de ressortale opperrabbijn in Arnhem in ...
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20026393
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