Category Archives: News

New Walking Tour to the Jewish History to Medieval Lincoln to be established

by Natasha Jenman (Oxford)

A new walking tour, written by Natasha Jenman and Dean A. Irwin, has been created to explore the Jewish history of Medieval Lincoln. Between c.1150-1290, the town was home to a sizeable community, eminent scholars and several prosperous individuals, and the lives they led are still visible in the surviving medieval street plan of Lincoln. The route of the tour leads through hotspots of activity: the markets, the community chest, the places where children played, designed to illustrate the rich tapestry of Jewish life woven into the streets of Lincoln.

Jews Court, the site where the Synagogue of Lincoln’s medieval Jewish Community originally was located (Copyright: M. Stürzebecher)

Extensive archival work has traced property ownership to known individuals, spotlighting the Jewish women and men who once owned these sites, and revealing glimpses of the actual people who made up the community. The periods of life, interrupted, are also navigated, and are unavoidable in any Jewish history of Lincoln. The tour situates the anti-Jewish aggression in the context of national events, and how these events played out in the real, local sense at Lincoln. In the thirteenth century, a ritual murder accusation would have devastating consequences for the Jewish community: the case of ‘Little Hugh’. Importantly, this tour seeks to reorient this heritage away from how this narrative was imagined and used by antisemitic commentators, instead, shaping this discussion around the real individuals caught up in this tragedy, amidst the sites it took place. This aspect of Lincoln’s history could easily dominate the tour, but instead one should get a sense of the good, the bad and the ugly of life in this medieval town. Walking the physical remnants of Lincoln’s history is a reminder that for two centuries, the people of Lincoln (Jews and Christians) lived alongside each other.

At the inaugural walking tour to finalise the route of the walking tour on 11 July 2025 (Copyright: M. Stürzebecher)

This tour is dedicated to the late Dr. Robin Mundill, whose impact on the field of medieval Anglo-Jewish history is immeasurable, and in whose memory these efforts are made to engage with and spread public awareness.

Thanks to funding by the Jewish Historical Society of England, it will be available year-round as a printed leaflet.

New discovery: Foundations of the first synagogue in Rothenburg ob der Tauber excavated

(German below)

by Stefanie Fuchs

Today, most people know Rothenburg ob der Tauber for its romantic old town or as the home of the famous scholar Meir ben Baruch von Rothenburg, the Maharam.

Less well known is the eventful history of the Jewish community: Rothenburg Jews first appear in written sources with Samuel Bischof from Rothenburg in 1180. However, it can be assumed that a stable community formed in Rothenburg within the next few decades at the latest. This is indicated by the imperial tax register of 1241, in which the Jewish community is assessed with taxes amounting to 10 marks of silver. The sum seems very small in relation to the 200 marks of silver paid by the Strasbourg community, but surmounts the taxes paid by the communities of Überlingen, Lindau or Ulm. At the end of the 13th century, the community was demonstrably significant. 469 of its members named in the Nürnberg memor-book fell victim to the Rintfleisch persecutions.

Continue reading New discovery: Foundations of the first synagogue in Rothenburg ob der Tauber excavated

[fällt leider aus!] Online-Talk: Die Domus Judaeorum in Schwäbisch Gmünd – Ein Blick auf 800 Jahre Nutzungs- und Umnutzungsgeschichte by Simon Paulus (in German)

July 1, 2025 18:00 CET, Universität Tübingen, Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und Historische Hilfswissenschaften, Hegelbau (Wilhelmstr. 36) Raum 405 and via zoom

In its almost 800-year history, the building at Imhofstraße 9 in Schwäbisch Gmünd has been home to a wide variety of residents and experienced many different uses. Until renovation work began in 2014, it was considered an old but rather inconspicuous building in the town, and it was only when significant structural remains from the 13th and 14th centuries were uncovered that its former significance for the town’s history came back into focus. Since then, structural research on the building and archival research have continued to bring new findings to light, while at the same time efforts are being made to ensure that the building is used in a sustainable manner in keeping with its listed status. The lecture will present these current findings and developments and link them to the question of what potential the building could have not only as a testimony to medieval Jewish culture and history, but also as a living stone historical testimony in general for the communication and discussion of social developments, questions of perception and phenomena of the present.

‘New’ finds from the Erfurt Treasure have appeared

On June 18, four medieval garment clasps were presented to the public in the Museum Old Synagogue in Erfurt, which only came to light at the beginning of 2025 and are part of the Erfurt Treasure discovered in 1998. This treasure is the most important archaeological find of the last 100 years in the Erfurt city area. It weighs almost 30 kg and contains 3142 silver coins and 14 silver ingots as well as more than 700 individual pieces of Gothic goldsmith art. It was hidden in a cellar in Erfurt’s Michaelisstraße during the pogrom of 21 March 1349.

The pieces that came to light now, more than 25 years after the discovery of the Erfurt Treasure, and which are undoubtedly part of this find, are four Gothic clasps. Three clasps are the counterparts of already known objects from the Erfurt Treasure and complete these three pairs of clasps. They are formed in the shape of an eagle, a leopard and a six-pointed star. Another round clasp probably depicts a lion.

All pictures: © H. Arnold, Thüringisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie,
Weimar

According to current law, the new finds belong to the Free State of Thuringia as important cultural goods and were confiscated at the beginning of the year. Once the ongoing legal proceedings have been concluded, the artefacts will be restored, scientifically examined and then reunited with their counterparts in the exhibition at the Museum Old Synagogue Erfurt.