Kehl is a town in SW Germany in the Ortenaukrei on the river Rhine directly opposite the French city of Strasbourg. Alternate names: Kehl, Stadt Kehl, Kehl am Rhein, Kehl im Hanauerland, Kiel. 48°35' N 7°49' E. The Jewish community dated from 1881 to 1938.
Since 1862 Jew were allowed to settle in Kehl, but in the following decades, many Jews migrated from small towns in the city -- mainly Bodersweier, Freistett, Lichtenau, and Rheinbischofsheim. The first community leader was Lippmann Wertheimer. The Jewish community had a synagogue, a religious school, and since 1924, a private cemetery in Kehl. The teacher was also employed as a cantor and shochet. The village belonged to Bezirksrabbinat Buhl. They had a chevra kaddisha.. Alemannia Judaica has more information about residents, history, and population.. History and synagogue information with photos. [Feb 2013]
Rhein 77694 Baden-Württemberg (Gerz, Peters)
LOCATION OF CEMETERY: Friedhofstraße – Jewish section within the city’s general cemetery. (Detail)
IN USE: From 1924 until 1939, 1968, 1969, 1975 and still in use.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 17.
DOCUMENTATION:
- 1987 photographs of all gravestones and cemetery layout by Zentralarchiv.
- 1992 full cemetery documentation including the photographs by the State Office for Historic Monuments (Landesdenkmalamt ed. Monika Preuß).
- Photographic cemetery overview by Hundsnurscher/Taddey 1968, fig.#. 107.
- Numerous photographs of gravestones and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judaica.
- The Jewish community of Kehl used the cemetery in Freistett for burials prior to 1924. (Hundsnurscher/Taddey 1968, page 151). Thereafter the community had their own Jewish section located within the city’s general cemetery.
- The Jewish section of the cemetery was vandalised in January 2005 when two teenagers climbed over the cemetery wall and spray-painted 13 of the 17 gravestones with swastikas and other Nazi slogans. A 13 year old girl and a 14 years old boy were apprehended and charged before court, where they admitted the offences. Similar instances of vandalism have been reported in the recent past in this part of the French/German border region, affecting Jewish and Moslem gravestones.
To see information and photographs of individual gravestones in cemeteries in Baden-Wuerttemberg, click on this link and follow the directions on that page.