Gendringen
The earliest surviving evidence of a Jewish presence in Gendringen are Jewish listed names in a clerical document from the first half of the seventeenth century. By the close of the same century, a Jewish financier had leased the local lending bank. During the seventeenth century, a number of Jewish families settled in Gendringen but the community remained small and mostly poor.
Kosher butcher Spier with cow in Gendringen, c.1927
By 1800, the Jews of Gendringen held religious services in the home of the local cantor. In 1811, a synagogue was opened on the Kromme Elleboogstraat. By 1840, a cemetery had been founded outside the town on the present-day Ulftseweg. At first, the Jewish community of Gendringen was formally part of that of 's-Heerenberg but, in 1840, the Gendringen community was designated an independent congregation (Bijkerk). Within the community, two members of the synagogue council also served as a council for delivering aid to the poor. The community did not offer Jewish education. The Jewish community of Gendringen ceased to exist long before the Second World War and was officially dissolved in 1941.
The Jewish population of Gendringen and surroundings:
The size of the Jewish community over time
1809
49
1840
64
1869
56
1899
38
1930
13
