Grijpskerk

The Jewish community at Grijpskerk was not officially recognized until the relatively late date of 1879. A synagogue, located on the Molenstraat, was inaugurated the very same year. Prior to then, the community had prayed in the front room of a house on the Molenstraat. A the time, this improvised synagogue was referred in the dialect of the region as 'de jeudnkoamer' (the Jews' room). A street in Grijpskerk named Lageweg was referred to by locals as 'Jeudnbreestraat' (Jews' High Street). In 1881, Jewish community at Grijpskerk was granted the use of a separate section of the local public non-sectarian cemetery, located on the Oosterkade near the Poel.

During the late nineteenth century, Grijpskerk was home to four Jewish butchers. Other Jews in the village engaged in trade and small-scale manufacturing.

Almost all the Jews at Grijpskerk were deported and murdered under the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. The interior of the synagogue was destroyed during the war and the building never served its original function again. The Jewish community at Grijpskerk was officially dissolved in 1948 and administratively merged into the district of the community at Groningen. The Jewish section of the non-sectarian cemetery now contains a monument in memory of local Jews murdered by the Germans during the war. The Jewish section of the cemetery currently is maintained by the local municipal authorities.