Lemmer
At least one Jewish family resided in Lemmer by 1740. Beginning in 1770, Jews arriving or departing from or to Amsterdam by ferry at Lemmer could purchase Kosher meals at the De Wyldeman Inn, which was managed by a non-Jewish proprietor.
The Jews of Lemmer purchased a plot of land at the foot of the Zeedijk for use as a cemetery in 1801. The oldest remaining gravestone in the cemetery is dated 1817. Problems caused by floods led the community to replace the cemetery with a new one at the village of Tacozijl in 1876.
Former synagogue at the Schans 29 in Lemmer, 1984
-WL
A synagogue, located on the Schans te Lemmer was opened in 1820. It was renovated with the support of the local municipality in 1866 and remained open until 1920 when it was sold and rebuilt as a private residence.
The Jews of Lemmer did not maintain any voluntary organizations until 1906 when it established a joint burial society and Torah study fellowship. The Lemmer community was placed under the aegis of the community at Sneek in 1924.
The few Jews who remained in Lemmer at the outset of the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War were deported in 1941 and murdered in Nazi death camps.
In November 2006 a monument was erected commemorating Jozeph and Sarah Blok, the only Jewish citizens of Lemmer at the beginning of the war. They died in Auschwitz in November 1942. Their names are also recorded on a monument in the Jewish cemetery at Tacozijl.
The cemetery at Tacozijl was restored in 1989 and is now maintained by the Frisian nature protection society It Fryske Gea.
The Jewish population of Lemmer and surroundings:
The size of the Jewish community over time
1809
32
1840
71
1869
109
1899
53
1930
12