Uden
A small Jewish community arose in Uden early in the nineteenth century. The community initially fell under the aegis of the Jewish community at Veghel but by 1859 the number of Jews in Uden had risen to such an extent that the community was granted independent status. A synagogue was opened in Uden in 1872. The Jews of Uden had no cemetery of their own but buried their dead in the Jewish cemetery in Schijndel.
Portrait of "Lewieken", Louis van Zwanenberg, cattle trader in Uden, 1904
The Jewish population of Uden began to fall late in the nineteenth century. During the first decades of the twentieth century the population declined by 75%. This was a function of the pull of larger, industrialized cities and a symptom of the end of the role of Jews as rural retailers and peddlers.
By the eve of the Second World War, the Uden community had practically ceased to exist. The synagogue was sold in 1935. Under the wartime German occupation of the Netherlands all but one of the few Jews remaining in Uden were deported and murdered. The Uden community was officially dissolved in 1950 and the locale was assigned to the jurisdiction of the Jewish community at Oss.
The Jewish population of Uden and surroundings:
The size of the Jewish community over time
1809
8
1840
11
1869
58
1899
44
1930
11
