Vianen
At the outset of the eighteenth century only a few Jews live in Vianen but the Jewish population of the town grew over the decades that followed. By 1730 a permanent Jewish community had begun to take root. The charter of the Vianen community dates to 1750.
Synagogue in Vianen in the Bakkerstraat, 1978
-RDMZ
Construction of a synagogue in the present-day Bakkerstraat was begun in 1756. A part of the materials used to construct the synagogue and a portion of its interior came from the former synagogue at Nijmegen which was being replaced with a newly constructed synagogue at the time. The Vianen synagogue was renovated in 1828 and again in 1848.
Until 1827 the Jews of Vianen buried their dead in a Jewish cemetery in the Walsland. During the same year, the community applied to the city fathers of Vianen for permission to establish a second Jewish cemetery. In 1828 the town granted the community a plot of land on the Sparrendreef free of charge.
By the early twentieth century, the Jewish population of Vianen had declined to the point that the synagogue had fallen into disrepair and the community considered voluntarily disbanding. In 1920 the Vianen community was fused into the Jewish community at Utrecht and Jewish communities in surrounding villages into the Jewish community at Leerdam. The former synagogue at Vianen has been used as a church by the Nederlandse Protestanten Bond (Dutch Protestant Union) from 1924 until the present day. The Jewish cemetery on the Walsland was cleared away in 1977 and the remains of its dead were exhumed and interred at the Jewish cemetery on the Sparrendreef. The Sparrendreef cemetery currently is maintained by local authorities.
The Jewish population of Vianen and surroundings:
The size of the Jewish community over time
1809
51
1840
49
1869
61
1899
68
1930
8
