The Early History of the Jewish Community of St. Goar

Jews are known to have lived in the German town of Sankt Goar (ot St. Goar) as early as the Middle Ages.

In 1383 there was at least one single Jew living there. He is known to have had probably moved to St. Goar from Düren. He was known to have been a moneylender by profession.

In the fifteenth century, too, the town was documented to have had Jewish inhabitants.

In 1410, count Johann IV von Katzenelnbogen collected special annual taxes from the local Jews.

In 1419, the same count Johan IV forced a local Jewish moneylender and his wife, by the means of imprisonment and false convictions, to renounce all their claims to the local Christians' debts.

One of the most famous Sankt-Goar-ian Jews was Salman von Sankt Goar, who was a disciple of the highly esteemed rabbi Maharil (born 1375 in Mainz, died 1427 in Worms).

In the sixteenth century, a single Jewish resident is mentioned in Sankt Goar in the year 1544.

Location of St. Goar on the map of Germany.