הסיפור של Medieval Synagogue of Hallein
Hallein lies on the Salzach some 15 kilometres south of Salzburg, and in the Middle Ages its salt works made it one of the richest towns of the archbishopric. Jews are recorded there from the thirteenth century: in 1284 the Jews of Hallein and Mühldorf together paid the archbishop of Salzburg a tax of 20 marks of silver. The Jewish Encyclopedia says that in the fourteenth century the Jews of Hallein, like those of Salzburg and Pettau, lived in streets assigned to them and had their own school and synagogue. According to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People, the synagogue stood close to the town hall, while the community's ritual bath, remembered as the Judenbad, lay across the Salzach opposite the town.
The community was wiped out more than once. The German Wikipedia article on Hallein says it was larger and more important than Salzburg's until its first destruction in 1349 and was refounded later in the fourteenth century under Archbishop Pilgrim II. In 1404 the Jews of Salzburg and Hallein were accused of desecrating the host, and ANU states that Hallein's synagogue was destroyed in that persecution. A small community formed again in the fifteenth century; the Encyclopaedia Judaica records a mikveh built in 1448 'where a synagogue also was in existence' and dates the destruction of the synagogues of Hallein and Salzburg to 1498, when Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach banished the Jews from the archbishopric. No remains of the building are known.
Where it stood
Historic: close to the town hall of Hallein, archbishopric of Salzburg; street and plot unknown. Today: pin on the Hallein town hall, Schöndorferplatz 14, 5400 Hallein, Salzburg (approximate).
פתיחת מפה גדולה ←הקהילה היהודית
Jewish settlement in Hallein goes back at least to the thirteenth century. The Encyclopaedia Judaica lists Hallein with Mühldorf and Pettau (Ptuj) among the settlements of the archbishopric noted in that century, and ANU cites the tax of 20 marks of silver paid by the Jews of Hallein and Mühldorf to the archbishop in 1284. The salt trade drew money to the town, and the German Wikipedia article on Hallein states that its Jewish community was larger and more important than that of the city of Salzburg until its first destruction in 1349, the year of the Black Death persecutions. In the second half of the fourteenth century Archbishop Pilgrim II encouraged Jewish traders to settle again, and a new community was founded; its members, women and children among them, were victims of the 1404 persecution. A community formed once more in the fifteenth century, but it remained very small. ANU records only three households at the end of the century, two men and a widow, all pawnbrokers. No individual Jew of medieval Hallein is named in the sources consulted.
אדריכלות ועיצוב
Nothing is known of the building's form. No plan, drawing, description, inscription or excavated fragment has been found, and the sources consulted give neither the date of construction nor the name of a builder or patron. The only fact recorded about the structure is its position: ANU says the synagogue stood close to the town hall, that is, in the heart of the medieval salt town rather than on its edge. The Jewish Encyclopedia calls the Hallein institution a school and synagogue, the usual medieval pairing in which the Judenschule served both for prayer and for study. Whether it was a free-standing building, a hall built onto a house or a room within a Jewish-owned house cannot be determined from what has been read. Its size, materials, the arrangement of the bimah and ark, and whether there was a women's section are all unknown. It is also unknown whether the synagogue attested in 1448 was the same building as the one destroyed in 1404 or a later replacement.
החיים בבית הכנסת
Very little is recorded about religious life in the Hallein synagogue. The Jewish Encyclopedia says the Jews of Hallein in the fourteenth century had their own school and synagogue, which suggests that prayer and study took place in the same institution, as was usual in medieval German-speaking lands. The community also kept a ritual bath. ANU says it was known as the Judenbad and stood beside the Salzach across from the town, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica and the Jewish community of Salzburg both record a mikveh at Hallein in 1448, at which time the Encyclopaedia Judaica says a synagogue also existed. The community's livelihood is known in outline: its members were traders and moneylenders, and in the late fifteenth century the three remaining households were pawnbrokers. No rabbi, cantor, teacher or communal official of Hallein is named in any source read, and no prayer book, manuscript or tombstone connected with the synagogue has been identified.
הרס
In 1404 the Jews of the city of Salzburg were accused of desecrating the consecrated host. According to the German Wikipedia article on Hallein, the charge followed a break-in and theft at the church of Mülln outside Salzburg which was falsely blamed on Jews. ANU's page on medieval Salzburg says that all the Jews there were arrested and confessions were extracted by force. The persecution reached Hallein, and ANU states that the Jews of Hallein were persecuted and their synagogue destroyed. The prosecution, the executions and the expulsion were carried out by the Christian authorities of the prince-archbishopric of Salzburg, which was then governed by the elected archbishop Eberhard III of Neuhaus (elect from 1403); his German Wikipedia biography records the expulsion of the Jews of Salzburg and Hallein in 1404 under the pretext of host desecration, but none of the sources read names the officials, judges or townspeople who wrecked the synagogue, or says whether it was burned or pulled down. The Encyclopaedia Judaica and the Salzburg Jewish community instead date the destruction of the Hallein synagogue to 1498.
גורל הקהילה
The 1404 persecution destroyed the Hallein community. The German Wikipedia article on Hallein states that its members, women and children included, were burned at the stake in 1404, as were the Jews of Salzburg, and the Jewish Encyclopedia gives the date of the burning of Jews of Salzburg and Hallein as 10 July 1404. ANU's account of Salzburg adds that the two principal accused killed themselves, while 25 children under eleven, two pregnant women and one man willing to convert were spared; the German Wikipedia biography of Eberhard III says a few especially wealthy Jews were also spared. The survivors were driven out and their property was seized. Jews returned to Hallein in the fifteenth century, but only a few: three households of pawnbrokers by the end of the century. In 1498 Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach expelled all Jews from the archbishopric of Salzburg in perpetuity, after an accusation that they had stolen a sacred church object, and Jewish life in Hallein ended. The ban kept Jews out of the region until the nineteenth century, and no Jewish community was ever refounded in Hallein.
האתר כיום
The exact site of the synagogue is not known. The only clue is ANU's statement that it stood close to the town hall. Today's Hallein town hall stands at Schöndorferplatz 14 in the old town, and the map pin marks that building; whether the present town hall occupies the same site as the medieval one has not been checked. No source consulted records any remains of the synagogue, an excavation, or a marker on the site. The location of the medieval ritual bath, described only as lying by the Salzach opposite the town, has likewise not been identified.
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