Community in Luxembourg - World Jewish Congress

Luxembourg

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The Years of the Holocaust

Demography

Community Life

Religious and Cultural Life

Jewish Education

youth

Relations with Israel

About 700 Jews - roughly 300-350 families, including diplomats and expatriates - live in Luxembourg today, constituting one of that country’s largest ethnic minorities. Most live in Luxembourg City, with a smaller community in the town of Esch-sur-Alzette.

The first evidences of Jews in Luxembourg date back to the Middle Ages. The great synagogue in Luxembourg City was built in 1894. That building, surmounted by its three cupolas, was closed and then destroyed by the German occupant in 1941. It was not until 1953 and 1954 respectively that two new synagogues were opened in Luxembourg and in Esch-sur-Alzette.

WJC Affiliate

Consistoire Israélite de Luxembourg

Telephone: 352 45 29 14 20
Telefax: 352 473 772
Email: secretariat@synagogue.lu
Website: www.synagogue.lu

CEO : Sabrina Berrebi

President: Albert Aflalo

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Luxembourg presents plan against 'scourge' of antisemitism

27 Sep 2023

History

Small numbers of Jews have lived in what is today Luxembourg since the 14th century. However, frequent persecutions, including massacres during the 1309 crusade and at the time of the Black Death in 1349-1350, and expulsions in 1391 and 1530, prevented Jews from establishing substantive communities there in pre-Napoleonic times.

Fewer than 100 Jews lived in Luxembourg at the time of the Grand Duchy’s independence in 1815. The first synagogue in Luxembourg City was built in 1823. By 1880, 369 Jews lived in Luxembourg City, and some 60 other Jewish families had settled elsewhere in the Grand Duchy. The country's first Chief Rabbi was Rabbi Samuel Hirsch, who served from 1843 until1866, and was one of the founders of what is known as Classic German Reform Judaism.

A second synagogue in Luxembourg City was dedicated in 1899, as was another in Esch-sur-Alzette. In the 1930s, the Jewish population grew from 1,500 to 4,000, due to the arrival of refugees from Germany. 1,945 members of Luxembourg’s Jewish community were murdered in the Holocaust, while approximately 1,560 survived in France and elsewhere.

After the end of World War II, approximately 1,500 Jews returned to Luxembourg. Jewish communities were re-established, and synagogues were built in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette. Over the next few decades. Luxembourg's Jewish population gradually declined, as families left for Israel and other countries. In recent years, however, a wave of immigration by younger Jews, attracted by good working and financial conditions, has reversed this trend.

Despite the small size of the Luxembourg Jewish community, Jews have played an important role in the Grand Duchy’s political, economic and cultural activities. Prominent Luxembourg Jews have included Alain Mayer, a former vice president of the community, who was President of Luxembourg’s Council of State; Edmond Israel, who served as president of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange; Laurent Moyse, editor-in-chief of the main newspaper, La Voix du Luxembourg; and Corinne Cahen, the Grand Duchy’s Minister of Family and Integration.

The Years of the Holocaust

In May 1940, when Luxembourg was invaded by Germany, 1,650 Jews were among the 50,000 Luxembourgers who fled to France and Belgium. In October 1940, the Nazis destroyed the synagogue of Esch-sur-Alzette. The main synagogue in Luxembourg City was closed by the Gestapo in May of 1941, vandalized, and eventually razed in the fall of 1943. In November 1940, 293 Luxembourg Jews on a train bound for Portugal were denied entry by the Salazar government and sent to the French internment camp Mousserroles, near the city of Bayonne. Many of them were ultimately murdered in the Nazi death camps. The property of Luxembourg’s Jews was confiscated in 1941, and all Jewish organizations were dissolved in November of that year. Most the remaining Jews of the Grand Duchy were interned at the internment camp of Fünfbrunnen, near Troisvierges. From here, 696 Jewish prisoners were deported to ghettos, labor camps, and extermination camps, of whom, only 36 survived. More than 500 Luxembourg Jews who had fled to France or Belgium were also deported to camps, of whom 16 survived.

Demography

Approximately 80% of Luxembourg’s 1,200 Jews live in Luxembourg City, with a smaller community in Esch-sur-Alzette.

Community Life

The Consistoire Israélite de Luxembourg is constitutionally recognized as the community's representative to the government and is the means through which the chief rabbi and communal functionary are appointed. Both positions are financed by the government. Luxembourg has one kosher grocery store, which serves local families who observe kashrut, but Kosher food is not locally produced, then families who observe kashrut obtain meat and more other foodstuffs from Metz and Strasbourg.

Religious and Cultural Life

The community's main synagogue is situated close to the center of Luxembourg City. Orthodox traditions are followed. By local tradition, both girls and boys, at 13 years old become Bar or Bat Mitzvah. In 2008, the community of Esch-sur-Alzette appointed a liberal rabbi from England. In 2016 the Consistoire decided to join the network of the National Library of Luxembourg, with the Luxembourg School of Religion & Society, to add the Library of the Consistoire as part of the global religious catalogue of the National Library called bibnet.lu.

Jewish Education

Luxembourg City has a Jewish kindergarten.

youth

There is an active youth movement, Union des Jeunes Gens Israélites du Luxembourg. (UJGIL) Luxembourg is affiliated with the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS).

Relations with Israel

Full diplomatic relations were established between Israel and Luxembourg in 1949. Israel's ambassador to the Grand Duchy resides in Brussels. In September 2016, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel was the first prime minister of Luxembourg make an official visit to Israel.

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Luxembourg presents plan against 'scourge' of antisemitism

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