The Königsberg Jewish community was formed in 1671. The Great Elector Frederick Wilhelm I (1620-1688), known for his tolerance of other religious denominations, allowed Jews who had fled from Vienna from the wrath of the Austrian emperor Leopold I to Brandenburg-Prussia . Preference was given to wealthy immigrants able to take part in the revival of the country after the devastating Thirty Years War . Jews in the state of Frederick William I were protected by a special decree of January 3, 1676, according to which it was necessary "not to disturb the Jews, not to restrict them in their rights and privileges and to protect them properly from violation of these rights." However, already in 1685, the great elector ordered all visiting Jews to pay a deposit of 1,000 thalers .
Jews who arrived in Koenigsberg were supposed to settle in Tragheim, northeast of the royal castle . This part of the city was under the direct patronage of the great elector. At Kervidergass (later Theaterstrasse, now the area of the Kaliningrad Hotel) in 1680 they were allowed to build a synagogue.
In 1706, 10 families lived in Koenigsberg, and in 1713 there were already 36 families in the city itself and 98 in the rest of the cities of Prussia. In addition to Koenigsberg, relatively many Jews were in Memel and Tilsit . In total, according to the number of people of the Jewish faith, Königsberg in the kingdom of Frederick I was second after Berlin , where already in 1730 there were about 180 Jewish families.
The first rabbi of the community was Solomon Furst (1707-1722). He is known as the author of Kabbalistic writings and prayer books in Hebrew and German . Furst attended university and served in the royal library. By the middle of the 18th century, there was only one synagogue in Königsberg, while the Jewish population was constantly growing. By 1756, 307 Jews lived here. One synagogue could not accommodate all believers, and the Jews worshiped in private chapels. On September 23, 1756, at the behest of King Frederick II (1740-1786), a new synagogue on Schnyulingbaum was consecrated, but during the great fire on June 14, 1811, this synagogue burned down and the service was again held in rented premises. Finally, on April 19, 1815, a new synagogue was built on the Synagogue Strasse.
Gradually, large Jewish trading companies appeared in Prussia. One of the first was the wholesale trading company Joachim Moses Friedlander and Sons, founded in 1764. By the beginning of the 19th century, the percentage of wealthy Jews in Königsberg was higher than the number of wealthy citizens of the city. However, the vast majority of Jews were of average wealth.
Among the students of Königsberg University there were many Jews. Most of them studied medicine, since the Jews were inaccessible to professions related to public service or workshop affiliation. At the end of the 18th century, in the midst of educated Jewry in Prussia, ideas of the cultural revival of the Jews, the Haskals, arose. The creator and spiritual father of the new trend was the Berlin writer and philosopher Moses Mendelssohn . His ideas were widely disseminated in Königsberg, where, according to the historian Heinrich Gretz, “the closest excitement of Gaskala” came out. It was here that in 1783 the magazine Ha-Meassef began to be published, which had a huge impact on the cultural development of the Jewish people.
After the defeat of the Prussian forces at the Battle of Jena (1806) from Napoleon’s army in Prussia, a period of reforms began, which also affected the Jews. In particular, a royal decree was adopted to equalize the rights of the Jewish merchants of Konigsberg with the Christian, and to include them in the merchant guild. Significantly advanced the cause of the liberation of the Jews, the new Chancellor Carl August Gardenberg . He actively defended the principle of complete religious tolerance and a humane attitude to all subjects. It is his merit that the publication of the edict “Concerning Jews in the Prussian State”, often referred to simply as the “Judenedict”, is considered to be considered. This document appeared on March 11, 1812.
The war of liberation against Napoleon led to the fact that the cosmopolitan views of the first assimilated Jews gave way to patriotic aspirations. One fifth of all Jews capable of carrying weapons of Prussia took part in resistance to the French. Rich Jews donated huge sums to the cause of the war of liberation. On this patriotic wave at the beginning of the 19th century, more than 150 Koenigsberg Jews converted to Christianity. However, the government of Frederick William III did not consider the increasing assimilation of Jews as a positive moment in the life of the state, and immediately after the defeat of Napoleon, a gradual return to the pre-war situation in relation to Jews began. During the reaction period, a number of events were carried out, including a ban on visiting Christian schools for Christian children, an edict on preventing Jews from taking public posts, and others.
The long-awaited political equality of the Jews brought only the revolution of 1848 . In the mid-19th century, Königsberg was one of the outposts of German liberalism, and there were many Jews among the Königsberg liberals. So, a baptized Jew from the Konigsberg Jewish family, Eduard Simson, became the first chairman of the German Reichstag and the de facto author of the German constitution .
The number of Königsberg Jews in the 19th century was steadily increasing. So in 1817, 1.027 Jews lived in the city, in 1864 - 3.024, and in 1880 - 5.000 people. A similar growth was observed throughout Germany, however, after the unification of the country in 1871, a wide internal migration of the Jewish population began. Many Jews left conservative Prussia and moved south and west to large cities in Germany. In general, in Prussia, the number of Jews decreased from 1871 to 1905. by 16 thousand. In Königsberg, the Jewish population by 1905 also decreased and amounted to 4.415 people.
By the end of the 19th century, a strong Jewish community existed in Königsberg. However, Orthodox Jews sought to stand out from the urban community, which was distinguished by liberalism. The reason for the division of the community was the installation of an organ in the main synagogue of the city in 1870. The Orthodox formed a separate community, “Adat Israel”. By this time, there were six synagogues in Königsberg. The largest of them - the New Synagogue - was located on Lindenstrasse, opposite the Cathedral. This synagogue reached a height of 46 meters and was one of the most beautiful in Germany. The synagogue was built in 1893, adjacent to it was a children's shelter - the building still survives on ul. October. Two synagogues were located on Sinagogenstrasse at once: the Old Synagogue, about which the synagogue of the Orthodox community "Adat Israel", built in 1893, was also mentioned. In addition to the above, the Hasidic synagogue on Fuerstrasse and the Polnishe Shul synagogue at Weres were also located. Worstadt, 71a, built in 1855 and reconstructed in 1910. The Sixth Synagogue, owned by Koenigsberg Jews, was located in the spa town of Kranz, often visited during summer vacations. This synagogue was built in 1921, its foundation and now can be seen in the city of Zelenogradsk .
Jews mostly lived in three areas of the city. Eastern Jews and Orthodox Jews settled in the lower city (in the vicinity of the station to the Pregel River , where there were five synagogues). Old settled Jewish families lived in Tragheim and its environs. Wealthy and already assimilated Jews lived in the suburbs of Hufen and Amalienau.
Banks of Königsberg, which were mostly Jewish in the 19th century, became state institutions and were part of the Deutsche Bank system. The largest of these were: The North German Credit Society, owned and operated by George Marx, an orthodox Jew who had a great influence on the life of the community. Along with the North German Credit Society, there was a private bank, the Widow of Joseph Simon and Sons, owned by the Simon family, as well as the non-Jewish banking house of Jacobi. All of the above banks influenced the development of trade and industry of the city. In addition, the Simon family bank actively contributed to the development of science, art and sports in the city. The largest stadium in the city (now Baltika Stadium) was named after Walter Simon. A specific branch of the economy of East Prussia was the production of amber. The only amber factory with a mine in Palmniken was founded in 1872 by a Jew Moritz Becker. After the sale of his enterprise to the state, Becker became one of the richest citizens of the city. In 1914, the largest Königsberg steamer Ostproysen with a displacement of 4000 tons was owned by the Marcus Kon and Son shipping company, which was engaged in merchant shipping in the Baltic and North Seas. Jewish firms took part in the sale of building materials, as well as in the retail trade of textile products. Jews held most of the department stores in the city.
A high percentage of Jews were among doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, journalists, artists and brokers. Bright personalities of the cultural elite of the city were: the city school adviser Stettiner and journalist Ludwig Goldstein. Paul Stettiner was called in the city "Konigsberg Minister of Culture." He was closely connected with the social life of the educated layers of the city’s population and with their associations, maintained personal contacts with many cultural figures, writers and journalists, and was the initiator of the creation of a number of cultural institutions. City theaters used his special care.
Among the university professors there were virtually no unbaptized Jews. A rare exception was the honorary professor of Albertina (University of Koenigsberg), Rabbi Dr. Felix Perles. However, a rather large number of crosses occupied teaching positions. Among them are the general practitioner Ludwig Lichtheim, lawyer Fritz Litten, physiologist Ludemar Herrmann, astronomer Fritz Kohn, orientalist Felix Ernst Payser, Egyptologist Walter Wrezhinsky and others.
The prominent author and performer of Jewish religious music was the composer Eduard Birnbaum, who sought to modify traditional melodies, giving them great grandeur with the help of an organ, making them more accessible to Jews who experienced strong Germanization.
Tragic, as elsewhere in Germany, was the fate of the Koenigsberg Jews after the Nazis came to power. After 1933, the number of Jews in the city was steadily declining. If in 1931. Jews were more than 4 thousand, then by 1939 there were a little more than one and a half thousand. Of all the city's synagogues, Kristallnacht , from 9 to 10 November 1938, only one survived - the synagogue of the orthodox community. Hundreds of Jews were arrested that day, a Jewish shelter was destroyed, and children were driven out into the street. Services in the only surviving synagogue were held in 1942 for those few who remained in the city. Many emigrated, and those who did not have time - they were sent by freight trains to concentration camps. By 1942, about 1,000 Jews from Königsberg had died in the Theresienstadt camp . Together with people disappeared from the map of the ancient city and places, one way or another connected with the presence of Jews here. The stadium Walter Simon Platz was renamed Erich Koch Platz. The house, once a shelter, was given over to the Gestapo building. Barracks were built on the site of the New Synagogue, in which Jews brought from the ghetto to Poland worked for the Gestapo . In July 1944, Jews from the Vilnius ghetto were transported on barges through Königsberg. The remaining representatives of the Jewish community of the city gathered among the townspeople a large cart with products for these people. By 1944, only a few dozen remained in Königsberg, who every day were waiting to be sent to the camp. In August of the same year, the city experienced a massive raid of British aircraft during which the entire center of Konigsberg was destroyed. The last synagogue was destroyed.
Very few Jews in the city lived to see the arrival of the Red Army . However, even under the new government, they did not find peace. Along with the remaining German population, they were subject to deportation. In 1948, the last German Jews were expelled from Konigsberg, which had already become Kaliningrad by that time. Some of them still live in the cities of Israel , Germany , and the USA . Among them, Joseph Zvi Dunner, who took over as chief rabbi of East Prussia in 1936 Today, this last rabbi of East Prussia occupies the post of head of the European Union of Orthodox Communities. The chief rabbi of Great Britain , who held this post from 1967 to 1991, Lord Immanuel Jacobowitz is also originally from Königsberg. In Königsberg, Leah Schlossberg, the future wife of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was born and lived before the war.
The modern Jewish community of Kaliningrad began to form in the late 80s, after the formation of the Jewish historical and cultural society led by Victor Shapiro. Subsequently, this society was transformed into the religious community "Adat Israel". Since 1998, the Jewish religious organization "The Jewish Community of the City of Kaliningrad", organized by Rabbi David Shvedik, has also existed here. A few years ago, thanks to the efforts and financial investments of businessman and philanthropist Vladimir Katzman, the long-held idea of restoring the main city synagogue finally found material expression. In autumn 2011, the first stone was laid in the foundation of the synagogue in Kaliningrad, but its construction was frozen due to the fact that the Kaliningrad circus tent was located on the land plot. Currently, all the legal subtleties of this issue have been resolved, and the new synagogue, due to the plan to become one of the largest in the Russian Federation, is gradually being built on the old German foundation.