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According to history, the first Jewish settlers came to Salzburg with the Roman legionnaires, at a time when the city was still called "Juva-vum". After the Romans had left and the city had been re-established in the eight century, Bishop Arno of Salzburg (785-871), a friend and adviser of Charles the Great, called in a Jewish physician (called a "medicum iudaicum" in historical documents) when he needed medical attention. These are the first traces of Jews in Salzburg, which was to become the seat of the prince-archbishops. Documents of the twelfth century refer to a "Street of Jews" (Judenstrasse) in Salzburg. A prayer house and a synagogue in a building at Judengasse 15 is mentioned in a document from the year 1370. Today, a modern hotel complex stands on that site and Judengasse, together with Getreidegasse, has become the center of business life in old center of Salzburg as well as a favorite tourist attraction.
Salzburg's archbishops engaged in commercial and monetary transactions with Jews. Archbishop Konrad IV, for example, borrowed a substantial portion of the funds required to purchase the Gastein Valley from Jewish bankers.
Jews were forced to follow special rules and had to cope with anti-Semitism during the late Middle Ages. Men were required to wear a pointed hat, women a bell on their garments. Jews were required to pay a special tithe to the territorial lords and were not permitted to leave the land without his permission.
Jews were known to have been persecuted in Salzburg since the 14th century. A large number of Jews were mercilessly burned in the city of Salzburg in 1404, accused of desecrating the host at Mülln Church.
Pressed by the estates, Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach ordered all Jews to leave the country in 1498, banned forthwith from settling in Salzburg. Discrimination was not eliminated until the Bill of Rights was passed in 1867.
It was not until 1868 that Jews re-settled in Salzburg, and in 1893 the synagogue at Lasserstr. 8 was erected; it exists to this day. One year later, the Jewish cemetery was built at Uferstrasse in Salzburg-Aigen; it also still exists. The end of the 19th century also marked the visit of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, to Salzburg, where in 1885 he spent a year as a legal clerk at the Salzburg Provincial Court.
Several important persons of Jewish descent actively participated in the cultural and intellectual life of the city. From 1907 until 1920, Adolf Altmann served as rabbi in Salzburg; the eminent historian, philosopher and writer published, among many other books, the "History of Jews in the City and Province of Salzburg" – which was a valuable contribution to the documentation of the history of the city. The brilliant theater director Max Reinhardt and the playwright and poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal were co-founders of the Salzburg Festival, which has become an essential part of the cultural life of the city. And in the early thirties, the cultural and intellectual elite of Europe met in the house of the writer Stefan Zweig on Kapuzinerberg.
Today, Salzburg’s Jewish Community consists of little more than 100 people. The synagogue at Lasserstrasse 8 is still the religous center. Services are held on all holidays as well as Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
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