The history of the Jews in Zürich dates back to at least the Middle Ages. Since the early
20th century, Zürich, Switzerland, has been among the Swiss cities where Judaism is most
prevalent . The Middle Ages
Zürich's Jewish community was first mentioned in writing in 1234 and lived largely without
incident amidst the city population. In the 14th century, the presence of a synagogue
was recorded in Zürich near Froschaugasse, commemorated by today's Synagogen Gasse. At
the time, Froschaugasse was known as Judengasse. The neighboring property Brunngasse 8 is home
to significant wall paintings stylistically dated to around 1330, including coats of arms
with Hebrew descriptions, which were re-discovered in 1996. The medieval inhabitants of the house,
which probably also served as a meeting place for the Jewish community, were likely to be
influential citizens: probably the brothers Moses and Gumprecht ben Menachem and their
mother, Minne. The wall paintings were open to the public as a museum, the "Schauplatz
Brungasse". Moses ben Menachem was a Hebrew scholar who wrote the Zürich Semak, a Hebrew
commentary on the Sefer mitzvot Katan by Isaak ben Joseph of Corbeil. It remains the most
influential work of Hebrew scholarship written in Switzerland to this day.
In response to the rise of the Black Death in 1349, Zürich, like most other Swiss cities,
persecuted and burned local Jews, distributing their property among Zürich's non-Jews, with
mayor Rudolf Brun securing a hefty share. The synagogue was destroyed. Sources indicate
that the ben Menachem brothers and their mother Minne, living in Brunngasse 8, were also murdered.
Not long after, in 1354, Jews resettled in Zürich, with this second Jewish community's
numbers rising to around 100 people towards the end of the century. At the turn of the
century, the legal and economic positions of Jews in Zürich declined. From 1404, Jews
were legally excluded from testifying against Christians in court, and in 1423 they were
indefinitely expelled from the city.
17th and 18th century In 1633, documents show that the city encouraged
persecution and expulsion of the Jews of Rheineck, who were growing in number after having been
displaced from other cities. In 1634, Jews were forbidden to enter the city. A Jew from
Lengnau, Samuel Eiron, was executed for blasphemy on April 24, 1634, after which Zürich's mayor
and city council ordered all subordinate entities to expel all Jews from their lands. Although
this directive was also given to the Grafschaft of Baden, around 20 Jewish households were
allowed to remain there, after Landvogt Alphons Sonnenberg of Lucerne reminded Zürich's council
that his position authorized him to grant haven to his subjects.
In 1787, under the protection of Castell-Remlingen, Jewish optician Samson Henlein and his partner
Nehemias Kallmann were permitted to spend eight days in Zürich to trade optical instruments
and practice their crafts.
19th century Over the course of the 19th century, the situation
of Jews in Zürich became increasingly fraught. The French government was advocating for the
recognition of the rights of their Jewish citizens living in Switzerland, where they
were subjected to numerous forms of discrimination. Towards the beginning of the 19th century,
a few Alsacian Jews and a Jew from Endingen, Switzerland was able to settle in Zürich.
Their numbers grew over the course of the century, with further influx after 1848 from
Endingen and Lengnau, and later from Eastern Europe. A small Jewish community emerged,
counting 100 people in 1862. That year, following the declaration of the full legal and political
equality of Jews in the canton of Zürich, the Israelitischer Kultusverein was founded,
later renamed Israelitische Cultusgemeinde.
Two years later, the university had a Jewish dean, Max Büdinger , and from 1883 onwards,
there was once again a synagogue in Zürich. With the referendum of 1866, Jews in Switzerland
were granted freedom of settlement and the full exercise of civil rights, but these rights
were not implemented in the Swiss federal constitution until 1874. After the Jews of
Switzerland were emancipated in 1866, Jews had the freedom to leave the towns of Endingen
and Lengnau, which are approximately 30-35 kilometers from Zürich. For almost 100 years,
Swiss Jews were confined to these neighbouring communities. Zürich became one of the top
choices for Jews who wanted to start over in a nearby urban area.
In 1895, Orthodox Jews founded the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft Zürich. It is one of
two orthodox communities there. The second is Agudas Achim, founded in 1927. Agudas Achim
was founded in Zürich at the beginning of the 20th century due to the immigration of
Jews from Eastern Europe who were fleeing the pogroms there. The community is still
strongly influenced by Polish Hasidism.
20th century onwards Starting in 1920, the city of Zürich had
special citizenship regulations that discriminated against Jews from Eastern Europe. These rules
were dropped in 1936. In 1920, the proportion of the Jewish population was 1.3%. The Jews
who came to Zürich in the first quarter of the 20th century were often self-employed,
working as clothing and linen manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, or tradesmen.
During World War II, most of the Jews who had fled to Switzerland came to Zürich and
were granted the right of residence there from 1940 to 1943. With many Jews seeking
refuge in Switzerland, funds were raised, not by Swiss authorities, but by the SIG . The
central committee for refugee aid, created in 1933, was located in Zürich. As Switzerland
was a neutral zone, 1929 and 1937 saw Zürich host the World Zionist Congress, the first
of which took place in 1897 in Basel, organized by the journalist Theodor Herzl.
In 1945, Zürich's Jewish population numbered about 10,500, but it declined again from 1948
onward. Since 1970, the Jewish population in Zürich has remained more or less constant
at around one percent. The library of the Jewish Community of Zürich, which was opened
in 1939, was declared a Swiss National Cultural Property in 2009, as it is considered the
most important Judaica library in the German-speaking world.
In 2005, Zürich had four Jewish congregations – the moderately Orthodox Israelitische
Cultusgemeinde ; the Orthodox Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft ; Agudas Achim , which
follows the East European tradition; and the egalitarian Liberal Jewish congregation Or
Chadasch – each possessing its own religious institutions and officials.The canton of Zürich
did not recognize the Jewish religious communities as legal entities until 2005. The Jewish liberal
community of Zürich, Or Chadasch, was founded in 1978 and recognized by the state in 2007.
At the end of 2020, the first seven Stolpersteine were laid in Zürich to commemorate victims
of the Nazi regime.
Today, around 5000 Jews live in District 2 and District 3, with another thousand living
in the rest of the city. The Jewish population consists mainly of Ashkenazim. Others include
Misrachim and Sephardim.
Zürich is home to representatives of orthodox and ultra-orthodox Judaism, as well as liberal
and secular Judaism.