Mainz

Magenza

Magenza of the ShUM cities - home of the Kalonymos rabbinic dynasty and Gershom ben Judah, "Light of the Exile"; devastated in 1096 and rebuilt again today.

Modern locality anchor

Mainz

Germany · City · 50.0°N 8.3°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

View location

Where is Mainz?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Mainz?

900–1200

Kalonymos rabbinic dynasty era (10th-12th c.)

1096–1096

1096 massacre

1800–1933

Modern community

This section addresses destruction and loss. It is one chapter, not the whole story — continue to what survives and what was created after

1938–1945

Shoah; postwar rebuilding

1945–present

Contemporary small community

Today

Small community; ShUM heritage.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Mainz sound like?

Yiddish (ייִדיש)Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)

Yiddish (ייִדיש) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Mainz

Small community; ShUM heritage.

New Synagogue Mainz
synagogue · public landmark
2010 landmark architecture.
ShUM UNESCO components
heritage ensemble · historic site
Old cemetery memorial
cemetery · historic site

In memory

Texts and figures that carry Mainz forward.

Rashi — Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040–1105)

SOURCES & REVIEW

Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)
Macmillan Reference USA · 2007
Holocaust Encyclopedia
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · open source
Germany - Virtual Jewish History Tour
Jewish Virtual Library · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Yiddish (ייִדיש) and Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →