Rouffach

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ROUFFACH

ROUFFACH (Ger. Rufach ), town in the Haut-Rhin department, E. France. The earliest indication of the presence of Jews in Rouffach dates from 1288. Accused by the townsmen of having expressed support for Emperor Adolf of Nassau, against whom they were at war, the Jews were massacred at the beginning of 1298. By 1308 Jews were again living in the town. Many lost their lives in the *Armleder persecutions of 1338. Having returned to the town at the latest in 1340, they were all massacred at the time of the *Black Death (1349). Since then, there has been neither a Jewish community nor even individual Jews in Rouffach. The Judenhof ("Jewish courtyard") mentioned in 1338 possibly refers to the area of the synagogue, which was built in about 1300 and was still in existence in 1970, after having been rediscovered in 1905. The former Judengasse (Jewish Street) is now known as the Hassengasse.

bibliography:

M. Ginsburger and C. Winkler, in: Schriften der Gesellschaft fuer die Geschichte der Israeliten in Elsass-Lothringen, 22 (1906); S. Dietler, in: Die Gebweiler Chronik, ed. by J. v. Schlumberger (1898), 22: Th. Walter, Rouffach… (1958); Germ Jud, 2 (1968), 723f.

[Bernhard Blumenkranz]