Worms Jewish Cemetery

Description

The Jewish Cemetery in Worms is usually called the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. The Jewish community of Worms was established by the early eleventh century, and the oldest tombstone still legible dates from 1058/59. The cemetery was closed in 1911, when a new cemetery was inaugurated. Some family burials continued until the late 1930s. The older part contains still about 1300 tombstones, the newer part (on the wall of the former city fortifications, acquired after 1689, more than 1200.