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Memorial service for R. Abraham ben Eliezer Asscher (d. 1926). The title page describes R. Asscher as av bet din and rosh mesivta in Groningen. The services are entirely in Hebrew except for an introductory paragraph and instructions. This R. Abraham Asscher should not be confused with the better known Abraham Asscher (1880–1955) who was a Dutch Jewish leader, Zionist, and politician but was, after the war, denounced by some of the Jewish survivors and condemned by an honorary (Jewish) court of law.
Groningen, city and province in the Northern Netherlands, where R. Abraham Asscher served, had information pertaining to Jews from 1573. Near the end of the 17th century a number of Jews came to the city of Groningen and its environs from adjacent Germany; religious services were held in a private home, but in 1691 these were prohibited by the municipal authorities and in 1710 the Jews were expelled from the city. However, some individual Jews are known to have come to the city in subsequent years and in 1744 the community leaders petitioned the authorities to approve the first statute of the Jewish community of Groningen. Ten years later they were given permission to erect a synagogue and a rabbi was chosen to serve the community which, by 1757, consisted of 30–40 families. Individual Jews were granted rights of citizenship and of membership in the guild of small retailers. In the second half of the 18th century Jewish communities developed in several towns in the district such as Winschoten, Veendam, Hoogezand, Sappemeer, and Stadskanaal. The Jews were chiefly engaged in the cattle trade, or dealt in haberdashery. In 1789 the community numbered 396. After 1848 the Orthodox members formed a separate congregation Teschuat Israel, erecting their own synagogue and acquiring a separate portion of the cemetery. The congregations reunited in 1881. In the second half of the 19th century Groningen became the seat of a chief rabbi. Despite the general increase in population, the number of Jews remained more or less stable, owing to emigration to the west of the country. In 1920 the Jewish population of the city was 2,369, and in 1931 about 2,500. In 1939, 2,411 Jews were living in Groningen, including 218 German Jews and 44 other foreign nationals. Jews from the towns and villages in the vicinity were forced to concentrate in the city Groningen after the German occupation. Altogether the Jews made up about 2.5% of the population.
One of the first victims of the Germans was the philosopher Leonard Polak (1880–1941). In September 1941 all the Jewish children were evicted from the public schools and a separate Jewish elementary and high school was opened. From July 10, 1942, onward most of the Jewish inhabitants of Groningen were deported, with the exception of 150 Jewish partners of mixed marriages. Almost all the Jews perished, including the chief rabbi, S. Dasberg. Only ten survived the camps, while about 300 other Jews were left alive at the end of the war. In contrast to the neighboring province of Friesland, the non-Jewish population of Groningen did little to provide hiding places either for its own Jews or for those from elsewhere.
The monumental synagogue in the Folkingestraat, which was inaugurated in 1906, was not reopened after the war and now serves as a small factory. Since 1945 services have been held in the former youth synagogue nearby. The only other Jewish congregation still existing in the province of Groningen is in Stadskanaal, which had 20 Jews in 1969, against a total of 16 Jewish congregations with some 4,250 Jews in 1940. In 1969 there were 150–180 Jews living in the city of Groningen. The process of emigration to the west of the country or to Israel continued. The synagogues of all the defunct congregations have been sold. Groningen now comes under the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbinate of Utrecht.
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