Jewish Cemetery, Worms

The Jewish Cemetery in Worms or Heiliger Sand, in Worms, Germany, is usually called the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe, although the Jewish burials in the Jewish sections of the Roman catacombs predate it by a millennium. 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. The cemetery is protected and cared for by the city of Worms, the Jewish community of Mainz-Worms and the Landesdenkmalamt of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is being documented and researched since 2005 by the Salomon L. Steinheim-Institute for German-Jewish History at the University of Duisburg-Essen.Notable people buried hereYaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin (Maharil)Meir of Rothenburg (Maharam Rothenburg)