HAGENBACH:
Village in Upper Franconia, Bavaria. That an old Jewish colony existed there is proved by "Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches" (ed. Salfeld, p. 271), which mentions Hagenbach among those places in which the Jewish inhabitants suffered during the persecution in Franconia in 1298. When the Jews of Bamberg were exiled by the prince-bishop Philipp von Henneberg in 1478, numerous petty communities came into existence throughout the diocese under the protection of the country nobility, among which Hagenbach, where the Jews lived under the protection of the Baron von Seefried, held a not unimportant position.
All the country Jews, together with the Jews living under the direct protection of the bishop, formed an association for the purpose of maintaining a common district rabbinate and of representing their common interests in their relations with the lords. Of the five districts which were included in the district rabbinate of Bamberg, Hagenbach was one. When the Jewish corporations of the kingdom were dissolved by the edict of the Bavarian government (1813; see Bavaria), Hagenbach became the seat of an independent rabbinate including fourteen communities, almost all of which have since been dissolved.
So far as is known the first rabbi of Hagenbach was Benedict Moses Mack, who was followed, in Sept., 1836, by Aaron Seligman. Seligman's successor was Dr. Königshöfer, who afterward was called to Fürth as principal of the orphan asylum. In 1867 the rabbinate of Hagenbach was united with that of Baiersdorf; and in 1894, when this was dissolved, the communities were included in the district rabbinate of Bamberg. At present (1903) the Hagenbach congregation is composed of eight families aggregating thirty persons; it supports a public school.
- A. Eckstein, Gesch. der Juden im Ehemaligen Fürstbistum Bamberg, 1898;
- idem, Nachtrèräge zur Gesch. der Juden in Bamberg, 1899.
