Editing Mainz (section)

===Early Jewish community===
[[File:Gebetsraum Synagoge Weisenau 01.jpg|thumb|Interior of the Weisenau Synagogue, built in the first half of the 18th century]]
The Jewish community of Mainz dates back to the 10th century CE. It is noted for its religious education. Rabbi [[Gershom ben Judah]] (960–1040) taught there, among others.<ref name="Ministry for Science, Further Education and Culture Rhineland-Palatinate-2020">{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/document/181057 |title=ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz: Nomination Dossier |publisher=Ministry for Science, Further Education and Culture Rhineland-Palatinate |date=2020 |access-date=8 October 2022 |archive-date=8 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008143508/https://whc.unesco.org/document/181057 |url-status=live }}</ref> He concentrated on the study of the [[Talmud]], creating a German Jewish tradition. Mainz is also the legendary home of the martyred Rabbi [[Amnon of Mainz]], that the composition of the [[Unetanneh Tokef]] prayer is attributed to him.<ref name="Berger-2013">{{cite web |last=Berger |first=Michelle |title=Untaneh Tokef |website=Jüdische Allgemeine |date=2 September 2013 |url=https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/religion/untaneh-tokef/ |language=de |access-date=31 January 2023 |archive-date=31 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131062850/https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/religion/untaneh-tokef/ |url-status=live }}</ref> From the late 12th century rabbis met in synods.<ref name="regionalgeschichte.net-2">{{cite web |title=Magenza |website=regionalgeschichte.net |url=https://www.regionalgeschichte.net/rheinhessen/mainz/einzelaspekte/magenza-die-geschichte-des-juedischen-mainz.html |language=de |access-date=31 January 2023 |archive-date=31 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131063701/https://www.regionalgeschichte.net/rheinhessen/mainz/einzelaspekte/magenza-die-geschichte-des-juedischen-mainz.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The city of Mainz responded to the Jewish population in a variety of ways, behaving in a capricious manner towards them. Sometimes they were allowed freedom and were protected; at other times, they were persecuted. Jews were attacked in the [[Rhineland massacres|Rhineland massacres of 1096]] and by mobs in 1283.<ref name="regionalgeschichte.net-3">{{cite web |title=Mainz-Magenza |url=https://www.schum-staedte.info/die-schum-gemeinden/mainz-magenza.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131064413/https://www.schum-staedte.info/die-schum-gemeinden/mainz-magenza.html |archive-date=31 January 2023 |access-date=31 January 2023 |website=regionalgeschichte.net}}</ref> The Jews were expelled in 1438, 1462 (after which they were invited to return), and in 1470.<ref name="SchUM Städte e.V.">{{cite web |title=Mainz |website=SchUM Städte e.V. |url=https://schumstaedte.de/schum/mainz/ |language=de |access-date=31 January 2023 |archive-date=31 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131064416/https://schumstaedte.de/schum/mainz/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Outbreaks of the [[Black Death]] were usually blamed on the Jews, at which times they were massacred, such as the murder of 6000 Jews in 1349.<ref name="Tuchman-2011">{{Cite book |last=Tuchman |first=Barbara Wertheim |title=A distant mirror |date=3 August 2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BmRoOIwLWhsC&pg=PT113 |access-date=27 August 2011 |publisher=Random House Digital, Inc. |isbn=978-0-307-29160-8 |page=113 |archive-date=23 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823055337/https://books.google.com/books?id=BmRoOIwLWhsC&pg=PT113 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Outside of the medieval city centre, there is a Jewish cemetery, with over 1500 headstones dating from the 11th through the 19th centuries.<ref name="Ministry for Science, Further Education and Culture Rhineland-Palatinate-2020" /> The earliest known gravestone is date to 1062 or 1063, and these early gravestones resemble those found in Italy in the 8th–9th centuries.<ref name="Ministry for Science, Further Education and Culture Rhineland-Palatinate-2020" />