Links between the Regensburg and other Jewish Communities

As well as contact with Christian individuals and institutions within and beyond Regensburg, the Jewish community, and individual members of it, had many links with other Jewish communities both in the vicinity and as far afield as Bohemia, Vienna, Erfurt, Cologne, Hungary, Upper Italy and in other towns and regions.

There were ties of family and kinship, and also official connections. Often, Jews from elsewhere sent questions to leading scholars based in Regensburg, who addressed those questions in their responsa. Queries from Regensburg still survive today. The Jewish cemetery also had many important graves and was thus a place of pilgrimage for people from far and wide, and the city attracted numerous people who wanted to settle there in order to study with the great scholars.

Many Jews were seeking a new home after expulsion from where they had lived before. This map was created on the basis of numerous references to places of origin in people's names and also place names mentioned in sources. It shows the connections between the Jews of Regensburg and other Jewish communities, and places from which Jews came to Regensburg.