BURGDORF:

Town in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. It contained a few Jewish inhabitants in the fourteenth century. In 1347 Simon, a Jew living there, loaned to the cathedral provost Ulrich forty pounds of pennies. On Feb. 16, 1349, the poverty-stricken Eberhard von Kiburg drove all the Jews out of Burgdorf in the night. After effecting this, "because of their wrong-doing," as he professed, he seized their possessions. In 1900 a few Jews still lived at Burgdorf, though not forming a congregation.

Bibliography:
  • Hüber, Schweizergeschichte, p. 167;
  • Archiv des Historischen Vereins, xii. 343, 359.
G. M. K.
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