The first Jews settled in Hohenems in 1617, when Count Caspar von Hohenems accepted 12 Jewish families from southern Germany and Switzerland (Rheineck) into his imperial earldom. In 1770, the Oberamt in Bregenz authorised the Construction of a synagogue with an adjoining rabbi's flat, which was jointly financed by the members of the community. At the time, there were 175 Jews and 180 Jewish women living in a total of 46 houses with their children. The authorisation to build a synagogue was an absolute rarity in the Catholic-anti-Jewish Habsburg Empire. The building in the centre of the residential district was the most important baroque synagogue in Austria and could accommodate 300 people. It survived the Nazi era, but its interior was modified for various purposes. In 1952, it was sold by the IKG for Tyrol and Vorarlberg to the market town of Hohenems, which used the building as a fire station until 2001. Its use as a fire station was already planned during the Nazi era, but could not be realised due to a lack of funds. Since its remodelling in 2003/04, it has been used as a function room.

At the time of the issuance of the Israelite Law of 1890, Hohenems was the only Jewish community in the area of the historical Tyrol, so that it was responsible for the entire administrative area. Despite the obviously very unsatisfactory situation, the Jews of Innsbruck and Meran had to wait a long time before they were able to establish their own religious communities. At the same time, Hohenems got into financial difficulties as the community suffered from massive emigration. In 1914, the community lost its rabbi when he moved to Innsbruck.

The small remaining part of the community was expelled or murdered by the Nazis, and many of the synagogue's objects of worship and furnishings were confiscated by the Gestapo and taken to Vienna. The last ritual board, Theodor Elkan, fought for the preservation of the community's property until after the start of the war, although apart from the cash assets it was already administered by the market town of Hohenems. All religious communities outside Vienna were dissolved in 1940 and incorporated into the Vienna religious community, including the religious communities of Hohenems and Innsbruck. The property, including all real estate, was finally transferred to the market town.

The cultural and historical heritage of the Jewish community of Hohenems is today JJewish Museum Hohenems documented and kept alive with a varied programme. The Jewish Museum Hohenems is locally anchored and at the same time internationally networked. Independent museological approaches and participation in supra-regional projects constantly focus on different and new topics and open up transdisciplinary perspectives. They promote long-term cooperation and cross-border collaboration through academic and artistic exchange formats in teaching, research and education.

In 1872 it is noted: "There is a Betzzimmer in the Dannhauser family home on the 5th floor of the building at Judengasse 107 (Schlossergasse 15), the same house that the May family had bought in 1670 and which already had a prayer room at the time. Church services were only held on public holidays.

Due to the strong growth, there was great interest in founding a community independent of Hohenems, and at least after the enactment of the Israelite Law in 1890, it was stipulated in the statutes of the Hohenems community that local committees could be founded to satisfy religious needs. This was also utilised in Innsbruck. As early as 1891, authorisation was obtained from the provincial school board to establish a „Israelite public school for religious education“ was founded. From 1892, a religious teacher was always present.

In 1897, the Anichstraße 7 at Michael Brüll The church had already had to give up the prayer room in Judengasse (Schlossergasse 15) eight years earlier due to the sale of the building. Soon, however, the room in Anichstraße was also no longer available, so they rented from 1910 after a long search the Stöckel building of the house, which has been Jewish-owned for around 100 years, in the Sillgasse 15 (originally the Weil family, later Martin Steiner, Markus Loewe and Julius Stern).

Due to widespread anti-Semitism, no one else was willing to rent a room for Jewish services, and the approximately 200 Jews in the city were not in a position to purchase a building due to ongoing donations for the pogrom victims in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, the city 1912 the Purchase of a building plot in Gutenbergstrasse. The legal transaction could only be concluded after the formal establishment of the religious community.

First 1914 Following a decision by the Ministry of Culture and Education on 20 July 1913, it was possible to establish a Religious community for North Tyrol to found a religious community. The provincial administration had been opposed to the creation of a religious community in Tyrol since the initial application in 1909. The religious community in Hohenems and the Königswarter Foundation in Meran (see under „History“) also opposed the establishment of a community in Innsbruck. The latter for fear that Innsbruck might lay claim to the community in Merano, which was in the process of being established. After approval was granted, the first board was elected in March 1914 and Rabbi Dr Josef Link moved from Hohenems to Innsbruck. The synagogue in Gutenbergstraße, which was to be called the „Kaiser-Karl-I. Homage Temple“ (!), was not built as the assets were invested in war bonds and thus lost. In the interwar period, efforts to build a synagogue continued, but were probably abandoned in 1936 for financial reasons. The synagogue in Sillgasse, which in contrast to the synagogues in Hohenems and Meran was actually more of a prayer hall than a fully-fledged synagogue, had room for 200 people and thus essentially met the needs of the not very religious community.

After the death of the first and universally popular rabbi of Innsbruck, Josef Link, in 1932, the office was transferred to a Zionist-minded rabbi born in Krakow and educated in Vienna. Rabbi Dr Elimelech Rimalt transferred. After long endeavours, he was granted Austrian citizenship in 1934, which was actually a prerequisite for this appointment at the time, and was able to leave Austria for Israel in 1939, where he was a member of the Knesset for 26 years and even briefly served as Postmaster General. Until his death in 1987, he repeatedly visited Innsbruck and maintained friendly contact with the current President Siegfried Aviel Gitterle, among others.

1946 was Rudolf Brüll was appointed as the official representative of the Jews by the Tyrolean provincial government. In 1948, he set up the office of the (not yet formally re-established) Jewish community in the furniture shop at Anichstraße 7. Apart from the DPs, there were around 80 Jews in the city again at this time. The French field rabbis held services together with the Jewish soldiers in the villa inhabited by Rudolf Brüll until 1953.

The Stöckel building at Sillgasse 15 was still standing (part of the main building was destroyed by a bomb in 1943), but was no longer usable as a synagogue and served as a home for Jewish students. It is possible that the returnees no longer had any special attachment to this building, as otherwise it is difficult to explain why Rudolf Brüll considered building a new synagogue (see below) but did not endeavour to preserve the prayer room. It is not known when the building was demolished, but it was probably removed by 1964 at the latest, as orthophotos from that time show. In 1981 a Memorial plaque which could not find a worthy place in the car park that had been set up here in the meantime.

Apparently the municipality had before the connection 14 Torah scrolls, which originally came from Hohenems and two of which were returned. Presumably these are the two that were used in Zollerstraße and transferred to the new synagogue in 1993. They come from Prague, from around 1900.

Due to the realisable properties, Rudolf Brüll endeavoured to obtain the (legally flawed) Legal successor to the Hohenems religious community, which was accepted by the authorities due to the lack of members still present, but was opposed by the market town of Hohenems. The fact created by the Nazis that the IKG Vienna was the legal successor following its incorporation in 1940 also had to be rectified. The Synagogue in Hohenems was finally returned to the market town in 1952/53 (again, this time legally). Sold become. In 1953, the rabbinate house (later demolished) and the school building were sold to a private individual. It was hoped that this would create the basis for the construction of a new synagogue in Innsbruck, especially as the IKG in Innsbruck lacked any means of renovating the dilapidated properties in Hohenems. In 1954 the Cemetery in Hohenems the „Association for the Preservation of the Cemetery in Hohenems“ in St. Gallen in return for a donation of 10,000 schillings as a gift.

The Approval of the Articles of Association for what is now the Jewish Community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg extended from its approval by the Federal Ministry on 14 March 1952 to its entry into force by the Office of the Tyrolean Provincial Government on 6 March 1952. December 1955 due to numerous unresolved issues (property, prayer house, rabbi). After the Death of Rudolf Brüll in 1957 only 43 Jews were still entitled to vote, and in 1963 only 30. The community led a very secluded existence and shunned publicity. In 1961, under the Presidency Oskar von Lubomirski, a Prayer room at Zollerstraße 1 rented and furnished, including the secretariat. Under Ernst Beschinsky, President of the IKG between 1976 and 1986, there were four Jewish schoolchildren, for whose lessons a teacher travelled from Munich once a week.

In the second half of the 1980s, the Jewish community's relationship with the public began to change, as it finally became possible to come to terms with the past. Bishop Stecher forbade the worship of Anderl von Rinn and in 1987 took over Dr Esther Fritsch the presidency, who did not shy away from publicity and fought for the further development of the community.

The foundation stone for the construction of the new synagogue in Innsbruck was laid on 18 April 1991, which was realised thanks to the initiative of Esther Frisch, the support of Bishop Stecher and the generous co-financing of the City of Innsbruck. As luck would have it, the new synagogue became possible again in the course of a housing project exactly where the old synagogue was located until 1938: in Sillgasse 15. Architect Michael Prachensky The opening ceremony for the new building was attended by a large number of members of the public. See more details at „Community centre“.

In 2014, the community centre was extended with financial support from the federal government, the state and the city to include a multi-purpose hall designed by the architect couple Ada and Reinhard Rinderer expanded. The extensive Judaica and Hebraica collection of the paediatrician Dr Thomas Weggemann was handed over to the municipality on loan in 2024, designed as a permanent exhibition in the vestibule, with a Dr Ursula Schattner-Rieser and was officially opened on 16 September of the same year.

Until the middle of the 19th century, there were no Jews in Merano since the nationwide expulsion in 1475. The establishment of the Merano community then developed rapidly due to the Position of the town as a health resort, which also attracted many Jews from the 1870s onwards. While the Orthodox Jews who had travelled here from Eastern Europe for spa purposes were not welcome among the immigrants who arrived in 1870. The Bermann family (see under „History“) held their church services and holidays, the Königswarter Foundation (founded by a family from Frankfurt am Main) took care of the religious affairs of the other spa guests from 1873, who often harboured reservations about the Eastern Jews. This conflict, which reflected the situation of Austrian and German Jewry, accompanied the community until its destruction by the Nazis. Due to the increased demand, the donations from the spa guests were used to establish a Synagogue erected, which 1901 by Rabbi Dr Aron Tänzer from Hohenems, the responsible religious community, inaugurated (see also under www.meranoebraica.it). Merano therefore had a synagogue long before its own religious community was founded, making it the oldest in Tyrol, if one disregards the fact that Vorarlberg belonged to the county of Tyrol at this time. Until then, there had only been prayer rooms in Tyrol, but these were often referred to as synagogues.

The founding of the religious community in Merano is connected to that in Innsbruck in that, with the authorisation of the North Tyrolean religious community, it was clear that nothing stood in the way of founding one in South Tyrol. However, the disputes between the Merano community and the Königswarter Foundation, which were only resolved in 1914, on the one hand, and the First World War and the wait for the formal annexation of South Tyrol, on the other, led to the Foundation of the religious community only on 9 November 1921 could take place. From 1930, the municipality in Merano was also responsible for Trentino.