155 years ago today, the "Law on the Equality of Religious Confessions and Their Rights" was passed for the North German Confederation. This law, which only contained a single article, changed the situation for Jews in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg for good. Until then, restrictions on settlement had applied in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, and the Duchy's Basic Law of 1831 also prohibited citizenship for people who did not profess the Christian religion. Although there were already Jewish traders at markets from 1849 and later also Jewish traveling tradesmen in the town's inns, settlement was prohibited. The aforementioned law, which Emperor Wilhelm I decreed for the North German Confederation, to which Saxe-Altenburg had belonged since 1867, eliminated "all remaining restrictions on civil and civic rights derived from differences in religious beliefs." This also meant that the restrictions on settlement that had previously applied in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg were lifted. It is astonishing that a Jewish merchant, Wolff Wolff (1844-1918), had already opened the first permanent shop in Altenburg before the law was passed. Wolff Wolff opened his clothing store "Berliner Bazar" at Moritzstrasse 19 under the name Wilhelm Wolff on May 12, 1869. It is to be assumed that the municipal authorities did not expect a Jewish merchant under the name "Wilhelm Wolff".
In the first few years after the restrictions on settlement were lifted, it was mainly Jews from the German Empire who came to the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg. The residential 
town of Altenburg was particularly attractive. With the need for labor in the lignite mining area and the other prosperous industrial companies, from around 1900 onwards more and more Jews from Russian Poland, Galicia, Bukovina and Bohemia also came to the Duchy. The first organized Jewish Orthodox association of the Altenburg area was based in Meuselwitz, where the "Agidas Achim" ("Brotherhood") was founded in 1909. 
It was not until the 1920s that the more Orthodox Jews from Altenburg, Meuselwitz and some surrounding communities organized themselves into a small Jewish community that was self-governed. The founder was Moses Habermann (1875-1947), who was also the chairman for many years. He was followed by Mechel Leib Neumann (1881-194?, missing) and Wolf Goldberg (1893-1943, murdered). At the end of the 1920s, the prayer room was established in the house at Pauritzer Strasse 54 (rear building), which also housed an afternoon school for Jewish students. In the 1930s, the small Jewish community employed a prayer leader (chazan). Known by name are Selig Wolf Gottesmann (1880-194?, missing) and Alter Chaim Winzelberg (1896-194?, missing). Leon Gildingorin (1899-1975) was employed as an afternoon school teacher from 1933. In 1933, the small Jewish community wanted to use a bathing cell in the "Marienbad" as a mikveh, but withdrew the application after the "Boycott of Jews". A turning point for the small Jewish community was the "Polenaktion" in 1938, during which the majority of members were expelled from Germany. The Kristallnacht pogrom a few days later can be seen as another turning point, especially since the prayer room was destroyed during the pogrom. In the following years, Bernhard (1887-1945, murdered) and Sophie Freilich (1893-1944, murdered) played a central role for the Jews of the Altenburg district.
In 1942, 1943 and 1944, many of the Jews still living in the district were deported. A few "half-Jews" and Jewish wives of "Aryan" men still lived in the district. With the refugee movements at the end of the Second World War and afterwards, Jewish residents came to the district once again, and four Jews also returned to Altenburg from the liberated Theresienstadt ghetto. However, an organized Jewish life could no longer develop.