Several Jewish families lived in Innsbruck in the 17th century; during the 18th century, however, only four families for the entire Tyrol are documented. In 1839 seven families lived in Innsbruck. Only in 1867 did the Jews in Innsbruck, like all the Jews in Austria, gain legal equality and personal freedom.
In 1850 there were 90 Jews liviving in Tyrol, in 1880, 109 Jews (20 families), in 1920, their number grew to 225, and in 1932, there were 418 Jews. After 1890 the community was under the administration of the Jewish community in Hohenems. The Jews of Innsbruck founded a Kultusverein (community organization) in 1898 and it was recognized as a separate autonomous community in 1914. At the same time, the seat of the rabbinate moved from Hohenems to Innsbruck. The last rabbi of Hohenems, Dr. Josef Link, from 1912 to 1914 in Hohenems, served as the first rabbi of the Innsbruck community until 1932. His successor was Dr. Elimelech Rimalt who was the rabbi until the violent end of his community in 1938. There were also Jewish cultural and women’s organizations: a Chevra Kaddisha, the Jüdischer Frauenverein, the Verein der Jüdischen Kaufmannschaft (association of salesmen).
Religious and racial anti-Semitism was very strong in Tyrol. The so-called “Tiroler Antisemitenbund” was founded in autumn 1919. The University of Innsbruck was a fortress of anti-Semitism. A lawsuit against the 23-year old Jew Philipp Halsmann, originally from Lithuania, developed into a “Hetzjagd” reminiscent of the blood libel accusations.
The community dwindled in the 1930s, in March 1939 only 200 Jews lived in Tyrol. In the November Pogrom of 1938 shops and apartments of Jews were plundered. The synagogue in the Sillgasse was destroyed and three Jews were murdered on that night, another 18, several of them severely wounded, were arrested.
After the Holocaust, the Jewish community life developed very slowly. A prayer hall was opened at Zollerstrasse 1 in 1961 which also houses the offices of the “Israelitische Kultusgemeinde für die Bundesländer Tirol und Vorarlberg”. A new synagogue was built on the place of the destroyed synagogue at Sillgasse 15 and consecrated in the 1990s.