Judenburg appears to have shelted the earliest Jewish community of Styria; the name may provide a hint of a Jewish origin of this place. In 1305 a certain Suezman asked the judge of Judenburg to sign a receipt in the presence of five Jewish witnesses who also lived there.
The Jews had a synagogue and a Judenrichter (Judge of the Jews). They lived mostly in the Judengasse which was separated from the rest of the town. The synagogue dates to that time.
The Jews were active as moneylenders. The most significant banker was Hotschlein who owned a house in Vienna and whose son moved to Salzburg. In the late 15th century, Judenburg was one of the four Styrian towns with a “Meister of Judenschaft” (rabbi). The poorer Jews were expelled from Judenburg in 1467. At the end of the 15th century (1496) all the Jews of Styria were expelled.