Jews living in Upper Austria might have been affected as well by the expulsion initiated by Emperor Leopold in 1669/70. Since Jews constantly lived in neighbouring Bohemia (modern Czech Republic), this order may not have been that effective, since Jews did come to markets and fairs from Bohemia. An order in 1745 permanently excluded the Jews from Upper Austria, and only under Emperor Joseph II were Jews readmitted to markets in Graz, Klagenfurt, Laibach and Linz.
In 1798 they received permission to hold religious services in a rented place. In 1824 they established a permanent prayer house in the Untere Badgasse. From 1848, several Jewish families lived permanently in Linz; they were organized in a society and established a school and a prayer room at Badgasse 6.
The IKG (Jewish community organization) of Linz was officially founded in 1863. It included all Upper Austria (apart from Krems and Kirchdorf) and in 1923 it had 1,200 members. Favorable economic development in the region attracted Jewish investors to Linz, mainly from Fürth near Nuremberg in Germany.
In 1932, there were 1,238 Jews living in Linz. The community maintained several institutions, a synagogue, a prayer house, a mikvah (Jewish ritual bath), and a cemetery. There was also a women’s society.
After the annexation of Austria in 1938, mass arrests were made and by September the number of Jews in Linz was reduced by two thirds. On ‘Kristallnacht’ the synagogue of Linz was broken into, destroyed and set on fire.
After the Second World War, thousands of Jews lived in Linz temporarily. Some of them were survivors of the nearby Mauthausen concentration camp, other came to Linz as Displaced Persons (homeless survivors of the Holocaust), among them Simon Wiesenthal. A few Jews from Linz returned to the city after the Holocaust and formed, together with refugees, the core of a new community. In 1967/68 a new synagogue was built by architect Fritz Goffitzer on Bethlehemstrasse 26, the same location of the destroyed synagogue. The interior paintings were made by the artist Fritz Fröhlich.