Jews were first mentioned in Mattersburg in 1527. They may have been refugees from Ödenburg (today Sopron) or Wiener Neustadt. They were affected by the expulsion ordered of Emperor Leopold in 1669/71 and had to wait for several years before they could return and buy their property back. In the 1830s Mattersburg absorbed Jewish refugees from Neufeld an der Leitha. In 1744, 342 Jews lived in 30 houses, in 1785 there were 767 Jews living in 43 houses. In 1818 the Fürst allowed the building of twelve new houses outside the Jewish quarter. Mattersburg was one of the “Seven Communities” of Burgenland.
In 1883 there were 700 Jews in Mattersburg, in 1934 their number decreased to 511.
The community maintained several communal institutions, a synagogue that was built in 1364, a prayer house, a mikvah (Jewish ritual bath), a cemetery established in late 16th century, and a primary school. There were also Jewish cultural, welfare and women’s organizations: Ez Chaim, Schass-Chevra, Bikur Cholim (Visiting the Sick Society), Frauenverein, Jugendverein (youth organization).
After the annexation of Austria in 1938, the Jews were expelled from Mattersburg within a few months. They had to move to Vienna, where they tried to emigrate; those who could not manage to leave Austria were later deported to death camps. The only trace of Jewish life left in Mattersburg is the old cemetery with several gravestones.
Neufeld an der Leitha, geographically close to Mattersburg, had a Jewish community in the 17th century and was resettled by Jews in the second half of the 19th century. In March 1938 six Jewish families lived there. The synagogue was closed in 1938. In 1941, 41 Austrian-Jewish forced labourers worked in the Hanf-Jute-Textilindustrie AG in Neufeld an der Leitha.