There are only a few traces of the Jewish past in Eisenach. However, Jews have been living in the town since the Middle Ages. Today, the synagogue memorial commemorates them.

The synagogue in what was then Wörthstraße (now Karl-Marx-Straße), built according to designs by Eisenach architect Hermann Hahn, was consecrated on January 8, 1885, burned down during the "Reichskristallnacht" on November 9-10, 1938 and demolished in January 1939. The Eisenach synagogue community, founded in 1946, erected a memorial on the ruins, which was consecrated on September 21, 1947. The memorial plaque installed at the time was replaced in 1998 by the one that can be seen today.