Small sovereign principality in northwest Germany, with a Jewish population of 750; total population (1895) 123,515. The earliest traces of Jewish settlement in Lippe date back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. The Jews in the principality of Lippe seem to have enjoyed more privileges and greater security than in other German states. Thus the town council of Lemgo in a document dated 1419 refers to a Jew named Moses as "our fellow citizen." The contribution of the Jewry to the city treasury amounted in 1507 to one hundred florins ($40), a considerable sum in those days. Besides, it had to pay a Jew-tax, which in 1511 was fixed at eighteen gulden. In the year 1500 the "Edelherrn" Bernhard VII. and Simon V. (father and son) permitted Antzell the Jew, with his wife and servants, to reside in Detmold.
A Jewish community was not formed in Detmold until the second half of the seventeenth century. Religious differences seem to have led to a split inthe community, for in 1723 the Jews of Detmold asked permission to build a second synagogue. These synagogues, however, were merely rented rooms. In 1742 the community evidently reunited, for it acquired a house and a barn, and constructed out of the latter a synagogue, which is still in use. In 1810, during the regency of the princess Pauline, the Jews in Lippe received family names and were regularly registered. At this time there were 175 Jewish families in Lippe; twenty-seven of these families were resident in Detmold, under Rabbi Abraham Löb Färnbach, succeeded by his son Dr. Enoch Färnbach (Fahrenbach), who officiated until his death (Oct. 5, 1872). The civic rights of the Jews, as well as their systems of school and synagogue, were regulated afresh by the laws of 1858 and 1879. From 1872 (Oct.) to 1879 (March) the rabbinate was provisionally filled by the teacher. Leseritz of Detmold and, afterward, by Rabbi Klein of Lemgo.
After this period, consequent upon the steady decrease in the size of the community, the rabbinical position was left vacant. The supervision of religious instruction in the twelve congregations of the principality, comprising about 900 members, some 250 of whom belonged to Detmold, was entrusted to the teacher and preacher Abraham Plaut of Detmold. Detmold is the birthplace of Leopold Zunz and of Dr. Abraham
As a benefactor to the Jews in Lippe, and, particularly, of the Detmold community, may be mentioned the court commissioner Solomon Joel Herford (d. Sept. 21, 1816). He was the founder of the Joel Herfordsche Schule, the Joel Herfordsche Milden Stiftungen, and the Jüdische Militär-Unterstützungskasse.