The presence of Jews in Rakvere was first mentioned in 1845. Twenty years later, nearly 100 Jewish families, or about 400 people, lived in Rakvere. Most of them were merchants and artisans. On August 18, 1883, the Jews of Rakvere submitted a petition to the City Government for the construction of a synagogue. The new synagogue was consecrated in the winter of the same year.
The synagogue, which belonged to the Rakvere Jewish Religious Community, was located at Rohuaia St. 14. It was the second plot eastward of Laada Street on the south side of Rohuaia Street. On the 1901 city map, this plot is numbered 192 Today, the site is partially occupied by an apartment building at Rohuaia St. 22 and the green area at Laada St. 7.
The synagogue building was a rather tall, one-story wooden house. The house had a large room and a wooden-railed balcony next to it. Men prayed in the ground floor hall, and women stayed on the balcony during the service. The Rabbi also lived in the courtyard side of the same building. The total area of the rooms was 84 square meters. The building also housed the congregation's office, and the elections of the council of the Cultural Autonomy of Estonian Jews took place there.
It is likely that the first Rabbi of the congregation after the opening of the synagogue was Abram-Itsik Gorfinkel from Vilnius, who moved to Narva in 1885. The names of two more rabbis are known: Hirsch Grabe, who served until the late 1920s, and Abram Gurevitsch, who was elected rabbi of the congregation in 1930.
During World War II, 22 Jews were murdered in Rakvere. The synagogue was used by the German army as a distribution point for soldiers. The building was destroyed by fire in the autumn of 1944.
After the war, the Jewish community in Rakvere did not recover. The number of Jews steadily declined due to departures and emigration. The Jewish cemetery, founded in the first half of the 19th century, is located on Lilleoru Street.
