Worms וורמייזא
One of the three ShUM cities on the Rhine, where Rashi studied and where a whole community perished in 4856.
Worms, Speyer and Mainz — the three Rhine cities known as ShUM from the initials of their Hebrew names — were the heart of Ashkenazi Jewry in the eleventh century: yeshivot, synagogues, distinctive customs, and communal ordinances enacted at joint assemblies and binding across Germany.
The young Rashi studied in Worms; its eleventh-century synagogue with the adjoining «Rashi chapel» and Europe's oldest surviving Jewish cemetery still stand.
In the spring of 4856, as the First Crusade set out, bands marching to free the Holy Sepulchre chose to begin with the unbelievers nearest to hand. In May the community of Worms was destroyed: some killed in their houses, others in the bishop's palace where they had sought protection. Many chose death over baptism — kiddush haShem in its harshest form. The memory entered the prayer Av haRachamim and the kinot of the ninth of Av.