Important manufacturing city of Prussia. It includes about 500 Jews in a total population of 40,000 inhabitants. Jews lived here during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but were subsequently expelled. In the nineteenth century Jews resettled in Cottbus; and now (1902) have a synagogue, a B'nai B'rith lodge, a society for Jewish history and literature, a ḥebra ḳaddisha (organized 1875), a woman's society, and the Samson Armenkasse founded by Rabbi Leo Kamerase. Its first rabbi was Dr. Dienstfertig (d. 1895). The community is now under the direction of Rabbi Kamerase.