As a small country town, Wiesbaden was not very attractive for Jews in the Middle Ages, so that Goyfryet Josib, mentioned in 1329, was the only Jew living in the town for a long time. He moved to Weilnau in 1348, where several fellow Jews already lived under the protection of the count. In Wiesbaden, on the other hand, there were only ever individual Jews, such as the Spier mentioned in 1367, Kirsan or Gerson, who settled here in 1385. Before 1427, the Jew Gebhard lived in a house near St. George's Chapel on Michelsberg. Jewish traders had probably been visiting Wiesbaden's weekly markets since time immemorial; in 1486, four of them are recorded as not being able to pay the duty. Jews were sought after by the Counts of Nassau as protected Jews, which is why there is still evidence of Jews in Wiesbaden even after the Archbishop of Mainz ordered their expulsion from the archbishopric in 1507. Their legal situation was precarious; they were not allowed to own houses or land. They paid twelve gold guilders a year for the count's letter of protection, which they had to renew annually. Until 1801, only the eldest son or daughter of a family could succeed their father as a Schutzjude. For better or worse, they were dependent on the mercy of the sovereign. The Wiesbaden Jews, who numbered between two and four families in the 16th century, did not have citizenship and paid eight guilders a year to the city. They did not live in a ghetto, even though the name Judengasse has been recorded for Metzgergasse in the 16th/17th century and a Jewish school was located here. At this time, there were already bathhouses for the Jewish clientele, namely the "Helm" and the "Stern". From 1573, the "Spiegel" served as a bathhouse for Jewish spa guests for more than 300 years. Since the Jewish merchant Nathan, who was granted permission to settle in the city in 1638, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Wiesbaden

Now community structures are gradually becoming tangible: as late as 1687, the Jewish inhabitants brought the rabbi from out of town to attend services, but between 1700 and 1720 a community finally formed. From 1760, the community had its own rabbi, Abraham Salomon Dendlau (Tendlau). His son succeeded him in office. In addition to the rabbi, the Jewish community was led by a rector, who was responsible for managing the community's assets and administering "church discipline". In 1713, there were nine Jewish families living in Wiesbaden. In 1732, the "Jewish school" was moved from Metzgergasse (today Wagemannstraße) to the bathhouse "Zum Rebhuhn" at Spiegelgasse 9, which had been Jewish property since 1724. Spiegelgasse thus developed into the center of the Jewish community with a synagogue, bathhouse and presumably also a mikvah (women's bath). However, the Jews had to bury their dead in the cemetery in Wehen until 1747. In the second half of the 18th century, the community grew to ten to 15 families. In 1779, the Jewish population accounted for 1.9% of Wiesbaden's population. In 1732, Princess Charlotte Amalie zu Nassau-Usingen issued a "Jewish ordinance", which was valid until 1806; according to this, Jews were still not allowed to purchase land and were only allowed to own houses for their own use. New synagogues were not allowed to be built. Anyone wishing to marry had to obtain permission from the state. An interest rate of seven percent was not allowed on commercial transactions. Since the founding of the Duchy of Nassau and the associated relocation of the seat of government to Wiesbaden in 1806, the city attracted more and more Jews. A house on Obere Webergasse was used as a synagogue from 1790. A new building became necessary around 1815. In 1824, the community bought the so-called Mahr'schen Gartensaal on Schwalbacher Straße, which was rebuilt to meet their needs and provided space for around 200 people. Dotzheim-born Rabbi Salomon Herxheimer, a pioneer of liberal Judaism, gave a much-noticed speech at the inauguration on February 24, 1826. An important Wiesbaden rabbi was Abraham Geiger, who in his later years became the best-known German Reform rabbi. He formed the Wiesbaden community into a liberal, Jewish unified community, which was to stand for a modern Judaism "while preserving and maintaining the Jewish way of life, religion and mindset", but left the city again after six years in 1838 because a state rabbinate, which he had been promised, was not established. His successors in 1838-44 were Benjamin Hochstädter and Samuel Süßkind, who held office until 1884 and founded the Synagogue Choral Society in 1863.

In the Duchy of Nassau, Jews continued to be regarded as protected Jews and had to apply for a residence permit, meaning that not only their freedom of trade but also their freedom of movement was still restricted. The first step forward was the introduction of freedom of trade in 1819, which at least theoretically allowed Jews to pursue any profession. Merchants could now offer their goods in "open stores" and no longer had to engage in peddling. The introduction of simultaneous schools in 1817, which enabled Jewish children to attend elementary school, improved the educational situation. From 1841, Jews were generally required to pay trade tax, with the abolition of protection money. In the same year, compulsory surnames were introduced for them. In 1843, Jews were placed on an equal footing with Christians in the care of the poor. From 1844, they were also subject to compulsory military service. However, the special formula for the oath-taking of Jews, ordered in 1822, was not abolished until 1861. The Wiesbaden office was divided into the synagogue districts of Biebrich-Mosbach, Bierstadt with Kloppenheim and Erbenheim, Schierstein with Frauenstein, Wiesbaden with Sonnenberg and Dotzheim. In most of these later incorporated suburbs, Jews can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The Wiesbaden community leader exercised a certain central function over them.

In the second half of the 19th century, the members of the Jewish rural communities were increasingly drawn to the expanding spa town, where the "rural Jews" hoped for better sales opportunities for their products and probably also a more liberal attitude in religious matters. For example, the textile merchant Joseph Maier Baum moved with his family from Schierstein to Wiesbaden in 1862, where he became one of the city's most successful entrepreneurs and citizens with his company Nassauische Leinenindustrie J. M. Baum. While the Jewish community in Wiesbaden reformed over the course of the 19th century, conservative ideas tended to dominate in the rural communities. This is reflected in fierce disputes, particularly with the district and city rabbi Samuel Süßkind, who was appointed by the state in 1844. His attempt to push through reforms in religious life met with staunch resistance from conservative Orthodox circles in the villages of his district. In 1857, the district rabbi dismissed the head of the Bierstadt Jewish community because he refused to put the reforms into practice. The Jewish community in Wiesbaden flourished in the second half of the century and grew almost by leaps and bounds: in 1846 it had 354 members, around 2.4% of Wiesbaden's population. This trend intensified after the middle of the century: by 1864, the Jewish community already had over 920 members. In the course of the 1848 revolution, the ducal government granted the removal of "all restrictions on our constitutional freedom of religion" on March 2, 1848 (Freie Zeitung Wiesbaden, March 1848, No. 1). However, this progress only lasted three years, after which the legal equality of the Jews was revoked. Only the annexation of the Duchy of Nassau in 1866 brought emancipation with new professional opportunities: Although the concentration on the commercial sector remained, there was a process of professional "differentiation" and an expansion of opportunities for advancement in social terms as well, for example through admission to the associations of the middle-class elite.

In economic terms, the Jewish population played a not insignificant role in Wiesbaden's development into a sought-after spa town. In 1851, Samuel Löwenherz founded a cold-water spa in the Nero Valley, where 645 guests were cured by 1855. The Berlé family was of great importance for the history of both the Jewish community and the city of Wiesbaden: Marcus Berlé, who was still working as a glassware merchant in the 1830s, had worked his way up to become a banker within a short space of time by founding a banking house. When the Frankfurt National Assembly decided to close the casino in Wiesbaden during the 1848 revolution, Berlé proved to be a savior in times of need and founded the "Gesellschaft zum Betrieb der Cur-Etablissements in den Badeorten Wiesbaden und Ems", which ensured the survival of the establishment. Berlé was a member of prestigious associations such as the Casino-Gesellschaft and the Gewerbeverein für Nassau and was committed to the economic development of the entire region. As head of the Jewish community since 1842, he was also committed to the construction of a new synagogue, which had become necessary due to the increased number of community members, now 550. In 1869, the synagogue on Michelsberg was consecrated in the presence of the King of Prussia. The synagogue also reflected the reformed attitude of the majority of Wiesbaden's Jews on the outside: to the displeasure of the orthodox members of the community, it had an organ. In 1876, under the leadership of Rabbi Dr. Leo Kahn, an independent "Old Israelite Jewish Community" with its own house of worship and cemetery was established as the first segregated community in Prussia. The main Jewish community in Wiesbaden was served by two rabbis, Moses Abraham Tendlau (1802-1878) and Samuel Süßkind, who had previously preached at the Frankfurt Philanthropin. During his forty years in office (1844-84), Samuel Süßkind shaped the internal life of the Jewish community like no other; among his successors, Adolf Kober (1908-18) and Paul Lazarus (1918-38) are particularly worthy of mention. Towards the end of the century, Zionist ideas spread in both communities, initially rather timidly, and contributed to a process of "inner-Jewish" pluralization. The religious teacher Jakob Rosenberg (1876-1942), for example, was appointed National Fund Commissioner of the Zionist Organization in 1907.

Until the outbreak of the First World War, around 3,000 Jewish citizens lived in Wiesbaden. 57 Wiesbadeners of Jewish faith fell as soldiers in the First World War. A memorial stone in the Jewish cemetery on Platter Straße commemorates them. The Wiesbaden communities included institutions and associations such as a "Work Center", a "Ritual Kitchen for the Middle Class", old people's homes, orphan support associations and burial societies, the "Association of Jewish Women", the "Association of Jewish Women for Cultural Work in Palestine", the "Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith" and a Jewish Teaching House.

During the National Socialist era (1933-1945), the thriving Jewish communities were destroyed and their members were either expelled or murdered in concentration camps. The synagogue on Michelsberg and the synagogues in the suburbs were demolished on November 9/10, 1938. In January 1942, around 1,000 Jewish men and women were still living in Wiesbaden. Almost all of them were deported from Wiesbaden main station to the extermination camps in the three major deportations (March, June and September 1942). At least 1,500 people from Wiesbaden - including at least 120 Jewish children and young people - were murdered.