In 1796 the Jewish school Hasharat Zwi was founded. This was made possible by a bequest from Hirsch Isaac Borchert. He sought to combine traditional Jewish education with education in the spirit of the Enlightenment, not least to facilitate existence in the surrounding non-Jewish society. Consequently, from the very beginning, secular subjects such as mathematics, science and modern languages were taught on an equal footing with Torah, Talmud and Hebrew. Special emphasis was placed on the teaching of High German. Starting in 1827, boys and girls were taught together, as required by Prussian school law.

In the beginning, classrooms were located in Judenstraße 27, i.e. the neighboring house of the Gemeindemikwe, later in Klaus Rosenwinkel 18. In 1895, the Jewish community erected the building complex Westendorf 15. 

The rear building was the schoolhouse and the front building had rooms for the administration of the Jewish community, as well as apartments for the teachers.

After the night of the November Pogrom in 1938, the building complex at Westendorf No. 15 were used as a so-called Judenhaus (Jewish house). School instruction continued until the summer of 1939. When World War II began, the Jewish community set up a soup kitchen in the schoolhouse for its destitute members.  

On April 12, 1942 and November 22, 1942, the Jews housed in the Judenhaus on Westendorf were deported. There were no survivors.

Between 1943 and May 1945, a sub-organization of the Nazis used the building complex to house forced laborers.