The first Jews to settle in Hamburg around 1600 were Sephards - religious refugees from the Iberian Peninsula ('Sefarad' in Hebrew) and their descendants. At first, the Sephardic Jews in Hamburg clearly outnumbered the Ashkenazis, Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. But already towards the end of the 17th century most of the "Portuguese" emigrated again. Since then, it was mainly the Ashkenazis who shaped the Jewish history of Hamburg.   However, a small Portuguese Jewish community continued to exist, celebrating its 275th anniversary in 1927. From 1884 to 1935, the 150 Sephards used a synagogue on Markusstraße in Neustadt, which no longer exists today. After this had also become too large for the shrinking congregation, the new building in Innocentiastraße was inaugurated in March 1935.   The building was a private villa built in 1907, which now housed a 130-seat synagogue. A Hebrew inscription above the entrance and a Star of David on the spire made the building recognizable to the outside world as a place of Jewish culture. However, the synagogue was already forced to close at the end of 1939. From 1941, the villa served as a so-called "Judenhaus" (Jewish house) for the forced assembly of Jewish residents. For 20 of them, this was the last place of residence before their deportation.   The villa on Innocentiastrasse was not only the last Sephardic synagogue in Hamburg, but also the last synagogue of Sephardic Jews on German soil for a long time. The religious fixtures were torn out in 1942, and the inscription on the facade was removed. Since then, the building has been used again as a private residence. It is a protected monument, but there is no commemorative plaque informing about the site's history.

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