Maximilian Heller

HELLER, GELLER

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from a physical characteristic or nickname.

Heller is derived from Hell, which means "bright" in German. Usually the nickname referred to persons with fair or reddish hair and a light complexion. During the 17th century in Central and Eastern Europe, many of the personal nicknames became hereditary, fixed family names. In some cases Heller is derived from Heller, the name of a small medieval German coin, first minted at Hall in Suebia. Originally this family name may have derived from an occupation, profession or trade (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade). Geller is a Slavic variant of Heller.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish surname Heller include the Bavarian-born Austrian rabbi and author Yomtov Lipmann Heller (1579-1654), the American social worker and philanthropist Florence Heller (1898-1966), the Czech-born writer Seligmann Heller (1831-1890) and the 20th century Lithuanian-born South African business executive Simon Heller.

Distinguished 20th century bearers of the Jewish family name Geller include the Canadian communal worker Frances Schiffra Geller.

Houston

Port and industrial center in Southeastern Texas, USA.

21ST CENTURY

In 2017 there were 63,700 Jews living in Houston. The vast majority of Houston’s Jewish community was living in areas that were affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Three of the five major synagogues in Houston experienced major flooding while many Jewish homes were flooded and sustained significant damage. A number of Jewish camps in the area provided shelter for both Jews and non-Jews who were forced to evacuate their homes.

HISTORY

Houston was founded in 1836. It is unknown when the first Jew arrived, but there are records of several Jews who came during the early years of the settlement. Eugene Chimene is often cited as the first Jew of Houston, although he is not listed until the census of 1860. The earliest available census regarding the population of Houston dates back to 1850, and it indicates a possible 17 Jewish adults out of a population of 1863; in 1860 the figures were 68 out of a total population of 3,768. The majority of these Jews were merchants and clerks who operated stores selling clothing and food. These Houston Jews were reported to be "comfortably situated" by contemporary sources. The 1860 census indicated that approximately 60% of the Jews were landowners (as compared with about 25% of other immigrant groups), but there were also some Jews with no personal and real-estate.
The Jews were informally organized in Houston until 1855 when a Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded. The "Occident" heralded its organization as he first "regular Jewish Society in the state of Texas".

On May 8, 1859 the first congregation, Beth Israel, was established, and in August of that year its synagogue, a wooden structure in the middle of the city, was dedicated. The congregation began as an Orthodox synagogue according to Polish sources, although the majority of Jews in Houston were of German origin. In 1856 a home was converted into a synagogue and in 1860 the Orthodox Beth Israel congregation was formed, with Z. Emmich acting as its first rabbi, cantor and ritual slaughterer. The congregation's first building was erected in 1870. The city then had a population of 9,382 of whom 245 were Jews. That population would almost double only 7 years later, to 471. The last decades of the 19th century witnessed the beginnings of Jewish immigration to Houston from Eastern Europe, replacing the earlier German one. As Beth Israel congregation became more liberal in outlook, two new Orthodox congregations were formed which eventually merged as congregation Adath Yeshurun in 1891. The first "B'nai B'rith" lodge and a "Hebrew Free Loan society" were organized, along with the beginnings of a YMHA. The new immigrants mostly incorporated in the retail trade as peddlers and shopkeepers, although there were several bankers among them as well as dealers in cotton. Henry S. Fox was one of the founders of the "Houston Cotton Exchange", Morris Levy was a member of the first "Houston Ship Channel Company", and Ed Klein established Houston's first department store.

The turn of the 19th century inaugurated a period of rapid growth in the Jewish community, spurred by the 1900 hurricane that drove many Jewish inhabitants inland from the Texas coast, and by the implementation of the "Galveston Plan". The city's first Jewish newspaper, "the Jewish Herald", went into publication in 1908. New synagogues were established and Jewish institutional life expanded with new organizations as a "Bikur Cholim Sociey", "Workmen's Circle" (1915), "Zionist Federation" (1903), "United Jewish charities" (1914),ant the weekly "Jewish Herald" (1908). The large military instillations near Houston during World War I brought an influx of Jewish Servicemen, many of whom remained in the city after their discharge. In 1917 the Jewish population of Houston was put at 5,000. By 1920 it had jumped to 10,000, close to seven percent of the city's total. The leading figure in the Jewish community during this period was Rabbi Henry Branston who accepted the 'Beth Israel' pulpit in 1900 and for the next 45 years presided over the congregation. Judge Henry J. Dannenbaum was nationally active in the fight against white slavery and served the city in its civic life, along with precipitation in Jewish communal affairs.

The Jewish community grew at a slower pace between the two world wars, reaching an estimated 13,500 in 1941. Ku Klus Klan activity in the rea in the 1920s and 1930s discouraged Jews from entering civic and political life as well as being afraid to stand out. Beth El, Texas' first Conservative congregation was formed in 1924. The "Jewish Community Council" was organized during those years. An annual "United Jewish Campaign" was instituted under the Council's direction. A charitable foundation left to the community by Pauline Sterne Wolff helped support many of Houston's Jewish institutions in the years to come. Religiously, the drift in the Jewish community was toward Reform. A unique event in national Jewish life occurred in Houston in 1943 when a radically anti-Zionist majority at congregation Beth Israel, the city's largest, passed a resolution of "Basic Principles" that excluded from the congregation all members professing an interest in Zionism. A minority of dissenters withdrew from the congregation to form a new synagogue; Emanu El. Beth Israel eliminated the "Basic Principles" from its membership application only in 1967.

The growth of Houston's Jewish community after World War II did not keep pace with the phenomenal growth pf the city as a whole, so that by 1970 the Jewish percentage in the total population had declined to less than two percent. To an extent, this may be attributed to the fact that, more than elsewhere in the United States, large chain stores and distribution outlets in Houston, have eliminated the traditional Jewish role of the individual entrepreneur. Nevertheless, Houston has remained a city rich in Jewish organizations. Among other institutions were 12-story Jewish institute for Medical Research and a $3,500,000 Jewish community center. In 1967 the "Houston Commission for Jewish Education" was formed to coordinate Jewish educational activities.

Few Houstonian Jews participated in local political life. The first Jew to be elected to political office in Houston in the 20th century was Richard Gottlieb, who was chosen to the city's council in 1969. Jews have been more prominent in business, among them Joe Weingarten, one of the pioneers in the supermarket field, Simon Sakowitz, one of Houston's leading merchants. In the field of education, Norman Hackerman became president of Rice University in 1970, and Joseph Melnick, one of the world's leading virologists, was dean of the graduate research department of the Baylor College of Medicine. D.H. White edited and published the weekly "Jewish Herald-Voice".

The 1970s saw a tremendous growth in Houston's Jewish community, which grew from 25,000 to 45,000. The growth was a reflection of the boom in the Houston economy that lasted through the mid-1980s. The 1970s and 1980s also saw tremendous growth in Jewish institutions.

By 1995, the Houston Jewish community had five Jewish day schools with an enrollment of over 1,000 children. More than 3,000 children participated in other forms of Jewish education throughout the community. In the mid-1990s the community had 30 congregations representing every stream of Judaism and geographically located in all corners of the city. Houston's "Jewish Community Center" provides early childhood services, a campsite for day and resident camping, and a satellite facility in West Houston.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the Jewish Federation raised 3 million dollars for neighborhood renewal in Israel and in excess of 10 million dollars for the rescue and resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet-Union. In 2014, they raised nearly $14 million for local, national and international Jewish causes.

Houston is home to 6 million "Holocaust Education Center and Memorial Museum", opened in 1996. The museum features a permanent exhibit telling stories of Holocaust survivors living in the Houston area. Its Memorial Museum is the fourth-largest Holocaust memorial in the United States. Visitors of the museum can access the Boniuk Library which includes more than 5,000 volumes on the Holocaust and several archives.

The Jewish community of Houston has grown to incorporate many different traditions and branches. In the early 21st century it was one of the largest Jewish communities in the south and continued to contribute to the cultural and economic life of them region. A 2001 study from Rice University placed the Jewish population of Greater Houston at approximately 47,000. In 2003, the total population of Houston was just over 2 million.

By the 21st century, Houston was host to a variety of organizations, committees, schools and kosher services. The "Jewish Federation of Greater Houston", "Jewish Family Service" and the "Hebrew Free Loan Association" are just a few which serve the Jewish community, providing financial assistance and social services. The "Seven Acres Jewish Geriatric Center" is an assisted living facility which is supported by the Federation.

Other important Jewish institutions include the city's "JCC" and the "Chabad Lubavitch Center". A partner of the Federation, the "Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston" offers numerous programs for children, families and young adults. Religious organizations like the "Chabad Lubavitch Center" and the "Hillel Foundation of Greater Houston" work to strengthen Jewish bonds within the community and function as community resources for Jewish students and professionals.

In the realm of education are several Jewish day schools. The "William S. Malev School" at Beth Yeshurun is Conservative, the "Irvin M. Shlenker School" at Beth Israel is Reform and the "Torah Day School of Houston"
is Orthodox and affiliated with the Chabad movement. Other schools include "Emery/Weiner", a secondary school, the "Robert M. Beren Academy", and Orthodox primary and secondary school, and the former Hebrew Academy. In 2008, the "Chai Learning Center" opened which houses a congregation and a number of classrooms. The Center was established by the Orthodox community and is affiliated with Hasidic Judaism.

Religious life in Houston covers a wide range of movements from Reform to Orthodox Judaism. By 2011, the city was home to twenty-three different synagogues. According to the Pew Research Center, Orthodox Jews are the fastest-growing segment of the Jewish population. In 2012, the Orthodox Union described Houston as being a city that offered affordable Orthodox living. While the number of congregations has grown, a 2001 study found that 60% of affiliated Jews are members of the city's three largest congregations, Beth Yeshurun, Beth Israel and Emanu-El. In 2011, Beth Yeshurun had a membership of 2,170 families, making it the largest Conservative congregation in the entire country. That same year, Beth Israel had 1,700 member families. Both Beth Israel and Beth Yeshurun are located in the Meyerland neighborhood of southwest Houston.

Houston's Jews have largely been concentrated in the Southwest part of the city. By the 1980s, a quarter of the Jewish population lived in only two of the city's zip codes. Close to half lived in the areas of Bellaire, Braeswood and Meyerland. While there are Jewish enclaves, there isn't a neighborhood where Jews comprise the majority. Since the 1980s, Jews have been gradually moving into the suburbs. At the same time, Jews from across the United States have been arriving in large numbers to Houston and the surrounding cities. In the 1990s, the Jewish community spread into areas such as Woodlands, Spring and Humble, where they formed congregations. According to Jewish Family Service, there are growing Jewish communities in the suburban areas of Pearland and Clear Lake. There is also a burgeoning community in Katy, an area known for its many Russian and Israeli Jews. However, despite the dispersion of Jews into the suburbs, the center of Houston's Jewish community has remained in Meyerland. This neighborhood in southwest Houston was named after the Meyer family who purchased thousands of acres of land.

 

Cincinnati

City on the Ohio River in the state of Ohio, United States.
The oldest Jewish community west of the Allegheny Mountains and a center of American Reform Judaism.

21st CENTURY

In 2019, there were 18,900 Jewish households in the Greater Cincinnati area, comprising 32,100 Jewish individuals. There were 10,200 children living in the Jewish households, of which 5,700 (56%) were being raised Jewish in some way. The city has an active Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation.

HISTORY

The first permanent Jewish settler in Cincinnati was Joseph Jonas, a watchmaker, who arrived from Plymouth, England in 1817. Two years later, in 1819, he was joined by several additional Jews from England, including his brother Abraham Jonas and his sister and brother-in-law Sarah and Morris Moses. That year, for the High Holidays these Jews of Cincinnati joined with David Israel Johnson of Brookville, Indiana (originally of Portsmouth, England) and held their first Jewish service.

Jewish settlers continued to arrive, mostly from England, and High Holiday services continued to be held. In 1824, the Jewish population of Cincinnati had reached 20 families, and they met in the home of Morris Moses to draft a constitution for a synagogue, B’Nai Israel (later to be renamed the Rockdale Temple). It was chartered by the State of Ohio on January 8, 1830, and Joseph Jonas became its first president. in 1836, after 12 years of meeting for services in rented rooms, the congregation dedicated a new synagogue building, a stucco structure, measuring 60 feet by 33 feet with a 12-foot dome and four columns in front.  Because of a growth in membership, a new building was constructed in 1852.  By 1860 there were over 200 families in the congregation, and in 1869 a new more spacious edifice was erected on Eighth and Mound Streets.

Subsequently, many Jews from Germany began settling in Cincinnati. In 1840 German immigrants founded their own synagogue, B'nai Yeshurun. It was incorporated by the State of Ohio in 1842, and its new building dedicated in 1848 with a procession of 300 people accompanied by a band. It was replaced in 1866 by the ornate Plum Street Synagogue. Other German Orthodox congregations were established included Ahabath Achim (1848), and Sherith Israel (1855). The Orthodox congregation, Adath Israel (1847), was established by Eastern European immigrants. Ahabath Achim and Sherith Israel became more liberal and merged in 1907, becoming the Reading Road Temple. The Reading Road Temple, in turn, would later merge with the Wise Temple in 1931.

Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900) came to Cincinnati in 1854 to lead both the B’Nai Yeshurun and B’Nai Israel synagogues. In 1855 Rabbi Max Lilienthal (1815-1882) assumed the leadership of the B’Nai Israel Synagogue. The two rabbis collaborated in introducing the rituals of Reform Judaism into both congregations, and in the next decades Cincinnati became a center for the Reform movement. Wise became the leading figure in the development of the institutions  of Reform Judaism in the US. In 1873 he founded in Cincinnati  the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC). All the local pre-Civil War congregations joined the organization although Adath Israel withdrew in 1886 and eventually became a Conservative congregation.  In 1875 Wise founded Hebrew Union College and in 1889 he established  the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Although the Reform movement had a major impact on the Cincinnati Jewish community, an influx of East European Jews founded a number of Orthodox congregations. Shachne Isaacs who arrived from Lithuania in 1853 and founded Bet Tefillah in 1866, known as Reb Shachne’s Shul, was a vociferous opponent of reform and supporter of tradition, and publicly burned a Reform prayer book. In 1931 Rabbi Eliezer Silver, head of Agudat Israel (Union of Orthodox Rabbis) became the leader of Kneseth Israel synagogue, which had been founded in 1912.  He helped organize the Va’ad ha-Hazzalah, the worldwide rescue effort organized by Orthodox Jewry during the Holocaust.

In the 1840s, Bene Israel established the first religious school and Talmud Torah. In 1848  B'nai Yeshurun opened an all-day school which became the Talmud Yelodim Institute, supported by a grant from Judah Touro. It operated until 1868, after which it became a Sabbath and eventually a Sunday school. Bene Israel's Noyoth School, established in 1855 merged with it for a short time. In later years all of the major synagogues maintained religious schools. A Talmud Torah was established by Moses Isaacs and Dov Behr Manischewitz to accommodate the needs of the increasing number of immigrants from eastern Europe. When he died in 1914, Manischewitz left a bequest that provided the seed money for constructing a new building for the school that served the community until 1927.

The Bureau of Jewish Education began operations in 1925. On the level of higher education,  Zion College was short-lived (1855-1857), but Hebrew Union College became a major center of higher Jewish learning and Reform rabbinical training, and continues to be so today.

In 1947 the Orthodox Chofetz Chaim School (later renamed the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School) was founded. In 1952 a non-Orthodox Yavneh Day School was opened, and in 1988 a Hebrew high school for girls, the Regional Institute for Torah and Secular Studies (RITTS).  In 1995 the Cincinnati Kollel was established to provide Torah study and Jewish learning opportunities for the entire community.
Jewish newspapers that were published in Cincinnati include the English-language The Israelite, begun in 1854 and the German-language weekly Die Deborah (1855-1900), both founded by Isaac Mayer Wise. The Israelite was renamed The American Israelite in 1874 and is still published today, being the oldest English Jewish weekly in the US. The Sabbath Visitor appeared between 1874 and 1893, and the weekly Every Friday between 1927 and 1965.

In 1838 a Benevolent Society was founded, and in 1849 a B’nai Brith Lodge, the first in the western part of the US, was opened. The Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, the first Jewish hospital in the US, was founded in 1850 in response to a cholera epidemic that broke out in the city, and in reaction to the pressure to convert exercised by Christian missionaries on dying Jewish patients at local medical institutions. Although it subsequently merged with other health institutions, it retains to this day its original name and association with the Jewish community.

In the 1880’s the Jewish Home for the Aged and Infirm (later renamed Glen Manor) was established on the grounds of the Jewish Hospital.  In 1914 the Orthodox community founded their own Jewish Home for the Aged.  In the 1990’s, with the migration of the Jewish community to the northern suburbs, the two institutions merged at a new location, creating Cedar Village staffed by both an Orthodox and a Reform rabbi.

By the 1890s numerous philanthropic organizations had been established, uniting in 1898 under the umbrella organization United Jewish Charities (which would later be renamed Associated Jewish Agencies, or AJA). In 1904 Boris Bogen, who would become  instrumental in the professionalization of social work in the US, became its director. In 1967, the Jewish Welfare Fund merged with AJA to form the Jewish Federation. The Jewish Community Center began operations in 1932, acting as a successor to the YMHA-Settlement House Movement of the previous generation. There were also two Jewish country clubs, Losantiville and Crest Hills (to merge in 2004 to form the Ridge Club).

Jews have been represented in nearly every sector of Cincinnati's economy. During the mid-1800s they were especially prominent in the garment and distilling industries. B'nai Yeshurun's impressive Plum St. Temple building, dedicated in 1866, reflects the level of prosperity attained by Cincinnati's Jews during the Civil War era.

The B. Manischewitz Company was founded in 1888 in Cincinnati by Dov Behr Manischewitz, an immigrant from Lithuania. It revolutionized the baking of matzo by automating its production, cutting it in uniform squares and packing it in shippable boxes.

 During the 20th century Jews were prominent in merchandising, real estate, construction, law, and medicine. One of America's leading mercantile empires, Federated Department Stores Inc., which later merged with other companies to form Macy's, was controlled by Cincinnati's Lazarus family, whose patriarch was Fred Lazarus Jr. The Jews of Cincinnati were active politically and in the local judiciary. There have been six Jewish mayors of the city, and in 1900 two Jews ran against each other for this office.

Jewish residential movement reflected Cincinnati's growth as a city. What had been the center of the community during the 19th century in the downtown west end, shifted in the early 1900s to Walnut Hills and Avondale. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, it shifted yet again, to Roselawn and Amberley. By the mid-1960s, Cincinnati Jewry had become a largely upper-middle class suburban community, and in 1968 they numbered 28,000.

In 1972 the University of Cincinnati established a Jewish Studies Program. The Hillel student organization which had been founded in 1948 was greatly expanded in the 1970s.

Prague

Capital of the Czech Republic. Formerly the capital of Czechoslovakia.

It has the oldest Jewish community in Bohemia and one of the oldest communities in Europe, for some time the largest and most revered. Jews may have arrived in Prague in late roman times, but the first document mentioning them is a report by Ibrahim Ibn Ya'qub from about 970. The first definite evidence for the existence of a Jewish community in Prague dates to 1091. Jews arrived in Prague from both the east and west around the same time. It is probably for this reason that two Jewish districts came into being there right at the beginning.

The relatively favorable conditions in which the Jews at first lived in Prague were disrupted at the time of the first crusade in 1096. The crusaders murdered many of the Jews in Prague, looted Jewish property, and forced many to accept baptism. During the siege of Prague castle in 1142, the oldest synagogue in Prague and the Jewish quarter below the castle were burned down and the Jews moved to the right bank of the river Moldau (vltava), which was to become the future Jewish quarter, and founded the "Altschul" ("old synagogue") there.

The importance of Jewish culture in Prague is evidenced by the works of the halakhists there in the 11th to 13th centuries. The most celebrated was Isaac B. Moses of Vienna (d. C. 1250) author of "Or Zaru'a". Since the Czech language was spoken by the Jews of Prague in the early middle ages, the halakhic writings of that period also contain annotations in Czech. From the 13th to 16th centuries the Jews of Prague increasingly spoke German. At the time of persecutions which began at the end of the 11th century, the Jews of Prague, together with all the other Jews of Europe, lost their status as free people. From the 13th century on, the Jews of Bohemia were considered servants of the royal chamber (servi camerae regis). Their residence in Prague was subject to the most humiliating conditions (the wearing of special dress, segregation in the ghetto, etc.). The only occupation that Jews were allowed to adopt was moneylending, since this was forbidden to Christians and considered dishonest. Socially the Jews were in an inferior position.

The community suffered from persecutions accompanied by bloodshed in the 13th and 14th centuries, particularly in 1298 and 1338. Charles IV (1346- 1378) protected the Jews, but after his death the worst attack occurred in 1389, when nearly all the Jews of Prague fell victims. The rabbi of Prague and noted kabbalist Avigdor Kara, who witnessed and survived the outbreak, described it in a selichah. Under Wenceslaus IV the Jews of Prague suffered heavy material losses following an order by the king in 1411 canceling all debts owed to Jews.

At the beginning of the 15th century the Jews of Prague found themselves at the center of the Hussite wars (1419- 1436). The Jews of Prague also suffered from mob violence (1422) in this period. The unstable conditions in Prague compelled many Jews to emigrate.

Following the legalization, at the end of the 15th century, of moneylending by non-Jews in Prague, the Jews of Prague lost the economic significance which they had held in the medieval city, and had to look for other occupations in commerce and crafts. The position of the Jews began to improve at the beginning of the 16th century, mainly owing to the assistance of the king and the nobility. The Jews found greater opportunities in trading commodities and monetary transactions with the nobility. As a consequence, their economic position improved. In 1522 there were about 600 Jews in Prague, but by 1541 they numbered about 1,200. At the same time the Jewish quarters were extended. At the end of the 15th century the Jews of Prague founded new communities.

Under pressure of the citizens, king Ferdinand I was compelled in 1541 to approve the expulsion of the Jews. The Jews had to leave Prague by 1543, but were allowed to return in 1545. In 1557 Ferdinand I once again, this time upon his own initiative, ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Prague. They had to leave the city by 1559. Only after the retirement of Ferdinand I from the government of Bohemia were the Jews allowed to return to Prague in 1562.

The favorable position of the Jewish community of Prague during the reign of Rudolf II is reflected also in the flourishing Jewish culture. Among illustrious rabbis who taught in Prague at that time were Judah Loew B. Bezalel (the "maharal"); Ephraim Solomon B. Aaron of Luntschitz; Isaiah B. Abraham ha-levi Horowitz, who taught in Prague from 1614 to 1621; and Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, who became chief rabbi in 1627 but was forced to leave in 1631. The chronicler and astronomer David Gans also lived there in this period. At the beginning of the 17th century about 6,000 Jews were living in Prague.

In 1648 the Jews of Prague distinguished themselves in the defense of the city against the invading swedes. In recognition of their acts of heroism the Emperor presented them with a special flag which is still preserved in the Altneuschul. Its design with a Swedish cap in the center of the Shield of David became the official emblem of the Prague Jewish community.

After the thirty years' war, government policy was influenced by the church counter-reformation, and measures were taken to limit the Jews' means of earning a livelihood. A number of anti-Semitic resolutions and decrees were promulgated. Only the eldest son of every family was allowed to marry and found a family, the others having to remain single or leave Bohemia.

In 1680, more than 3,000 Jews in Prague died of the plague. Shortly afterward, in 1689, the Jewish quarter burned down, and over 300 Jewish houses and 11 synagogues were destroyed. The authorities initiated and partially implemented a project to transfer all the surviving Jews to the village of Lieben (Liben) north of Prague. Great excitement was aroused in 1694 by the murder trial of the father of Simon Abeles, a 12-year-old boy, who, it was alleged, had desired to be baptized and had been killed by his father. Simon was buried in the Tyn (Thein) church, the greatest and most celebrated cathedral of the old town of Prague. Concurrently with the religious incitement against the Jews an economic struggle was waged against them.

The anti-Jewish official policy reached its climax after the accession to the throne of Maria Theresa (1740-1780), who in 1744 issued an order expelling the Jews from Bohemia and Moravia. Jews were banished but were subsequently allowed to return after they promised to pay high taxes. In the baroque period noted rabbis were Simon Spira; Elias Spira; David Oppenheim; and Ezekiel Landau, chief rabbi and rosh yeshivah (1755-93(.

The position of the Jews greatly improved under Joseph II (1780-1790), who issued the Toleranzpatent of 1782. The new policy in regard to the Jews aimed at gradual abolition of the limitations imposed upon them, so that they could become more useful to the state in a modernized economic system. At the same time, the new regulations were part of the systematic policy of germanization pursued by Joseph II. Jews were compelled to adopt family names and to establish schools for secular studies; they became subject to military service, and were required to cease using Hebrew and Yiddish in business transactions. Wealthy and enterprising Jews made good use of the advantages of Joseph's reforms. Jews who founded manufacturing enterprises were allowed to settle outside the Jewish quarter of Prague.

Subsequently the limitations imposed upon Jews were gradually removed. In 1841 the prohibition on Jews owning land was rescinded. In 1846 the Jewish tax was abolished. In 1848 Jews were granted equal rights, and by 1867 the process of legal emancipation had been completed. In 1852 the ghetto of Prague was abolished. Because of the unhygienic conditions in the former Jewish quarter the Prague municipality decided in 1896 to pull down the old quarter, with the exception of important historical sites. Thus the Altneuschul, the Pinkas and Klaus, Meisel and Hoch synagogues, and some other places of historical and artistic interest remained intact.

In 1848 the community of Prague, numbering over 10,000, was still one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe (Vienna then numbered only 4,000 Jews). In the following period of the emancipation and the post- emancipation era the Prague community increased considerably in numbers, but did not keep pace with the rapidly expanding new Jewish metropolitan centers in western, central, and Eastern Europe.

After emancipation had been achieved in 1867, emigration from Prague abroad ceased as a mass phenomenon; movement to Vienna, Germany, and Western Europe continued. Jews were now represented in industry, especially the textile, clothing, leather, shoe, and food industries, in wholesale and retail trade, and in increasing numbers in the professions and as white-collar employees. Some Jewish bankers, industrialists and merchants achieved considerable wealth. The majority of Jews in Prague belonged to the middle class, but there also remained a substantial number of poor Jews.

Emancipation brought in its wake a quiet process of secularization and assimilation. In the first decades of the 19th century Prague Jewry, which then still led its traditionalist orthodox way of life, had been disturbed by the activities of the followers of Jacob Frank. The situation changed in the second half of the century. The chief rabbinate was still occupied by outstanding scholars, like Solomon Judah Rapoport, the leader of the Haskalah movement; Markus Hirsch (1880-1889) helped to weaken the religious influence in the community. Many synagogues introduced modernized services, a shortened liturgy, the organ and mixed choir, but did not necessarily embrace the principles of the reform movement.

Jews availed themselves eagerly of the opportunities to give their children a higher secular education. Jews formed a considerable part of the German minority in Prague, and the majority adhered to liberal movements. David Kuh founded the "German liberal party of Bohemia and represented it in the Bohemian diet (1862-1873). Despite strong Germanizing factors, many Jews adhered to the Czech language, and in the last two decades of the 19th century a Czech assimilationist movement developed which gained support from the continuing influx of Jews from the rural areas. Through the influence of German nationalists from the Sudeten districts anti-Semitism developed within the German population and opposed Jewish assimilation. At the end of the 19th century Zionism struck roots among the Jews of Bohemia, especially in Prague.

Growing secularization and assimilation led to an increase of mixed marriages and abandonment of Judaism. At the time of the Czechoslovak republic, established in 1918, many more people registered their dissociation of affiliation to the Jewish faith without adopting another. The proportion of mixed marriages in Bohemia was one of the highest in Europe. The seven communities of Prague were federated in the union of Jewish religious communities of greater Prague and cooperated on many issues. They established joint institutions; among these the most important was the institute for social welfare, established in 1935. The "Afike Jehuda society for the Advancement of Jewish Studies" was founded in 1869. There were also the Jewish museum and "The Jewish historical society of Czechoslovakia". A five-grade elementary school was established with Czech as the language of instruction. The many philanthropic institutions and associations included the Jewish care for the sick, the center for social welfare, the aid committee for refugees, the aid committee for Jews from Carpatho- Russia, orphanages, hostels for apprentices, old-age homes, a home for abandoned children, free-meal associations, associations for children's vacation centers, and funds to aid students. Zionist organizations were also well represented. There were three B'nai B'rith lodges, women's organizations, youth movements, student clubs, sports organizations, and a community center. Four Jewish weeklies were published in Prague (three Zionist; one Czech- assimilationist), and several monthlies and quarterlies. Most Jewish organizations in Czechoslovakia had their headquarters in Prague.

Jews first became politically active, and some of them prominent, within the German orbit. David Kuh and the president of the Jewish community, Arnold Rosenbacher, were among the leaders of the German Liberal party in the 19th century. Bruno Kafka and Ludwig Spiegel represented its successor in the Czechoslovak republic, the German Democratic Party, in the chamber of deputies and the senate respectively. Emil Strauss represented that party in the 1930s on the Prague Municipal Council and in the Bohemian diet. From the end of the 19th century an increasing number of Jews joined Czech parties, especially T. G. Masaryk's realists and the social democratic party. Among the latter Alfred Meissner, Lev Winter, and Robert Klein rose to prominence, the first two as ministers of justice and social welfare respectively.

Zionists, though a minority, soon became the most active element among the Jews of Prague. "Barissia" - Jewish Academic Corporation, was founded in Prague in 1903, it was one of the leading academic organizations for the advancement of Zionism in Bohemia. Before World War I the students' organization "Bar Kochba", under the leadership of Samuel Hugo Bergman, became one of the centers of cultural Zionism. The Prague Zionist Arthur Mahler was elected to the Austrian parliament in 1907, though as representative of an electoral district in Galicia. Under the leadership of Ludvik Singer the "Jewish National Council" was formed in 1918. Singer was elected in 1929 to the Czechoslovak parliament, and was succeeded after his death in 1931 by Angelo Goldstein. Singer, Goldstein, Frantisek Friedmann, and Jacob Reiss represented the Zionists on the Prague municipal council also. Some important Zionist conferences took place in Prague, among them the founding conference of hitachadut in 1920, and the
18th Zionist congress in 1933.

The group of Prague German-Jewish authors which emerged in the 1880s, known as the "Prague Circle" ('der Prager Kreis'), achieved international recognition and included Franz Kafka, Max Brod, Franz Werfel, Oskar Baum, Ludwig Winder, Leo Perutz, Egon Erwin Kisch, Otto Klepetar, and Willy Haas.

During the Holocaust period, the measures e.g., deprivation of property rights, prohibition against religious, cultural, or any other form of public activity, expulsion from the professions and from schools, a ban on the use of public transportation and the telephone, affected Prague Jews much more than those still living in the provinces. Jewish organizations provided social welfare and clandestinely continued the education of the youth and the training in languages and new vocations in preparation for emigration. The Palestine office in Prague, directed by Jacob Edelstein, enabled about 19,000 Jews to emigrate legally or otherwise until the end of 1939.

In March 1940, the Prague zentralstelle extended the area of its jurisdiction to include all of Bohemia and Moravia. In an attempt to obviate the deportation of the Jews to "the east", Jewish leaders, headed by Jacob Edelstein, proposed to the zentralstelle the establishment of a self- administered concentrated Jewish communal body; the Nazis eventually exploited this proposal in the establishment of a ghetto at Theresienstadt (Terezin). The Prague Jewish community was forced to provide the Nazis with lists of candidates for deportation and to ensure that they showed up at the assembly point and boarded deportation trains. In the period from October 6, 1941, to March 16, 1945, 46,067 Jews were deported from Prague to "the east" or to Theresienstadt. Two leading officials of the Jewish community, H. Bonn and Emil Kafka were dispatched to Mauthausen concentration camp and put to death after trying to slow down the pace of the deportations. The Nazis set up a treuhandstelle ("trustee Office") over evacuated Jewish apartments, furnishings, and possessions. This office sold these goods and forwarded the proceeds to the German winterhilfe ("winter aid"). The treuhandstelle ran as many as 54 warehouses, including 11 synagogues (as a result, none of the synagogues was destroyed). The zentralstelle brought Jewish religious articles from 153 Jewish communities to Prague on a proposal by Jewish scholars. This collection, including 5,400 religious objects, 24,500 prayer books, and 6,070 items of historical value the Nazis intended to utilize for a "central museum of the defunct Jewish race". Jewish historians engaged in the creation of the museum were deported to extermination camps just before the end of the war. Thus the Jewish museum had acquired at the end of the war one of the richest collections of Judaica in the world.


Prague had a Jewish population of 10,338 in 1946, of whom 1,396 Jews had not been deported (mostly of mixed Jewish and Christian parentage); 227 Jews had gone underground; 4,986 returned from prisons, concentration camps, or Theresienstadt; 883 returned from Czechoslovak army units abroad; 613 were Czechoslovak Jewish emigres who returned; and 2,233 were Jews from Ruthenia (Carpatho-Ukraine), which had been ceded to the U.S.S.R. who decided to move to Czechoslovakia. The communist takeover of 1948 put an end to any attempt to revive the Jewish community and marked the beginning of a period of stagnation. By 1950 about half of the Jewish population had gone to Israel or immigrated to other countries. The Slansky trials and the officially promoted anti-Semitism had a destructive effect upon Jewish life. Nazi racism of the previous era was replaced by political and social discrimination. Most of the Jews of Prague were branded as "class enemies of the working people". During this
Period (1951-1964) there was no possibility of Jewish emigration from the country. The assets belonging to the Jewish community had to be relinquished to the state. The charitable organizations were disbanded, and the budget of the community, provided by the state, was drastically reduced. The general anti-religious policy of the regime resulted in the cessation, for all practical purposes, of such Jewish religious activities as bar-mitzvah religious instruction and wedding ceremonies. In 1964 only two cantors and two ritual slaughterers were left. The liberalization of the regime during 1965-1968 held out new hope for a renewal of Jewish life in Prague.

At the end of March 1967 the president of "The World Jewish Congress", Nahum Goldmann, was able to visit Prague and give a lecture in the Jewish town hall. Among the Jewish youth many tended to identify with Judaism. Following the soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 there was an attempt to put an end to this trend, however the Jewish youth, organized since 1965, carried on with their Jewish cultural activities until 1972. In the late 6os the Jewish population of Prague numbered about 2,000.

On the walls of the Pinkas synagogue, which is part of the central Jewish museum in Prague, are engraved the names of 77,297 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia who were murdered by the Nazis in 1939-1945.

In 1997 some 6,000 Jews were living in the Czech Republic, most of them in Prague. The majority of the Jews of Prague were indeed elderly, but the Jewish community's strengthened in 1990's by many Jews, mainly American, who had come to work in the republic, settled in Prague, and joined the community.

In April 2000 the central square of Prague was named Franz Kafka square. This was done thanks to the unflinching efforts and after years of straggle with the authorities, of Professor Eduard Goldstucker, a Jew born in Prague, the initiator of the idea.

New Orleans

A city in the state of Louisiana, USA.

A port and commercial center near the mouth of the Mississippi river in the state of Louisiana. While home to one of the largest cargo ports in the world, New Orleans is also the home to a small but vibrant Jewish community.

It may not be assumed that Jews were among the city's first settlers when it was founded in 1718, although the ''black code'' issued by the French governor in 1724 ordered their expulsion. Spanish and Portuguese Jewish traders arriving from the Caribbean were among the first to settle. The first known Jewish settler after 1724 was Isaac Rodriguez Monsanto in 1759. When the city was ceded to Spain in 1762, new and more restrictive laws were promulgated. In the early 19th century, more Jews took up residence in New Orleans, which passed to the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1815. Judah Touro, later a wealthy merchant and philanthropist, arrived in 1803, and Ezekiel Salomon, son of the American Revolution patriot Haym Salomon, was Governor of the United States Bank in New Orleans from 1816 to 1821. Two more Jews who later achieved high position settled in the city in 1828, Judah Benjamin, later US Secretary of State, and Henry M. Hyams, later Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. In the 1830s Gershom Kursheedt, who became the first communal leader, arrived in New Orleans; his brother E. Isaac Kursheedt was a colonel in the Washington Artillery, the historic New Orleans regiment.

The first congregation in New Orleans to be established was Shaarei Chessed ("Gates of Mercy") synagogue. Founded in 1827 by a Sephardic Jew named Isaac Solis, it became the first permanent Jewish house of worship in the entire state of Louisiana. Not only did its foundation provide the city’s minority of religious Jews a sanctuary for prayer, but it confirmed the abolition of the Code Noir (Black Code), a decree which had originally defined the conditions of slavery and restricted the activities of freed blacks, but also forbade the practice of any religion other than Roman Catholicism and ordered all Jews out of French colonies.

In 1848 James C. Gutheim of Cincinnati was invited to serve as rabbi. The Portuguese congregation was founded in 1846. Temple Sinai, the first reform congregation, founded in 1870, recalled Rabbi Gutheim to New Orleans from Emanu-El in New York, to be its first rabbi. The first two congregations merged in 1878 to become the reform Touro synagogue. Congregation Gates of Prayer, organized about 1850, was reform by the 1940s. The reform congregations had the largest number of members, followed by the three orthodox congregations, Chevra Tehillim (founded in 1875), Beth Israel (1903), and Agudas Achim Anshe Sfard (1896). In the early 1960s there was one conservative congregation in New Orleans, which represented about 150 families. The young Jewish society was founded in 1880 and the YMHA, in 1891. In 1910, 18 separate Jewish welfare and charity organizations merged to form the Jewish Welfare Federation.

Among some of the prominent Jews of New Orleans in the late 19th and 20th centuries were the attorney Monte M. Lemann from Louisiana; Isaac Delgado, for whom the municipal art museum was named; Martin Behrman, who was Jewish by birth, was mayor of the city for four terms 1904-1920; Samuel Zemurray, president of the United Fruit Company; Captain Neville Levy, Chairman of the Mississippi River Bridge Commission; and Percival Stern (1880-), benefactor of Tulane and Loyola universities and the Touro Infirmary, one of the South's leading medical centers. Edgar B. Stern and his wife provided many institutions and schools. Malcolm Woldenberg funded the creation of Woldenberg Park. Jews have served as presidents and board members of practically all cultural, civic, and social-welfare agencies and were charter members of some of the most exclusive social and Mardi Gras clubs, though the latter were later closed to Jews.

In 1967 the estimated population totaled 1,000,000, of which about 10,000 were Jews. New Orleans received little of the Eastern-European Jewish immigration to America and consequently has had a high percentage of third- and fourth-generation natives among its Jewish population, which has always been well integrated into the city's general life. In the 1960s, approximately half of the Jewish community belonged to the three reform synagogues. A study in 1958 showed that 25% of New Orleans' Jews were engaged in professional occupations, 40% in managerial jobs, and 18% in clerical and sales work. Relations with the non-Jewish community have traditionally been good and there was little anti-Semitism until the desegregation struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, when the anti-African-American sentiment aroused some anti-Jewish feelings as well.


Early 21st Century

Following the disruption of Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans lost nearly twenty-five percent of its Jewish population, reducing their numbers to approximately seven thousand people. In an effort to revitalize the Jewish community, the Jews of New Orleans reached out to those in neighboring communities and elsewhere; in response, as many as two thousand Jews relocated to New Orleans.

Since 2006, all but one of the city’s major synagogues has reopened. Known as Congregation Beth Israel, it was New Orleans’ oldest and most prominent Orthodox synagogue. In the aftermath of Katrina, it stood submerged in over ten feet of water.

By the early 21st century, there were numerous Jewish charities and foundations, including local chapters and regional offices for larger, national and international Jewish organizations.

Such organizations include the Anti-Defamation League, the National Council of Jewish Women, Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, Hadassah, the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana, Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service, Sisters Chaverot and the Jewish Community Relations Council. Collectively, these organizations serve the Jewish community of New Orleans by providing a wide variety of programs, grants and social services.

Other well-known Jewish institutions like the Jewish Genealogical Society of New Orleans and Hillel’s Kitchen, a kosher restaurant and catering company, cater to the community’s religious and cultural needs.

A focal point of the Jewish community of New Orleans is the Jewish Community Center –Uptown. Established in 1855 as the Young Men’s Hebrew & Literary Society, the JCC offers a variety of programs for children, adults and families including a state-of-the-art fitness center, a four-star rated nursery school and an Alzheimer’s disease program. Additionally, the JCC sponsors several cultural events as well as summer camps, educational programs, senior exercise programs and sports leagues.

Promoting Jewish culture and the history of the Jewish experience in the American South is the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Although located in Jackson, Mississippi, the institute works to promote Jewish culture and history through innovative programs, which educate and support Jewish communities across the South. Established in 1986 as the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; in 2000, the museum underwent an expansion and changed its name to the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Since then they have continued to collect historical documents, artifacts and sacred objects in order to preserve the memory of the South’s historic Jewish communities. They additionally provide rabbinic services to small congregations throughout the region and have developed a religious school program which covers thirteen states including Louisiana.

An important cultural site in New Orleans is the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial Sculpture. Created by Yaacov Agam, an Israeli artist, it commemorates the Six Million Jews and the millions of others who perished during World War II from 1933-1945. The memorial is located in Woldenberg Park on the bank of the Mississippi.

The Reform movement in New Orleans is one of the city’s most dominant movements in Judaism. Followed by the Conservative Congregation of Shir Chadash, the Reform congregations have the largest number of members. Congregations Beth Israel and Agudas Achim Anshe Sfard are the city’s only Orthodox synagogues. Other notable congregations include the Touro Synagogue, Temple Sinai and Congregations Gates of Prayer.

In addition to various congregational Jewish schools, is the Jewish Community Day School of Greater New Orleans. Other Jewish educational programs and institutions include the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School and the Torah Academy. While the former offers classes on Judaism and is non-denominational, the latter is affiliated with Chabad. The Torah Academy provides Jewish education for students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Catering to the city’s Jewish youth are two of New Orleans’ Jewish social associations –Camp Judaea and the B’nai Brith Youth Organization.

One of the largest Jewish enclaves was the Dryades neighborhood in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District, an area once home to a thriving community of Orthodox Jews. The Poydras and Dryades markets attracted many Jewish vendors from Poland and Russia. During the mid-20th century, Jewish populations began to move into the suburbs. A number of African American churches have since purchased the old synagogues, many of which have chosen to leave the Stars of David carvings on the buildings.

Despite the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a number of Jewish institutions remain. There are kosher restaurants like Casablanca and the Kosher Cajun Deli; Judaica shops like Dashka Roth Contemporary Jewelry, L’Dor V’Dor Judaica, Naghi’s and M.S. Rau Antiques. There is even a bookstore at the Chabad House. The Touro Infirmary that has offered some of the best medical care in New Orleans for more than one hundred sixty years, in 2002 completed its retirement community center, which offers a variety of services for the elderly. The Touro Infirmary is New Orleans’ only non-profit, community-based and faith-based hospital.

The Jewish community of New Orleans has a long history of philanthropy. Beginning with Judah Touro, a New England Jew of Sephardic-Dutch descent, Jews have always made many contributions to the city of New Orleans.

Serving the New Orleans Jewish community are four different news and entertainment periodicals. The Jewish Light is a locally owned, published and distributed newspaper. It is New Orleans’ only local Jewish newspaper. Crescent City Jewish News offers a free weekly newsletter and the Deep South Jewish Voice is a twice-monthly newspaper that serves the Jewish communities of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Northwest Florida.

The Southern Jewish Life Magazine is a publication that began in 1990 under the name The Southern Shofar and serves the Jewish communities of the Southeastern United States. In 2009, it began emphasizing local content, and since 2015, they have offered two separate editions, one for the Deep South and one for New Orleans. They additionally publish a weekly newsletter known as This Week in Southern Jewish Life.