Skip to website content >

The Jewish Community of Huncovce

Huncovce

In German: Hondorf; in Hungarian: Hunfalu or Hunfalva

A small town in north-eastern Slovakia.

Huncovce is situated on the river Poprad, between the towns Poprad in the south and Kezmarok in the north. Until 1918 the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Huncovce is known in the Jewish world thanks to its yeshivot, in which over 10,000 torah scholars were trained in the course of the years. The Jewish community of Huncovce is one of the oldest in the region of Spis (in Hungarian Szepes). The region was inhabited mostly by Germans, who opposed the settlement of Jews in the towns of the district. The first Jews came to Huncovce in the 17th century. In 1728 there were still only two Jewish families in the town, and in 1754 the number rose to 31, but the community was organized only in the 1760’s.

The old synagogue was burnt down around 1760. The fire destroyed also important documents and rabbinical literature. In 1821 a new splendid synagogue in the baroque style was consecrated, with a mikveh (purification bath) in its cellar. In 1844 an elementary Jewish school was opened.

In the middle of the 19th century when the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in Hungary were abolished, many Jews moved from Huncovce to the towns of Spiska Nova Ves, to Levica and to Poprad.

In 1851 the community consisted of 928 Jews. In 1860 there were about 200 Jewish families in the place and in 1900 the number dwindled to just 40.

The first rabbi of Huncovce, Rabbi Benjamin Sinai, died in 1708. The second rabbi of Huncovce is on record in 1757. He was followed by Rabbi Rappoport, the author of the book Bigdei Kodesh; Rabbi Jehezkel Levy; Rabbi Joav Billizer; and Rabbi Jehezkel Weil. In 1812 Rabbi Mordecai Broda, the grandson of Rabbi Abrahm Broda of Frankfurt/Main was appointed. He was succeeded by Rabbi Solomon Perlstein who in 1833 became the district rabbi. Since then until the end of the 19th century Huncovce became the center for the Jews of the Spis region.

At the beginning of the 19th century there were three yeshivot at Huncovce. Following the decrease in the Jewish population at the place only one yeshiova was left, which developed particularly under its head Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg (1825-1918). Rabbi Rosenberg was regarded in his congregation as a wonder-maker and was called Zadik. A monument was built over his grave.

The yeshiva was the second most important in Europe, after the Yeshiva of Pressburg. It was recognized as an institute of higher education by the Hungarian authorities and also by the Republic of Czechoslovakia. In the years 1908-1910 it was attended by 300 students from all over the world. In 1929 living quarters were built for the students but in 1931, when Rabbi Joseph Horowitz, the head of the yeshiva, left the town, the yeshiva was closed. The majority of the Jews of Huncovce made their living in trade and crafts.

In 1848, when the Hungarian revolted against the Austrian rule, Jews of Huncovce joined as volunteers the Hungarian rebels and eight of them fall in battle. After the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary (1867) the Jews of Huncovce became integrated in the life of the Hungarian society and economy. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia, that came into being in 1918, the Jews were given a national-cultural autonomy. At that time started also Zionist activity in the town. In 1926, prior to the election to the 15th Zionist Congress, 12 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired at Huncovce.

In 1930, 194 Jews were living at Huncovce.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. In October Slovakia declared its autonomy and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country. In 1941 only 75 Jews lived in the town. In 1942 all the Jews of Huncovce and the neighborhood except one were taken to Poprad and from there deported to Auschwitz in Poland, where most of them were murdered by the Germans.

Only a few survivors of the community returned to Huncovce after the war. The synagogue building, which during the war suffered damage in air raids, was turned into a warehouse. At the end of the century, many tombstones in the old cemetery, which borders the river, were found under water. One tombstone was of the year 1697. At the new cemetery, which was opened in the 19th century, the tombstones were found in place, undamaged.

Adolf Altmann (1879-1944), rabbi, born in Huncovce, Slovakia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied at yeshivot in his native town and Pressburg (now Bratislava) and at Berne University in Switzerland. An early Zionist, he was a delegate to the first Mizrachi conference in Pressburg. From 1907 to 1914 Altmann was the spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Salzburg. In 1911 he succeeded in receiving the official recognition of the Jewish community of Salzburg which till then was a branch of the Jewish community of Linz.. In the spring of 1914 he accepted the call to be a rabbi in Merano, but the outbreak of WWI changed his plans. During the First World War, Dr. Adolf Altmann was a senior chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian on the southern front. 

In 1919, the Salzburg Jewish community invited Rabbi Dr. Adolf Altmann invited to return to Salzburg. He was active as a rabbi again in Salzburg for one year. In 1920 he was appointed chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Trier, Germany. Despite great difficulties, he stayed there until 1938, when he fled to the Netherlands.

Following the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, the Altmann family lived in various ghettos until they were deported from the Westerbork and Theresienstadt concentration camps to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz in May 1944 and murdered there.. A scholar, Altmann is the author of histories of the Jews in Salzburg and Trier/

Yoav Ben Yirmiyahu (d. 1810), rabbi. He was rabbi of Nemetkeresztur (now Deutschkreutz, Austria) and then of Huncovce (now in Slovakia) and in 1806 succeeded his father as rabbi of Piliszántó (Santov). He was regarded as one of the leading talmudists of his time. On his death, he was eulogized by the famous rabbi Moshe Sofer as a great scholar and saint. Yoav ben Yirmiyahu was the author of works on rabbinic literature.

Poprad

In German: Deutschendorf

A town in north-east Slovakia. Until 1918 Poprad belonged to the district of Szepes (in Slovak Spis) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and since then until 1993 it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

There is very little left of the Jewish community in Poprad. In 1990 there were still a few Jews living in Poprad.  The Jewish cemetery whose tombstones were broken and scattered was repaired recently.  The synagogue houses a printing press but a memorial plaque for victims of the holocaust was dedicated there in 1992. In 2004, a plaque was dedicated at the railway station in memory of the Jewish girls deported to Auschwitz.


HISTORY

Jewish settlement came relatively late because they were forbidden from settling in mining towns (there was copper mining). Most of the founders of the Jewish community of Poprad came from the town of Huncovce (in Hungarian: Hunfalva). The community registered in 1879 as an orthodox community. A prayer house was dedicated in the 1880’s and a synagogue was built in 1906 and enlarged a few years later. Next to the synagogue there was also a beth midrash (Jewish study hall). Rabbi Aharon Grunberg was the first rabbi.  A Jewish elementary school was opened in the town in 1908.  There were fifty students and the language of instruction was German. Franz Gottlieb taught there and wrote a history of Poprad’s Jewish community. A Talmud torah school was founded in 1924 by the initiative of Mor Klein.

There was a hevra kaddisha (burial society), an interest free loan society  and a women’s society engaged in social work. The community employed a cantor and a shohet (ritual slaughterer). Jews living in a number of villages in the area were also registered in the community. The economic situation was generally good and many Jews made their living in commerce. Most businesses in the town were owned by Jews.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Aharon Gruenberg, occupied the post until his death in 1907. He was followed by Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Praguer. He too served until his death, a few years before the holocaust.

The president of the community in 1922 was the engineer Whitman. In the late 1920’s the president was the manufacturer Henrik Kleinberger. Mor Klein was honorary president for life.

Most of the Jews of Poprad were merchants and craftsmen. There were also doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, clerks and others. A sawmill owned by a Jew employed 70 workers. The economic condition of most of the Jews was stable, but there were also some poor families who were supported by institutions of the community.

In World War I, 38 members of the community joined the Hungarian army. Following the war, at the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, lively political and Zionist activity developed in Poprad. The third convention of the National Federation of the Jews of Slovakia in 1924 took place in Poprad. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist congress, 158 Shekels (membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right) were acquired by the Jews of Poprad.

In 1935 a world convention of Hashomer Hazair was held in the town and the radio station of Kosice broadcast proceedings of the convention, even in Hebrew. Maccabi Hazair and the general Zionists were also active in the town. There was also Bnei Akiva and Beitar youth movements.  In the early 1930’s a number of halutzim, trainees of the local training for aliyah, went to Israel.

The Jews of Poprad were also active in local politics and formed a National Jewish Party headed by Dr. Alfred Low. In the general elections of 1928, the party received 195 votes and Dr. Lowe was chosen as deputy mayor. He continued in this role after the 1931 elections as well.

In 1930 618 Jews were living in Poprad, 15,3% of the total population of the town.


THE HOLOCAUST

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. Slovakia declared its autonomy in October 1938 and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. Antisemitic manifestations and harassment of Jews under the protection of the authorities and with their encouragement soon set in. Gradually the Jews were removed from the social and economic life of the country and deprived of their livelihood. At the end of 1940, 606 Jews were still living in the town. On August 13, 1940 there were riots against the Jewish community resulting in the destruction of property. In the spring of 1941, licenses for businesses were denied and larger Jewish businesses were Arayanized.

In March 1942 a transit camp was set up in the military barracks of Poprad, to which thousands of the Jews of Slovakia were brought. It was one of the five camps through which the Jews of Slovakia were deported to ghettos and death camps in Poland. The first train from Slovakia to the extermination camps left Poprad on March 26,1942 and carried approximately 1,000 Jewish women to Auschwitz. On the 3rd of April and the 23rd of April two additional transports of 1,000 Jews each left Poprad to Auschwitz. On May 25 a transport of 1,000 Jews left Poprad for Rajowicze, and five additional transports left between May 28 and June 13. The men were taken to Lublin and the women to Izbica and Sobibor.  In all, 10,000 Jews were deported from Poprad’s transit camp to extermination camps in Poland and most were murdered.
 

POSTWAR

At the end of the war, a few dozen survivors of the community returned to Poprad and community life was renewed briefly and the synagogue was repaired for services.  In 1947 the community raised 17,000 kronen to plant a forest in Israel in memory of the martyrs of the shoah. In 1949, most of Poprad’s Jews emigrated to Israel.

Kezmarok

In Hungarian: Kesmark

A town in north-east Slovakia. 

Kezmarok lies on the river Poprad in the region of Spis (Zips in German), in the south-eastern part of the high Tatra mountains. The town had been a center of trade and industry. Until 1918 the region belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and since then, until 1993, to the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Until 1939 the town had been the center of German culture in the region of Spis.

The citizens of Kezmarok had objected to the settlement of Jews in their town and therefore the settlement of Jews at Kezmarok began only in the 1860’s. Most of them came from the neighbouring villages and they were joined after World War I by refugees from Poland, particularly from Galicia. They were initially affiliated to the Jewish community of Huncovce. Later, Kezmarok became an independent community and following the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary in 1868-9 it joined the Orthodox stream of the Hungarian Jewish communities. The Jews of Kezmarok were indeed traditional in their way of life but they were in favor of general education and their language was German, although they spoke also Hungarian and Slovak.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Abraham Gruenburg, was appointed in 1874. After his death in 1918, he was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Simhah Nathan Gruenburg. Rabbi Israel Meir Glueck served as a dayan (religious judge) and a rabbi in the Talmud study society. The community kept teachers for the little children, a secretary and a beadle. The shohets (religious slaughterers) served also as cantors.

A synagogue in the Moorish style, with 500 seats, was built towards the end of the 19th century. A lecture hall was on the floor above the synagogue, which served for public prayers in the winter. The kloiz (prayer location), the Hasidic bet midrash, had some 200 seats. The rabbi of the Hasidim was Rabbi Arieh Halberstam, a descendant of Rabbi Haim Halberstam, the father of the Zanz dynasty of Hasidic rabbis.

There were heders and Talmud torah schools at Kezmarok but most of the Jewish children went to general elementary schools in the German language, and from the 1930’s to state schools which taught in the Slovak language. Many of the children continued their studies at the school of commerce or the gymnasium. The bet midrash, which Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg founded in the court of his house, was attended by some 30 students.

Among the institutions of the community were: a hevra kaddisha (burial society), a women’s society, an ezrat nashim society, a poalei zedek society, and a tiferet bahurim society. There were also a fund for the support of the old communities in Eretz Israel, like Meir Ba’al Hanes, and a fund for yeshivot in Eretz Israel, as well as a Fund for the Poor of the Country, which supported Jews from Carpatho-Russia and kept a hostel for wayfarers.

In 1921 there were 1,650 Jews in the community of Kezmarok, including the Jews of the neighboring settlements Spisska Bela and Podolinec. Arieh Desider was then the head of the community.

Most of the Jews of Kezmarok were well-established economically. They owned about 80% of the business places of the town-shops, coffee houses, inns and kosher restaurants, fashion workshops, better clothing and footwear, wood processing workshops, saw-mills and petrol stations. Among the Jews of Kezmarok were some great merchants, producers and exporters of cheeses, farmers, professional people and artists. Most of the doctors of the town were Jewish.

In 1903 the Zionist society Ahei Zion began its activity at Kezmarok and many homes kept blue boxes of the Jewish National Fund. The Zionist activity slowed down during the war years (1914-1918), when many Jews enlisted in the Emperor’s army and some of them were killed in action. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars the Jews were recognized as a national minority and the Zionist activity intensified. Local branches were opened by Hapoel Hamizrachi, Benei Akivah, Hashomer Hazair, Maccabi Hazair, Tekhelet Lavan, Betar, and the sport club Hagibor. Prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress in 1927, 33 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired and in the elections to the 20th Congress (1937) 76 Jews of Kezmarok took part. During the 1930’s some young men of Kezmarok went to Eretz Israel. Agudat Israel and Zei’rei Agudat Israel were also represented in the community.

In 1930, 1,166 Jews were living in Kezmarok.


The Holocaust Period

After the annexation of Austria to Germany in March 1938, there were antisemitic manifestations by the German citizens of Kezmarok. A few of the Jews of Kezmarok enlisted to the army of CzechoSlovakia which was deployed along the border with Germany and Austria. In the army barracks at Kezmarok thousands of soldiers were stationed, among them many Jews.

Following the Munich Pact of September 1938, the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia was annexed to Germany and the republic broke up. Some 20 Jewish families from the annexed region escaped to Kezmarok. Slovakia declared its autonomy on October 6, 1938. On November 5 the antisemitic Hlinka Guard expelled some 30 Jewish stateless families to the border with Hungary. The Hungarians refused to accept them and they remained on the border for about two weeks. Finally, the Slovak authorities allowed their return to Slovakia.

Slovakia became an autonomous state, a satellite of Germany, on march 14, 1939. The following day German students of the local high school attacked Jews and broke windows in the houses and business places of Jews. The employment of Jewish doctors and lawyers was restricted and gradually the Jews of Slovakia were removed from the social and economic life of the country. A local branch of the Center for the Jews provided help to the needy. When World War II broke out (September 1,1939), the community of Kezmarok assisted about 2200 Jewish refugees from Poland to escape to Hungary.

In December 1939 some 30 Jews of Kezmarok succeeded in boarding the illegal emigration ship Confino and they reached Eretz Israel by way of the Black Sea in the spring of 1940. Another group of 30 Jews who left in May 1940 on board of the Pancho reached the shores of Eretz Israel after many misfortunes only in 1944.

In Kezmarok Jewish men were taken to forced labor and the harassment of Jews intensified. At the end of 1940, 1,185 Jews were registered in the town. In the summer of 1941 all the Jewish businesses were transferred to Slovak Aryans. A number of Jewish families escaped from Kezmarok to Hungary.

In February 1942 Slovaks, with the help of German youth, confiscated the valuables of Jews. The Jews were ordered to report for registration. On March 29,1942, young Jewish girls were abducted from their homes and taken to a camp in Poprad. Soon after Passover they were deported by trains to Poland and reached Auschwitz a month later. On April 1,1942, Jewish men of the ages of 16-45 were taken to the fortress of Tokaj and they too were deported on the following day, via Zilina, to concentration camps in Poland. Attempts to escape to Hungary increased in number. Those who were caught were taken to a camp at Novaky and from there deported to Poland.

Most of the Jews who were still in Kezmarok and the area (some 800 people) were deported to the region of Lublin in Poland between May 25 and June 5 and some on September 21 (Yom Kippur) and October 2 , 1942. Before the deportation, the children, the old, and the weak were shot on the spot and those capable of work were transferred to labor camps. In Kezmarok remained only Jews who were economically vital and some who managed to hide.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime of Slovakia broke out. Jews of Kezmarok who were still in the area, joined the fighters against the government. The revolt was suppressed by the Germans who began to hunt down the partisans, particularly the Jewish partisans. Those who were caught were shot on the spot. In September 1944, some 40 Jews of Kezmarok, among them the Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg, were caught near the Polish border and were shot.

48 Jews of Kezmarok and the neighborhood fought against the Germans in the ranks of the Czech army and the partisans. The Jewish doctor Eduard Laufer from Nitra saved Jews and partisans in the guise of a Christian Slovak.

When the war in the region ended, in January 1945, survivors of some 15 Jewish families came out of hiding and, joined by Jews from other places, revived the life of the Jewish community. Rabbi Meir Gruenburg, the son of Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg, became the rabbi of the area, which included the communities of Kezmarok and Liptovsky-Mikulas. An attempt was made to rebuild the ruins of the synagogue but the building was finally destroyed. A kosher restaurant was opened and a shohet from Kosice came once a week. Rabbi David Reisner served as a mohel for the entire region.

In 1948 there were 384 Jews in Kezmarok, among them 58 children. Moritz Goldmann was the head of the community. In 1949 most of the members of the community went to Israel. Some of them, including Rabbi Meir Gruenburg, emigrated to the U.S.A.

In the 1950’s there were ten children in the community, who received Jewish tuition. In the 1970’s there were still some Jews in the place and a Christian Slovak looked after the Jewish cemetery. In 1989 the cemetery was found surrounded by a wall, the gate locked and the graves in a proper condition.

Levice

In Hungarian: Leva; in German: Lewenz

A town in south Slovakia.

Levice is situated on a railway junction and served as a marketing center of grain and cattle. Until 1918 it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. During the years 1938-1945 the area was under Hunagian occupation.

In a document of 1713 two Jews of Levice are mentioned, one a lessee of customs and the other a supplier of the Kaiser (Emperor). Both were protected Jews of the Graf Eszterhazy.

The Jewish community was organized in 1840 and the rabbi was then Rabbi Yehuda Heilbron. In 1842 a cemetery was consecrated and the hevra kaddisha (burial society) was formed. In 1848 about 100 Jews lived in Levice.

A community register was kept in Levice from 1851 and when Jews from some 30 neighboring settlements in the sub-district of Bars were also registered in it, the Rabbi of Levice became a chief rabbi (district rabbi).

The syangogue was built in 1853 and enlarged in 1883. A mikveh (purification bath) was opened in 1854 and reconditioned in 1891. A private school, which had been opened in 1840, became a religious school and in 1854 a public school. In the course of the years also children of enlightened non- Jews attended the school, because of its high educational standard.

As a result of the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary (1867) and following the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary (1868-69), the community of Levice registered as a Neolog (reform) community. The orthodox Jews parted from the community and in 1874 formed a separate community. In consequence of the divided financial resources both communities found it difficult to function and after 11 years of separation they reunited to form a “status quo antle” community, that is a community that kept a neutral position in the controversy between the Neolog and orthodox streams.

From the beginning of the 20th century three rabbis occupied the position of the community’s rabbi: Rabbi Jacob Lieberman, Rabbi Dr. Nathan Nandor, and Dr. Andrei Kaempfner. During that time the following persons functioned as the head of the community: Dr Ignaz Frummer, who was knighted for his services as a doctor; Dr. Samuel Silard; Dr. Alexander Balog; Dr. Lajos Kaiser, and Dr. Stephan Fisher.

Nine different societies were active in the field of welfare and charity. Among them were: hevra kaddisha (burial society), that apart from its usual function provided also medical help to the needy and supported the country’s Jewish hospital; a women’s society, founded in 1868; agudat maot, founded in 1900; a shelter for elderly men and women, founded in 1931, which supported also the poor and orphaned children; a society for aiding poor girls and occasional wayfarers; and poel zedek, a society for the aid of the sick and people in mourning. The cemetery was enlarged and fenced in 1880. In 1927 a piece of land was acquired for a further enlargement.

In the second half of the 19th century, following their emancipation, the Jews began to take part in all fields of the economy. In the 1930s, more than 100 Jews engaged in trade within the town, among them 10 big merchants; 25 engaged in agriculture; 3 were owners of factories; 64 were craftsmen; 18 doctors, 12 lawyers; 5 engineers, clerks, teachers, and others.

Many Jews of Levice faught in World War I. 23 of them were killed in action.

After the war, the newly established Republic of Czechoslovakia recognized the Jews as a national minority, with appropriate rights. This caused the involvement of Jews also in political activity. During that period, Zionism also struck roots in the community. The Zionist youth movement Maccabi was active in Levice. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, the Jews of Levice acquired many Shekels, membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right, and in 1937, 14 of them took part in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress.

In 1930, 1448 Jews were members of the community of Levice.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was dismembered and by the (second) Vienna Agreement of November 1938, parts of Slovakia, with Levice, were annexed to Hungary. The antisemitic laws of the pro-German Hungarian regime were now applied also to the Jews of the annexed territory.

In 1941 Jewish men were drafted to work companies in a military framework for forced labor. Most of them were sent in the summer of 1941 to the Russian front, where almost all found their death.

On March 19,1944, the German army entered Hungary and a few weeks later the Jews of Levice and the neighborhood were concentrated in a ghetto that was set up in the town. Between May 15 and June 14 some 4000 Jews of the ghetto were deported to the extermination camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

After the war, in June 1945, a few scores of survivors returned to Levice. In 1949 most of them went to Israel. In 1988 the Slovak authorities were about to repair the synagogue, but in 1990 the work was still incomplete. About 15 Jews were then living in the place, all of them over 70 years old. The cemetery was fairly well in order, with a monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust inside it.

Bratislava

German: Pressburg, Hungarian: Pozsony

Capital of Slovakia. Part of Hungary until 1918

Bratislava was the chartered capital of the kings of Hungary. It was one of the most ancient and important Jewish centers in the Danube region. The first Jews probably arrived with the Roman legions, but the first documented evidence of their presence in the city dates from the 13th century. In 1291 the community was granted a charter by King Andrew the III and a synagogue is first mentioned in 1335.

The Jews of Bratislava mainly engaged in moneylending, but there were also merchants, artisans, vineyard owners, and vintners. The Jews were expelled from Hungary in 1360, but returned in 1367. In 1371 the municipality introduced the Judenbuch, which regulated financial dealings between Jews and Christians.

Money matters between Jews and Christians, however, could unexpectedly take complicated turns. King Sigismund granted Christians an exemption for the year 1392 from paying interest on loans borrowed from Jews. Later, in 1441 and 1450, all outstanding debts owed to Jews were cancelled, and in 1475 Jews were forbidden from accepting real estate as security. Ladislas II prevented Jews from attempting to leave Bratislava in 1506 by confiscating the property of those who had already left. This proved to be somewhat ironic since the Jews were eventually expelled from Bratislava, and Hungary as a whole, in 1526. Instead, the Jews began settling in the surrounding areas of Shlossberg and Zuckermandel. A Jewish community was not reestablished in Bratislava until the end of the seventeenth century when Samuel Oppenheimer resettled the city. He was followed by other Jews, some of whom were born locally and others who came from Vienna, which had expelled its Jews in 1670, Bohemia and Moravia, as well as a small number from Poland. A synagogue was built in 1695 where the first known rabbi to work there was Yom Tov Lipmann. In 1699 the court Jew Simon Michael, who had settled in Bratislava in 1693, was appointed as head of the community. He built a beit midrash and bought land to build a cemetery.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the Jews of Bratislava were leaders in both the business and religious worlds. In business they were among the leaders of the textile trade, while the religious leader Rabbi Moses Sofer (better known as the Hatam Sofer) turned Bratislava into a center of Jewish life. The Hatam Sofer became a leader of Orthodoxy, and is perhaps best known for his (ironically radical) statement that "He-hadash asur min haTorah," "Innovation is forbidden according to the Torah." His status as a rabbi, teacher, scholar, rosh yeshiva, and halakhist was unparalleled. Upon his death his son, Avraham Shmuel Binyamin (otherwise known as the Ketav Sofer) and then his grandson Simcha Bumen, and his great-grandson Akiva succeeded him in turn. Other outstanding rabbis that served in the city before the Hatam Sofer were Moshe Harif of Lemberg, Akiva Eger (the elder), Yitzhak Landau of Kukla, Meir Barbi of Halberstadt, and Meshulam Igra of Tymenitsa. Each was an outstanding Talmudic scholar, and Landau and Barbi established large and prestigious yeshivas.

In spite of the Hatam Sofer's uncompromising Orthodoxy, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) made important inroads, particularly among the wealthy merchants and intellectuals in the city. In 1820 those who were in favor of the Haskalah succeeded in establishing an elementary school that combined religious and secular studies. Shortly thereafter the community's Orthodox majority also built a Talmud Torah that combined religious and secular studies, under the supervision of the city's chief rabbi.

The community was also split during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. While those who were in favor of reform, led by Adolf Neustadt, enthusiastically supported the revolution, joining the National Guard and advocating for Jewish emancipation, the Orthodox leadership distanced themselves from these actions. Anti-Jewish riots subsequently broke out during the revolution around Easter; the Jews of Bratislava suffered the worst violence. While no Bratislavan Jews were killed, there were many who were severely beaten, and there was enormous damage done to property. The Jewish Quarter was placed under military protection, and Jews who lived elsewhere had to move within it. The violence prompted calls to emigrate to the US.

The Revolution of 1848 would not be the last time that the Jews of Bratislava were the victims of pogroms and anti-Jewish violence. 1850 saw more anti-Jewish riots around the holiday of Easter. Further outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence followed the Tiszaeszlar blood libel in 1882 and 1883, as well as after other blood libels in 1887 and 1889.

Tensions continued to grow between the Orthodox and the maskilim within the community. After 1869 the Orthodox, Neologist, and Status Quo Ante factions in Bratislava formed separate congregations. The Orthodox provincial office (Landseskanzlei) later became notorious for its opposition to Zionism. The Neolog and Status Quo Ante congregations united in 1928 as the Jeshurun Federation.

Jewish institutions in Bratislava included religious schools, charitable organizations, and a Jewish hospital. The Hungarian Zionist organization was founded in Bratislava in 1902, and the World Mizrachi Organization was founded in 1904; the latter sparked protests from over 100 rabbis. The first Hungarian Zionist Congress was held in Bratislava in March 1903 and the city became the Hungarian center for the Zionist Organization in Hungary.

With the establishment of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava also became the center of Agudas Yisroel in Czechoslovakia, in addition to remaining a Zionist center. Several Jewish newspapers and a Hebrew weekly, "HaYehudi," were printed in the city. There were also over 300 Hebrew and Yiddish books printed in the city between 1831 and 1930. The Orthodox Jewish Communities of Slovakia was established in the city, enabling the Orthodox community to cut ties with Hungary.

The German army occupied Czechoslovakia in March, 1938 and soon established an independent Slovak state. Even before the declaration of the independent state, there were attacks on the synagogue and yeshiva on November 11, 1938. Nearly 1,000 Jewish students were expelled from the university and anti-Jewish terror, restrictive measures, and pogroms increased. With the establishment of the Slovak state, Jews continued to suffer from discrimination. Akiva Shreiber and a number of his yeshiva students succeeded in leaving Bratislava for Palestine at the end of 1939.

Nonetheless, the Jewish population of Bratislava peaked in 1940 at 18,000 people (13% of the total population of the city). This was in spite of the fact that Jewish organizations, with the exception of religious communal activities, were prohibited from organizing activities. Additionally, Jews were evicted from various neighborhoods, Jewish students were expelled from public schools, and Jewish properties were confiscated. By the fall of 1941 about half of the city's population had been forcibly sent from the city to the provinces; by the summer of 1942 two-thirds of the Jews of Bratislava were sent to concentration or extermination camps. Gisi Fleischmann of WIZO and Mikhael Dov Ber Weissmandel began organizing an underground resistance movement. They contacted international Jewish organizations, in the hopes that they could save the Jews who remained in the city and the surrounding area. August 1944 saw a Slovak uprising, and the country was subsequently occupied by the Germans. At that point, the remaining Jews in Bratislava were deported.

In the end, approximately 13,000 Jews from Bratislava were killed during the Holocaust. After the war, the city was an important transit point for the thousands of displaced Jews who were making their way to other countries and began to rebuild. The Orthodox and Neolog communities united and maintained two cemetaries, a mikvah, a slaughterhouse, a soup kitchen, a matzah bakery, a Jewish hospital, an old age home, and a Jewish orphanage. Zionist activity resumed; HaShomer HaTzair and Bnei Akiva led activities for orphans preparing to emigrate to Mandate Palestine. Maccabi HaTzair and Beitar were also active. Though there was an attempt to reopen the Pressburg Yeshiva, it ultimately failed.

After the communist takeover, thousands more Jews left the city, most of whom went to Israel. According to an agreement made with Israel, 4,000 Jews were permitted to leave and enter Israel at the end of the 1940s while 2,000 remained in Bratislava. In 1969 there were 1,500 Jews in the city.

The 1990s saw the opening of a number of memorials and places of Jewish interest. A Jewish cultural heritage museum was opened in the old Jewish Quarter. A memorial plaque was added to the Orthodox cemetery in memory of the 13,000 Jewish victims of Bratislava who were killed during the Holocaust. Additionally, in 1997 a monument commemorating the Slovakian Jewish victims of the Nazis was erected on the site where the Pressburg Yeshiva once stood. Jewish organizations and municipal authorities worked together to renovate and reopen the grave of the Hatam Sofer, among other rabbis, to the public.

In the year 2000 there were 800 Jews living in Bratislava.

Slovakia

Slovenská republika - Slovak Republic
A country in central Europe, until 1993 part of Czechoslovakia, member of the European Union (EU).

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 2,600 out of 5,450,000. Main Jewish organization:

Ústredný zväz židovských náboženských obcí v Slovenskej republike - Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia
Panenská 4
811 03 Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: 02-5441 2167
Fax: 02-5441 1106
Email: office@uzzno.sk
Website: http://www.uzzno.sk/

ANU Databases
Jewish Genealogy
Family Names
Jewish Communities
Visual Documentation
Jewish Music Center
Place
אA
אA
אA
The Jewish Community of Huncovce

Huncovce

In German: Hondorf; in Hungarian: Hunfalu or Hunfalva

A small town in north-eastern Slovakia.

Huncovce is situated on the river Poprad, between the towns Poprad in the south and Kezmarok in the north. Until 1918 the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Huncovce is known in the Jewish world thanks to its yeshivot, in which over 10,000 torah scholars were trained in the course of the years. The Jewish community of Huncovce is one of the oldest in the region of Spis (in Hungarian Szepes). The region was inhabited mostly by Germans, who opposed the settlement of Jews in the towns of the district. The first Jews came to Huncovce in the 17th century. In 1728 there were still only two Jewish families in the town, and in 1754 the number rose to 31, but the community was organized only in the 1760’s.

The old synagogue was burnt down around 1760. The fire destroyed also important documents and rabbinical literature. In 1821 a new splendid synagogue in the baroque style was consecrated, with a mikveh (purification bath) in its cellar. In 1844 an elementary Jewish school was opened.

In the middle of the 19th century when the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in Hungary were abolished, many Jews moved from Huncovce to the towns of Spiska Nova Ves, to Levica and to Poprad.

In 1851 the community consisted of 928 Jews. In 1860 there were about 200 Jewish families in the place and in 1900 the number dwindled to just 40.

The first rabbi of Huncovce, Rabbi Benjamin Sinai, died in 1708. The second rabbi of Huncovce is on record in 1757. He was followed by Rabbi Rappoport, the author of the book Bigdei Kodesh; Rabbi Jehezkel Levy; Rabbi Joav Billizer; and Rabbi Jehezkel Weil. In 1812 Rabbi Mordecai Broda, the grandson of Rabbi Abrahm Broda of Frankfurt/Main was appointed. He was succeeded by Rabbi Solomon Perlstein who in 1833 became the district rabbi. Since then until the end of the 19th century Huncovce became the center for the Jews of the Spis region.

At the beginning of the 19th century there were three yeshivot at Huncovce. Following the decrease in the Jewish population at the place only one yeshiova was left, which developed particularly under its head Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg (1825-1918). Rabbi Rosenberg was regarded in his congregation as a wonder-maker and was called Zadik. A monument was built over his grave.

The yeshiva was the second most important in Europe, after the Yeshiva of Pressburg. It was recognized as an institute of higher education by the Hungarian authorities and also by the Republic of Czechoslovakia. In the years 1908-1910 it was attended by 300 students from all over the world. In 1929 living quarters were built for the students but in 1931, when Rabbi Joseph Horowitz, the head of the yeshiva, left the town, the yeshiva was closed. The majority of the Jews of Huncovce made their living in trade and crafts.

In 1848, when the Hungarian revolted against the Austrian rule, Jews of Huncovce joined as volunteers the Hungarian rebels and eight of them fall in battle. After the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary (1867) the Jews of Huncovce became integrated in the life of the Hungarian society and economy. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia, that came into being in 1918, the Jews were given a national-cultural autonomy. At that time started also Zionist activity in the town. In 1926, prior to the election to the 15th Zionist Congress, 12 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired at Huncovce.

In 1930, 194 Jews were living at Huncovce.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. In October Slovakia declared its autonomy and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country. In 1941 only 75 Jews lived in the town. In 1942 all the Jews of Huncovce and the neighborhood except one were taken to Poprad and from there deported to Auschwitz in Poland, where most of them were murdered by the Germans.

Only a few survivors of the community returned to Huncovce after the war. The synagogue building, which during the war suffered damage in air raids, was turned into a warehouse. At the end of the century, many tombstones in the old cemetery, which borders the river, were found under water. One tombstone was of the year 1697. At the new cemetery, which was opened in the 19th century, the tombstones were found in place, undamaged.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Adolf Altmann

Adolf Altmann (1879-1944), rabbi, born in Huncovce, Slovakia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied at yeshivot in his native town and Pressburg (now Bratislava) and at Berne University in Switzerland. An early Zionist, he was a delegate to the first Mizrachi conference in Pressburg. From 1907 to 1914 Altmann was the spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Salzburg. In 1911 he succeeded in receiving the official recognition of the Jewish community of Salzburg which till then was a branch of the Jewish community of Linz.. In the spring of 1914 he accepted the call to be a rabbi in Merano, but the outbreak of WWI changed his plans. During the First World War, Dr. Adolf Altmann was a senior chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian on the southern front. 

In 1919, the Salzburg Jewish community invited Rabbi Dr. Adolf Altmann invited to return to Salzburg. He was active as a rabbi again in Salzburg for one year. In 1920 he was appointed chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Trier, Germany. Despite great difficulties, he stayed there until 1938, when he fled to the Netherlands.

Following the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, the Altmann family lived in various ghettos until they were deported from the Westerbork and Theresienstadt concentration camps to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz in May 1944 and murdered there.. A scholar, Altmann is the author of histories of the Jews in Salzburg and Trier/

Yoav Ben Yirmiyahu

Yoav Ben Yirmiyahu (d. 1810), rabbi. He was rabbi of Nemetkeresztur (now Deutschkreutz, Austria) and then of Huncovce (now in Slovakia) and in 1806 succeeded his father as rabbi of Piliszántó (Santov). He was regarded as one of the leading talmudists of his time. On his death, he was eulogized by the famous rabbi Moshe Sofer as a great scholar and saint. Yoav ben Yirmiyahu was the author of works on rabbinic literature.

Poprad

Poprad

In German: Deutschendorf

A town in north-east Slovakia. Until 1918 Poprad belonged to the district of Szepes (in Slovak Spis) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and since then until 1993 it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

There is very little left of the Jewish community in Poprad. In 1990 there were still a few Jews living in Poprad.  The Jewish cemetery whose tombstones were broken and scattered was repaired recently.  The synagogue houses a printing press but a memorial plaque for victims of the holocaust was dedicated there in 1992. In 2004, a plaque was dedicated at the railway station in memory of the Jewish girls deported to Auschwitz.


HISTORY

Jewish settlement came relatively late because they were forbidden from settling in mining towns (there was copper mining). Most of the founders of the Jewish community of Poprad came from the town of Huncovce (in Hungarian: Hunfalva). The community registered in 1879 as an orthodox community. A prayer house was dedicated in the 1880’s and a synagogue was built in 1906 and enlarged a few years later. Next to the synagogue there was also a beth midrash (Jewish study hall). Rabbi Aharon Grunberg was the first rabbi.  A Jewish elementary school was opened in the town in 1908.  There were fifty students and the language of instruction was German. Franz Gottlieb taught there and wrote a history of Poprad’s Jewish community. A Talmud torah school was founded in 1924 by the initiative of Mor Klein.

There was a hevra kaddisha (burial society), an interest free loan society  and a women’s society engaged in social work. The community employed a cantor and a shohet (ritual slaughterer). Jews living in a number of villages in the area were also registered in the community. The economic situation was generally good and many Jews made their living in commerce. Most businesses in the town were owned by Jews.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Aharon Gruenberg, occupied the post until his death in 1907. He was followed by Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Praguer. He too served until his death, a few years before the holocaust.

The president of the community in 1922 was the engineer Whitman. In the late 1920’s the president was the manufacturer Henrik Kleinberger. Mor Klein was honorary president for life.

Most of the Jews of Poprad were merchants and craftsmen. There were also doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, clerks and others. A sawmill owned by a Jew employed 70 workers. The economic condition of most of the Jews was stable, but there were also some poor families who were supported by institutions of the community.

In World War I, 38 members of the community joined the Hungarian army. Following the war, at the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, lively political and Zionist activity developed in Poprad. The third convention of the National Federation of the Jews of Slovakia in 1924 took place in Poprad. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist congress, 158 Shekels (membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right) were acquired by the Jews of Poprad.

In 1935 a world convention of Hashomer Hazair was held in the town and the radio station of Kosice broadcast proceedings of the convention, even in Hebrew. Maccabi Hazair and the general Zionists were also active in the town. There was also Bnei Akiva and Beitar youth movements.  In the early 1930’s a number of halutzim, trainees of the local training for aliyah, went to Israel.

The Jews of Poprad were also active in local politics and formed a National Jewish Party headed by Dr. Alfred Low. In the general elections of 1928, the party received 195 votes and Dr. Lowe was chosen as deputy mayor. He continued in this role after the 1931 elections as well.

In 1930 618 Jews were living in Poprad, 15,3% of the total population of the town.


THE HOLOCAUST

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. Slovakia declared its autonomy in October 1938 and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. Antisemitic manifestations and harassment of Jews under the protection of the authorities and with their encouragement soon set in. Gradually the Jews were removed from the social and economic life of the country and deprived of their livelihood. At the end of 1940, 606 Jews were still living in the town. On August 13, 1940 there were riots against the Jewish community resulting in the destruction of property. In the spring of 1941, licenses for businesses were denied and larger Jewish businesses were Arayanized.

In March 1942 a transit camp was set up in the military barracks of Poprad, to which thousands of the Jews of Slovakia were brought. It was one of the five camps through which the Jews of Slovakia were deported to ghettos and death camps in Poland. The first train from Slovakia to the extermination camps left Poprad on March 26,1942 and carried approximately 1,000 Jewish women to Auschwitz. On the 3rd of April and the 23rd of April two additional transports of 1,000 Jews each left Poprad to Auschwitz. On May 25 a transport of 1,000 Jews left Poprad for Rajowicze, and five additional transports left between May 28 and June 13. The men were taken to Lublin and the women to Izbica and Sobibor.  In all, 10,000 Jews were deported from Poprad’s transit camp to extermination camps in Poland and most were murdered.
 

POSTWAR

At the end of the war, a few dozen survivors of the community returned to Poprad and community life was renewed briefly and the synagogue was repaired for services.  In 1947 the community raised 17,000 kronen to plant a forest in Israel in memory of the martyrs of the shoah. In 1949, most of Poprad’s Jews emigrated to Israel.

Kezmarok

Kezmarok

In Hungarian: Kesmark

A town in north-east Slovakia. 

Kezmarok lies on the river Poprad in the region of Spis (Zips in German), in the south-eastern part of the high Tatra mountains. The town had been a center of trade and industry. Until 1918 the region belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and since then, until 1993, to the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Until 1939 the town had been the center of German culture in the region of Spis.

The citizens of Kezmarok had objected to the settlement of Jews in their town and therefore the settlement of Jews at Kezmarok began only in the 1860’s. Most of them came from the neighbouring villages and they were joined after World War I by refugees from Poland, particularly from Galicia. They were initially affiliated to the Jewish community of Huncovce. Later, Kezmarok became an independent community and following the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary in 1868-9 it joined the Orthodox stream of the Hungarian Jewish communities. The Jews of Kezmarok were indeed traditional in their way of life but they were in favor of general education and their language was German, although they spoke also Hungarian and Slovak.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Abraham Gruenburg, was appointed in 1874. After his death in 1918, he was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Simhah Nathan Gruenburg. Rabbi Israel Meir Glueck served as a dayan (religious judge) and a rabbi in the Talmud study society. The community kept teachers for the little children, a secretary and a beadle. The shohets (religious slaughterers) served also as cantors.

A synagogue in the Moorish style, with 500 seats, was built towards the end of the 19th century. A lecture hall was on the floor above the synagogue, which served for public prayers in the winter. The kloiz (prayer location), the Hasidic bet midrash, had some 200 seats. The rabbi of the Hasidim was Rabbi Arieh Halberstam, a descendant of Rabbi Haim Halberstam, the father of the Zanz dynasty of Hasidic rabbis.

There were heders and Talmud torah schools at Kezmarok but most of the Jewish children went to general elementary schools in the German language, and from the 1930’s to state schools which taught in the Slovak language. Many of the children continued their studies at the school of commerce or the gymnasium. The bet midrash, which Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg founded in the court of his house, was attended by some 30 students.

Among the institutions of the community were: a hevra kaddisha (burial society), a women’s society, an ezrat nashim society, a poalei zedek society, and a tiferet bahurim society. There were also a fund for the support of the old communities in Eretz Israel, like Meir Ba’al Hanes, and a fund for yeshivot in Eretz Israel, as well as a Fund for the Poor of the Country, which supported Jews from Carpatho-Russia and kept a hostel for wayfarers.

In 1921 there were 1,650 Jews in the community of Kezmarok, including the Jews of the neighboring settlements Spisska Bela and Podolinec. Arieh Desider was then the head of the community.

Most of the Jews of Kezmarok were well-established economically. They owned about 80% of the business places of the town-shops, coffee houses, inns and kosher restaurants, fashion workshops, better clothing and footwear, wood processing workshops, saw-mills and petrol stations. Among the Jews of Kezmarok were some great merchants, producers and exporters of cheeses, farmers, professional people and artists. Most of the doctors of the town were Jewish.

In 1903 the Zionist society Ahei Zion began its activity at Kezmarok and many homes kept blue boxes of the Jewish National Fund. The Zionist activity slowed down during the war years (1914-1918), when many Jews enlisted in the Emperor’s army and some of them were killed in action. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars the Jews were recognized as a national minority and the Zionist activity intensified. Local branches were opened by Hapoel Hamizrachi, Benei Akivah, Hashomer Hazair, Maccabi Hazair, Tekhelet Lavan, Betar, and the sport club Hagibor. Prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress in 1927, 33 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired and in the elections to the 20th Congress (1937) 76 Jews of Kezmarok took part. During the 1930’s some young men of Kezmarok went to Eretz Israel. Agudat Israel and Zei’rei Agudat Israel were also represented in the community.

In 1930, 1,166 Jews were living in Kezmarok.


The Holocaust Period

After the annexation of Austria to Germany in March 1938, there were antisemitic manifestations by the German citizens of Kezmarok. A few of the Jews of Kezmarok enlisted to the army of CzechoSlovakia which was deployed along the border with Germany and Austria. In the army barracks at Kezmarok thousands of soldiers were stationed, among them many Jews.

Following the Munich Pact of September 1938, the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia was annexed to Germany and the republic broke up. Some 20 Jewish families from the annexed region escaped to Kezmarok. Slovakia declared its autonomy on October 6, 1938. On November 5 the antisemitic Hlinka Guard expelled some 30 Jewish stateless families to the border with Hungary. The Hungarians refused to accept them and they remained on the border for about two weeks. Finally, the Slovak authorities allowed their return to Slovakia.

Slovakia became an autonomous state, a satellite of Germany, on march 14, 1939. The following day German students of the local high school attacked Jews and broke windows in the houses and business places of Jews. The employment of Jewish doctors and lawyers was restricted and gradually the Jews of Slovakia were removed from the social and economic life of the country. A local branch of the Center for the Jews provided help to the needy. When World War II broke out (September 1,1939), the community of Kezmarok assisted about 2200 Jewish refugees from Poland to escape to Hungary.

In December 1939 some 30 Jews of Kezmarok succeeded in boarding the illegal emigration ship Confino and they reached Eretz Israel by way of the Black Sea in the spring of 1940. Another group of 30 Jews who left in May 1940 on board of the Pancho reached the shores of Eretz Israel after many misfortunes only in 1944.

In Kezmarok Jewish men were taken to forced labor and the harassment of Jews intensified. At the end of 1940, 1,185 Jews were registered in the town. In the summer of 1941 all the Jewish businesses were transferred to Slovak Aryans. A number of Jewish families escaped from Kezmarok to Hungary.

In February 1942 Slovaks, with the help of German youth, confiscated the valuables of Jews. The Jews were ordered to report for registration. On March 29,1942, young Jewish girls were abducted from their homes and taken to a camp in Poprad. Soon after Passover they were deported by trains to Poland and reached Auschwitz a month later. On April 1,1942, Jewish men of the ages of 16-45 were taken to the fortress of Tokaj and they too were deported on the following day, via Zilina, to concentration camps in Poland. Attempts to escape to Hungary increased in number. Those who were caught were taken to a camp at Novaky and from there deported to Poland.

Most of the Jews who were still in Kezmarok and the area (some 800 people) were deported to the region of Lublin in Poland between May 25 and June 5 and some on September 21 (Yom Kippur) and October 2 , 1942. Before the deportation, the children, the old, and the weak were shot on the spot and those capable of work were transferred to labor camps. In Kezmarok remained only Jews who were economically vital and some who managed to hide.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime of Slovakia broke out. Jews of Kezmarok who were still in the area, joined the fighters against the government. The revolt was suppressed by the Germans who began to hunt down the partisans, particularly the Jewish partisans. Those who were caught were shot on the spot. In September 1944, some 40 Jews of Kezmarok, among them the Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg, were caught near the Polish border and were shot.

48 Jews of Kezmarok and the neighborhood fought against the Germans in the ranks of the Czech army and the partisans. The Jewish doctor Eduard Laufer from Nitra saved Jews and partisans in the guise of a Christian Slovak.

When the war in the region ended, in January 1945, survivors of some 15 Jewish families came out of hiding and, joined by Jews from other places, revived the life of the Jewish community. Rabbi Meir Gruenburg, the son of Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg, became the rabbi of the area, which included the communities of Kezmarok and Liptovsky-Mikulas. An attempt was made to rebuild the ruins of the synagogue but the building was finally destroyed. A kosher restaurant was opened and a shohet from Kosice came once a week. Rabbi David Reisner served as a mohel for the entire region.

In 1948 there were 384 Jews in Kezmarok, among them 58 children. Moritz Goldmann was the head of the community. In 1949 most of the members of the community went to Israel. Some of them, including Rabbi Meir Gruenburg, emigrated to the U.S.A.

In the 1950’s there were ten children in the community, who received Jewish tuition. In the 1970’s there were still some Jews in the place and a Christian Slovak looked after the Jewish cemetery. In 1989 the cemetery was found surrounded by a wall, the gate locked and the graves in a proper condition.

Levice

Levice

In Hungarian: Leva; in German: Lewenz

A town in south Slovakia.

Levice is situated on a railway junction and served as a marketing center of grain and cattle. Until 1918 it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. During the years 1938-1945 the area was under Hunagian occupation.

In a document of 1713 two Jews of Levice are mentioned, one a lessee of customs and the other a supplier of the Kaiser (Emperor). Both were protected Jews of the Graf Eszterhazy.

The Jewish community was organized in 1840 and the rabbi was then Rabbi Yehuda Heilbron. In 1842 a cemetery was consecrated and the hevra kaddisha (burial society) was formed. In 1848 about 100 Jews lived in Levice.

A community register was kept in Levice from 1851 and when Jews from some 30 neighboring settlements in the sub-district of Bars were also registered in it, the Rabbi of Levice became a chief rabbi (district rabbi).

The syangogue was built in 1853 and enlarged in 1883. A mikveh (purification bath) was opened in 1854 and reconditioned in 1891. A private school, which had been opened in 1840, became a religious school and in 1854 a public school. In the course of the years also children of enlightened non- Jews attended the school, because of its high educational standard.

As a result of the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary (1867) and following the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary (1868-69), the community of Levice registered as a Neolog (reform) community. The orthodox Jews parted from the community and in 1874 formed a separate community. In consequence of the divided financial resources both communities found it difficult to function and after 11 years of separation they reunited to form a “status quo antle” community, that is a community that kept a neutral position in the controversy between the Neolog and orthodox streams.

From the beginning of the 20th century three rabbis occupied the position of the community’s rabbi: Rabbi Jacob Lieberman, Rabbi Dr. Nathan Nandor, and Dr. Andrei Kaempfner. During that time the following persons functioned as the head of the community: Dr Ignaz Frummer, who was knighted for his services as a doctor; Dr. Samuel Silard; Dr. Alexander Balog; Dr. Lajos Kaiser, and Dr. Stephan Fisher.

Nine different societies were active in the field of welfare and charity. Among them were: hevra kaddisha (burial society), that apart from its usual function provided also medical help to the needy and supported the country’s Jewish hospital; a women’s society, founded in 1868; agudat maot, founded in 1900; a shelter for elderly men and women, founded in 1931, which supported also the poor and orphaned children; a society for aiding poor girls and occasional wayfarers; and poel zedek, a society for the aid of the sick and people in mourning. The cemetery was enlarged and fenced in 1880. In 1927 a piece of land was acquired for a further enlargement.

In the second half of the 19th century, following their emancipation, the Jews began to take part in all fields of the economy. In the 1930s, more than 100 Jews engaged in trade within the town, among them 10 big merchants; 25 engaged in agriculture; 3 were owners of factories; 64 were craftsmen; 18 doctors, 12 lawyers; 5 engineers, clerks, teachers, and others.

Many Jews of Levice faught in World War I. 23 of them were killed in action.

After the war, the newly established Republic of Czechoslovakia recognized the Jews as a national minority, with appropriate rights. This caused the involvement of Jews also in political activity. During that period, Zionism also struck roots in the community. The Zionist youth movement Maccabi was active in Levice. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, the Jews of Levice acquired many Shekels, membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right, and in 1937, 14 of them took part in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress.

In 1930, 1448 Jews were members of the community of Levice.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was dismembered and by the (second) Vienna Agreement of November 1938, parts of Slovakia, with Levice, were annexed to Hungary. The antisemitic laws of the pro-German Hungarian regime were now applied also to the Jews of the annexed territory.

In 1941 Jewish men were drafted to work companies in a military framework for forced labor. Most of them were sent in the summer of 1941 to the Russian front, where almost all found their death.

On March 19,1944, the German army entered Hungary and a few weeks later the Jews of Levice and the neighborhood were concentrated in a ghetto that was set up in the town. Between May 15 and June 14 some 4000 Jews of the ghetto were deported to the extermination camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

After the war, in June 1945, a few scores of survivors returned to Levice. In 1949 most of them went to Israel. In 1988 the Slovak authorities were about to repair the synagogue, but in 1990 the work was still incomplete. About 15 Jews were then living in the place, all of them over 70 years old. The cemetery was fairly well in order, with a monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust inside it.

Bratislava
Bratislava

German: Pressburg, Hungarian: Pozsony

Capital of Slovakia. Part of Hungary until 1918

Bratislava was the chartered capital of the kings of Hungary. It was one of the most ancient and important Jewish centers in the Danube region. The first Jews probably arrived with the Roman legions, but the first documented evidence of their presence in the city dates from the 13th century. In 1291 the community was granted a charter by King Andrew the III and a synagogue is first mentioned in 1335.

The Jews of Bratislava mainly engaged in moneylending, but there were also merchants, artisans, vineyard owners, and vintners. The Jews were expelled from Hungary in 1360, but returned in 1367. In 1371 the municipality introduced the Judenbuch, which regulated financial dealings between Jews and Christians.

Money matters between Jews and Christians, however, could unexpectedly take complicated turns. King Sigismund granted Christians an exemption for the year 1392 from paying interest on loans borrowed from Jews. Later, in 1441 and 1450, all outstanding debts owed to Jews were cancelled, and in 1475 Jews were forbidden from accepting real estate as security. Ladislas II prevented Jews from attempting to leave Bratislava in 1506 by confiscating the property of those who had already left. This proved to be somewhat ironic since the Jews were eventually expelled from Bratislava, and Hungary as a whole, in 1526. Instead, the Jews began settling in the surrounding areas of Shlossberg and Zuckermandel. A Jewish community was not reestablished in Bratislava until the end of the seventeenth century when Samuel Oppenheimer resettled the city. He was followed by other Jews, some of whom were born locally and others who came from Vienna, which had expelled its Jews in 1670, Bohemia and Moravia, as well as a small number from Poland. A synagogue was built in 1695 where the first known rabbi to work there was Yom Tov Lipmann. In 1699 the court Jew Simon Michael, who had settled in Bratislava in 1693, was appointed as head of the community. He built a beit midrash and bought land to build a cemetery.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the Jews of Bratislava were leaders in both the business and religious worlds. In business they were among the leaders of the textile trade, while the religious leader Rabbi Moses Sofer (better known as the Hatam Sofer) turned Bratislava into a center of Jewish life. The Hatam Sofer became a leader of Orthodoxy, and is perhaps best known for his (ironically radical) statement that "He-hadash asur min haTorah," "Innovation is forbidden according to the Torah." His status as a rabbi, teacher, scholar, rosh yeshiva, and halakhist was unparalleled. Upon his death his son, Avraham Shmuel Binyamin (otherwise known as the Ketav Sofer) and then his grandson Simcha Bumen, and his great-grandson Akiva succeeded him in turn. Other outstanding rabbis that served in the city before the Hatam Sofer were Moshe Harif of Lemberg, Akiva Eger (the elder), Yitzhak Landau of Kukla, Meir Barbi of Halberstadt, and Meshulam Igra of Tymenitsa. Each was an outstanding Talmudic scholar, and Landau and Barbi established large and prestigious yeshivas.

In spite of the Hatam Sofer's uncompromising Orthodoxy, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) made important inroads, particularly among the wealthy merchants and intellectuals in the city. In 1820 those who were in favor of the Haskalah succeeded in establishing an elementary school that combined religious and secular studies. Shortly thereafter the community's Orthodox majority also built a Talmud Torah that combined religious and secular studies, under the supervision of the city's chief rabbi.

The community was also split during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. While those who were in favor of reform, led by Adolf Neustadt, enthusiastically supported the revolution, joining the National Guard and advocating for Jewish emancipation, the Orthodox leadership distanced themselves from these actions. Anti-Jewish riots subsequently broke out during the revolution around Easter; the Jews of Bratislava suffered the worst violence. While no Bratislavan Jews were killed, there were many who were severely beaten, and there was enormous damage done to property. The Jewish Quarter was placed under military protection, and Jews who lived elsewhere had to move within it. The violence prompted calls to emigrate to the US.

The Revolution of 1848 would not be the last time that the Jews of Bratislava were the victims of pogroms and anti-Jewish violence. 1850 saw more anti-Jewish riots around the holiday of Easter. Further outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence followed the Tiszaeszlar blood libel in 1882 and 1883, as well as after other blood libels in 1887 and 1889.

Tensions continued to grow between the Orthodox and the maskilim within the community. After 1869 the Orthodox, Neologist, and Status Quo Ante factions in Bratislava formed separate congregations. The Orthodox provincial office (Landseskanzlei) later became notorious for its opposition to Zionism. The Neolog and Status Quo Ante congregations united in 1928 as the Jeshurun Federation.

Jewish institutions in Bratislava included religious schools, charitable organizations, and a Jewish hospital. The Hungarian Zionist organization was founded in Bratislava in 1902, and the World Mizrachi Organization was founded in 1904; the latter sparked protests from over 100 rabbis. The first Hungarian Zionist Congress was held in Bratislava in March 1903 and the city became the Hungarian center for the Zionist Organization in Hungary.

With the establishment of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava also became the center of Agudas Yisroel in Czechoslovakia, in addition to remaining a Zionist center. Several Jewish newspapers and a Hebrew weekly, "HaYehudi," were printed in the city. There were also over 300 Hebrew and Yiddish books printed in the city between 1831 and 1930. The Orthodox Jewish Communities of Slovakia was established in the city, enabling the Orthodox community to cut ties with Hungary.

The German army occupied Czechoslovakia in March, 1938 and soon established an independent Slovak state. Even before the declaration of the independent state, there were attacks on the synagogue and yeshiva on November 11, 1938. Nearly 1,000 Jewish students were expelled from the university and anti-Jewish terror, restrictive measures, and pogroms increased. With the establishment of the Slovak state, Jews continued to suffer from discrimination. Akiva Shreiber and a number of his yeshiva students succeeded in leaving Bratislava for Palestine at the end of 1939.

Nonetheless, the Jewish population of Bratislava peaked in 1940 at 18,000 people (13% of the total population of the city). This was in spite of the fact that Jewish organizations, with the exception of religious communal activities, were prohibited from organizing activities. Additionally, Jews were evicted from various neighborhoods, Jewish students were expelled from public schools, and Jewish properties were confiscated. By the fall of 1941 about half of the city's population had been forcibly sent from the city to the provinces; by the summer of 1942 two-thirds of the Jews of Bratislava were sent to concentration or extermination camps. Gisi Fleischmann of WIZO and Mikhael Dov Ber Weissmandel began organizing an underground resistance movement. They contacted international Jewish organizations, in the hopes that they could save the Jews who remained in the city and the surrounding area. August 1944 saw a Slovak uprising, and the country was subsequently occupied by the Germans. At that point, the remaining Jews in Bratislava were deported.

In the end, approximately 13,000 Jews from Bratislava were killed during the Holocaust. After the war, the city was an important transit point for the thousands of displaced Jews who were making their way to other countries and began to rebuild. The Orthodox and Neolog communities united and maintained two cemetaries, a mikvah, a slaughterhouse, a soup kitchen, a matzah bakery, a Jewish hospital, an old age home, and a Jewish orphanage. Zionist activity resumed; HaShomer HaTzair and Bnei Akiva led activities for orphans preparing to emigrate to Mandate Palestine. Maccabi HaTzair and Beitar were also active. Though there was an attempt to reopen the Pressburg Yeshiva, it ultimately failed.

After the communist takeover, thousands more Jews left the city, most of whom went to Israel. According to an agreement made with Israel, 4,000 Jews were permitted to leave and enter Israel at the end of the 1940s while 2,000 remained in Bratislava. In 1969 there were 1,500 Jews in the city.

The 1990s saw the opening of a number of memorials and places of Jewish interest. A Jewish cultural heritage museum was opened in the old Jewish Quarter. A memorial plaque was added to the Orthodox cemetery in memory of the 13,000 Jewish victims of Bratislava who were killed during the Holocaust. Additionally, in 1997 a monument commemorating the Slovakian Jewish victims of the Nazis was erected on the site where the Pressburg Yeshiva once stood. Jewish organizations and municipal authorities worked together to renovate and reopen the grave of the Hatam Sofer, among other rabbis, to the public.

In the year 2000 there were 800 Jews living in Bratislava.

Slovakia

Slovakia

Slovenská republika - Slovak Republic
A country in central Europe, until 1993 part of Czechoslovakia, member of the European Union (EU).

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 2,600 out of 5,450,000. Main Jewish organization:

Ústredný zväz židovských náboženských obcí v Slovenskej republike - Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia
Panenská 4
811 03 Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: 02-5441 2167
Fax: 02-5441 1106
Email: office@uzzno.sk
Website: http://www.uzzno.sk/