Solomon (Shlomo Zalman) Breuer

BREUER

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 an occupation, profession or trade (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade).

Brauen means "to brew (beer)" in German, and a Brauer is a "brewer". Breuer is a spelling variant of Brauer.

As an occupational name linked to the manufacture and sale of beer, Breuer belongs to a group comprising Breyer, Brajer, Breger, Brauer and Braumann.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Breuer include the Austrian physician and neurophysiologist, Joseph Breuer (1842-1925) who was a precursor of psychoanalysis; the Slovak-born German orthodox rabbi and author, Solomon Breuer (1850-1926); and the 20th century German-born Israeli historian, Mordechai Marcus Breuer.

Rabbi Dr. Salomon Breuer (1850-1926), Rabbi in Frankfurt A/M and among the founders of "Agudat Israel", Germany, 1900s
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
Dr. Paul Arnsberg collection)

Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), rabbi and religious thinker, born in Hamburg, Germany. In 1830 he became Chief Rabbi of Oldenburg where he wrote his classic works Nineteen letters on Judaism and Horeb in which he first expounded his theological system. In 1841 he became Rabbi of Aurich and Osnabrueck and from 1846 to 1851 lived in Nikolsburg (now Mikulov, Czech Republic) as Chief Rabbi of Moravia. Despite his Orthodoxy, his modern innovations caused a rift with the extreme Orthodox community and he moved to Frankfurt on Main. There he organized an autonomous Orthodox community (separate from the Reform who dominated Frankfurt Jewry) and this became the model for other separatist Orthodox communities throughout Germany. In 1876 he obtained official legislation that gave legal recognition to these Orthodox communities. Hirsch was the founder of Neo-Orthodoxy whose motto was 'Torah with secular knowledge', which became the forerunner of modern Orthodoxy.
While remaining Orthodox, he advocated modernization within its framework. He created a network of schools in this spirit and translated key works of Jewish tradition into German, providing them with commentaries that proved highly influential.

Frankfurt am Main

Also known as Frankfurt on the Main, Frankfurt, Frankfort

A city in Hesse, Germany.

There has been a continuous Jewish presence in Frankfurt for nearly 900 years, the longest of any city in Germany. After the destruction brought on by the Holocaust, the Jewish community of Frankfurt began to be reestablished after the war. As of the 21st century, Frankfurt contains the fourth-largest Jewish community in Germany with about 7,200 Jews, nearly half of whom are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The Frankfurt Jewish community of the 21st century is home to two kindergartens, and the I.E Lichtigfeld School in the Philanthropin. It offers a number of social services and programs for seniors, in addition to the Senior Citizens' Home. There are regular Liberal (Reform) and Orthodox services, as well as a mikvah. The Jewish Adult Education Center (Judische Volkshochschule) offers classes, lectures, and excursions, as well as Hebrew and Yiddish language classes, for those interested in learning about Jewish history and culture. The community hosts a number of events, including the Jewish Cultural Festival. The Jewish Museum of the city of Frankfurt traces the history and development of the Jewish community of Frankfurt, and their interactions with the wider German world. There is also a kosher meat restaurant serving community members and tourists.

HISTORY

During the 12th century, Frankfurt had a flourishing, albeit small, Jewish community who were active merchants. In 1241 a riot broke out; Jewish houses were destroyed, and over three-quarters of the Jewish population (200 people at that time) were killed (West German liturgy has a special prayer recited on the Ninth of Av that commemorates the martyrs). This pogrom apparently originated in a dispute over the forced conversion of a Jew. The emperor, Frederick II, launched an official inquiry into the riot, as an infringement on his interests. At the end of the inquiry the city was granted a royal pardon—at the same time, the pardon also guaranteed the safety of the Jews of Frankfurt, and heavy penalties were imposed on those who would incite violence against the Jews.

By 1270 the city had again become a busy center of Jewish life. The community had a central synagogue (Altschul), a cemetery, a bathhouse, hospitals for locals Jews and migrants, a dance house for weddings and other social events, and educational and welfare institutions. For a long time, the prosperity of the Jewish community, and the profit that the local officials and emperor were able to gain from it, protected the Jews against persecution and anti-Semitism. This changed, however, in the wake of the Black Death; the Jews of Frankfurt fell victim to vicious attacks, similar to those experienced by Jewish communities across Europe. In 1349, shortly after Emperor Charles IV had transferred his rights over Jewish property to members of the city council in anticipation of the violence that was to come, the community was massacred; many set fire to their own homes rather than face death at the hands of an angry mob.

Jews were again allowed to live in Frankfurt beginning in 1360, though this time they had to apply individually for the privilege of living in the city; additionally, residence permits had to be renewed every year, and they came at a high monetary cost. Because of the emigration of the Jews to other areas after the pogrom of 1349, combined with the high price of returning to the city, there were only 12 tax-paying Jewish families living in Frankfurt during the first half of the 15th century. There were still issues with the surrounding non-Jewish community; the city council occasionally considered expelling the Jewish community, and beginning in the 1450s the Jews were forced to wear a distinctive badge, identifying them as Jewish.

In 1462 the Jews of Frankfurt were transferred to a specially constructed street, the Judengasse, which was delineated by walls and gates. In spite of the difficulties imposed by ghetto life, the community, in fact, became stronger and more diversified. Religious and lay leaders were elected by the Jewish taxpayers, and the continuous takkanot laid the basis for powerful, enduring, and jealously guarded, local traditions in all spheres of religious, social, and economic life. Conditions were economically favorable, and through heavy financial contributions and skillful diplomacy the Jews of Frankfurt managed to safeguard their privileges.By the end of the 16th century the Jewish community of Frankfurt had reached a peak period of prosperity.

In addition to its economic prosperity, Frankfurt also became a center of Jewish learning. Students from a number of other areas came to study at the yeshivahs of Eliezer Treves and Akiva ben Jacob Frankfurter. The Frankfurt rabbinate and rabbinical court were among the most prominent and authoritative of the religious authorities in Germany.

Economic and social tensions continued to simmer between the wealthy Jewish families of the city and the guild craftsmen and petty traders, many of whom were in debt to the Jews. These tensions eventually turned into outright violence when, in 1614, a mob led by the guild leader Vincent Fettmilch stormed the ghetto and went on a looting rampage. The Jews were expelled from the city. After the intervention of the emperor, however, Fettmilch, along with six others, were arrested and executed in Frankfurt's town square. Subsequently, the Jews were ceremoniously returned to the ghetto, and a stone eagle was mounted above the gates to the Jewish ghetto with the inscription "Protected by the Roman Imperial Majesty and the Holy Empire." These events were commemorated annually on the 20th of the Jewish month of Adar by the Frankfurt community in a holiday known as the "Purim Winz" ("Purim of Vincent").

During the 17th century the ghetto was overpopulated, leading to unhealthy conditions and resulting in a lack of significant population growth. The Jewish community was also taxed heavily, particularly during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Additionally, their terms of residence were designed to keep their numbers from growing; the Judengasse could not be expanded, and allowed for a maximum of 500 families and 12 marriage licenses annually.

In 1711 a fire broke out in the house of the chief rabbi, Naphtali b. Isaac Katz, which destroyed nearly the entire Jewish Quarter. The inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter found temporary refuge in the homes of non-Jews, but had to return to the ghetto after it had been rebuilt.

The Jewish community of Frankfurt had long been dominated by a few wealthy families, some of whom were known by signs hanging outside of their houses; one of the more famous examples is the Rothschild ("red shield") family, which had its banking center in Frankfurt until the 20th century. The impoverished majority now challenged the traditional privileges of the wealthy, and the city council was repeatedly called to act as an arbitrator between them. The community was further weakened by religious and personal disputes, such as the Eybescheutz-Emden controversy regarding Sabbateanism.

Many in Frankfurt, particularly among the wealthy, were proponents of the enlightenment, as well as of the reforms to Jewish education sought by followers of Moses Mendelssohn in Berlin. This also led to tensions within the Jewish community. Forty-nine of the community's prominent members subscribed to Mendelssoh's German translation of the Bible in 1782; the chief rabbi of Frankfurt, Phinehas Horowitz, denounced it from the pulpit. Later, in 1797, there was a proposal to create a school with an extensive secular studies curriculum, the chief rabbi, Rabbi Horowitz was once again opposed, this time imposing a ban on the project. He was supported by most of the community's leaders, in spite of the fact that many of them had private tutors to teach their children secular subjects.

Meanwhile, the French Revolution was beginning to impact the Jews of Frankfurt, both physically and when it came to the question of their emancipation. In 1796 a bombardment destroyed most of the northern part ghetto. Around that time, the community began to experience greater openness, and more rights; in 1798 the prohibition on leaving the ghetto on Sundays and holidays was ended.

With the incorporation of Frankfurt into Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, the status of the Jews began to change. Ultimately, in 1811 the ghetto was abolished and a declaration of equal rights for all citizens expressly included the Jews. This victory, however, was short-lived; with Napoleon's downfall, the senate of the new Free City attempted to abolish Jewish emancipation, and opposed efforts made by the community's delegation to the Congress of Vienna. Amidst these negotiations surrounding Jewish emancipation were the anti-Jewish Hep! Hep! Riots of 1819. In the end, the senate grated Jews civil equality, while at the same time it reinstated many former discriminatory laws against the Jews.

At the same time that Jews and non-Jews were negotiated the Jews' emancipation, religious rifts within the community widened considerably. In 1804 members of the Jewish community of Frankfurt founded the Philanthropin, a school with a markedly secular and assimilationist curriculum that was also open to non-Jewish students. This school became a major center for Reform Judaism; the school also organized Reform Jewish services for students and their parents. That same year a Jewish Freemason lodge was established in Frankfurt; most, if not all, of the community's board were also members of the lodge. Meanwhile, in 1819 the Orthodox cheders were closed by the police, and the board blocked the establishment of a school for both religious and secular studies. The yeshiva, which had about 60 students in 1793, saw a decrease in the number of students coming to learn there.

In 1843 the number of Orthodox families was estimated at less than 10% of the community. Power was clearly in the hands of Reform Jews, who demanded that "Talmudic" laws, including circumcision and messianism, be abolished. A large conference of the Reform Movement was held in Frankfurt in 1844. A leading member of this group was Abraham Geiger, a native of Frankfurt and a communal rabbi from 1863 until 1870.

The Jews of Frankfurt finally achieved emancipation in 1864. Consequently, the power of the community board weakened considerably. This left an opening for the Orthodox community, who took advantage of the opportunity and formed a religious communal organization, the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft, and elected Samson Raphael Hirsch as their rabbi in 1851. The Rothschild family made a large donation for the founding of a new Orthodox synagogue. Ultimately in 1876, after years of feeling ignored and slighted by the community board, the Orthodox organization seceded from the community and set up a separate congregation. At that point the community board was willing to make concessions, allowing those Orthodox Jews who did not want to secede to remain within the community.

The Jewish population of Frankfurt numbered 3,298 in 1817 (7.9% of the total population), 10,009 in 1871 (11%), 21,972 in 1900 (7.5%), and 29,385 in 1925 (6.3%). The comparative wealth of the Frankfurt Jewish community is evidenced by the fact that 5,946 Jewish citizens paid 2,540,812 marks in taxes in 1900, while 34,900 non-Jews paid 3,611,815 marks.

The Jews of Frankfurt were intellectually and culturally active. Leopold Sonnenmann founded the liberal daily newspaper, "Frankfurter Zeitung," and theOrthodox Weekly "Der Israelit," which was founded in 1860, was published in Frankfurt from 1906. The establishment of the Frankfurt University in 1912 was also largely financed by the Jews of Frankfurt. Jewish communal institutions and organizations included two hospitals, three schools, a yeshiva, religious classes for students who attended city schools, an orphanage, a home for the aged, many welfare institutions, and two cemeteries. The Jews of Frankfurt were also active in Jewish causes, providing aid and financial support for Jews in Palestine. In 1920 the philosopher Franz Rosenzweig set up an institution for Jewish studies where Martin Buber, then a professor at Frankfurt University, gave popular lectures.

THE HOLOCAUST

Official Nazi actions against the Jews began on April 1, 1933 with a boycott of Jewish businesses and professionals. Shortly thereafter, on April 7th, Jewish university teachers, white-collar workers, actors, and musicians were dismissed from their jobs. Between March and October 1933 over500 Jewish stores and businesses in Frankfurt were closed. As a result of the economic war being waged against the Jews, both the general and "secessionist" Orthodox communities were faced with financial collapse. They were saved by donors within the community, and the Jewish community worked to expand existing welfareservices, establishing new agencies for economic aid, reemployment, occupational training, schooling, adult education, and emigration.

In addition to expanding their aid and welfare efforts, the Jewish community of Frankfurt responded to their increasing isolation from German society by organizing their own cultural activities. In 1933 Martin Buber revived the Judisches Lehrhaus (Jewish Academy), which had originally been established by Franz Rosensweig during the 1920s, which sponsored a number of lectures and other intellectual programs. A Jewish symphony orchestra was established, as well as theater troupes and sports programs.

On October 26, 1938 Polish Jews were expelled from Germany. Among them were 2,000 Jews from Frankfurt. Though they were allowed to return to Frankfurt a few days later, they arrived to find that their homes had been sealed by the police, and they were unable to access them. The Jewish community hosted them in school buildings and private homes.

During the Kristallnacht pogroms of Nobember 1938, the synagogues of the two Jewish communities were burned down, along with other Jewish community buildings. Jewish homes and stores were looted. The Frankfurt Yeshiva, where Herschel Grynszpan had studied before going on to assassinate the German diplomat Ernst von Rath (which became the pretext for Kristallnacht), was also destroyed. Hundreds of Jewish men were arrested and sent to the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.

Members of the Orthodox Religionsgesellschaft had to once again join the general community to form a single communal organization which the Nazis called Juedische Gemeinde. In 1939 this autonomous community was forcibly merged into the state-supervised Reichvereinigung. Jewish leaders were forced to transfer communal property to municipal ownership.

Because of emigration due to the rise of Nazism and Nazi policies, the population of the Frankfurt community decreased from 26,158 in 1933 to 10,803 in June 1941. Among the Frankfurt natives who emigrated in the wake of the Nazis' rise to power was Anne Frank, who was born in Frankfurt on June 12, 1929 and who left for Amsterdam with her parents, Otto and Edith, and her sister Margot, in 1933.

Deportations of the remaining population to Lodz began on October 19, 1941 and were followed by deportations to Minsk, Riga, Theresienstadt, and other camps. In September 1943, after the large-scale deportations ceased, the Jewish population in Frankfurt totaled 602.

Papa

A town in the Veszprem district, North West Hungary.

Documents from 1698 indicate the presence of Jews in the place. Since then Jewish settlement grew rapidly. The census of 1736 shows the town had the largest number of Jews in the area.

Relations of the inhabitants towards the Jews were generally good, although there were occasional anti-Semitic outbursts; such as in 1830 following a plague, again in 1848 during the national War of Liberation and in 1882 after the Tiszaeszlar blood libel. However, none of these was of long duration. In the Tiszaeszlar incident, the Jews (particularly the butchers and tanning workers) defended themselves.

In the main the Jews made a living from commerce and small-scale industry. In the first half of the 19th century over 100 Jewish families worked in the tanning industry. There were also land lease-holders and important industrialists.
The community was officially founded in 1748 when the Jews received the protection of the estates owner, count Eszterhazy, who permitted them to settle there; to build a synagogue and to erect a cemetery. The community had a 100 dunam parcel of land at its disposal and with the proceeds thereof, the institutions that were founded were able to operate.

The Hevra Kadisha was established in 1739; the protocol of its establishment was written in Hebrew at the beginning, followed later by Yiddish and Hungarian. In 1850 the Hevra Kadisha opened a hospital. There were charitable institutions which assisted the needy and visited the sick, and an old-aged home. The synagogue was consecrated in 1846; count Eszterhazy donated the bricks for the building. Because of differences between the Haredim (orthodox) and Maskilim (enlightened) at the Jewish congress in 1868, the community joined the orthodox stream which refused to accept the decisions of congress. In 1875 a small group broke away and established a Neolog (reform) community which advocated integration into Hungarian society and amendments to the religious way of life.

In 1845 a school, for which the building materials were donated by count Eszterhazy, was opened. It was closed temporarily during the national war of liberation. It later became a state school with over 500 pupils. There were also religious educational institutions.

In 1904 a "Hovevei Zion" society was founded. Later on Zionist activities increased and in the 1930s there was a branch of the Zionist youth movement and also of the Hungarian Zionist organization (which had 120 members), as well as others such as "Hashomer Ha'tsair".

During World War I 20 Jews were killed in action.

During the period of the "white terror" (pogroms against the Jews instigated by right wing military elements, 1919-21, after the fall of the communist regime), two Jews were murdered together with a group of communists.

In 1930 the community numbered 2,567 (12% of the total). The comparative figures in 1880 were 3,550 and 24.2%.


The Holocaust Period
In 1938, after the publication of "discriminatory laws" which aimed at limiting Jewish participation in the economic and cultural fields, the majority of the Jews lost their means of livelihood. In 1939 Papa became a center for forced labor workers from the area. They were organized in labor battalions together with other Hungarian citizens whom the authorities would not permit to join the armed forces. The young people were sent to various places, some within the country and others to the Ukraine. Of the latter group, only a few survivors returned after the war.

In the spring of 1944, after the German occupation, several leading members of the community were arrested and taken to concentration camps in Sarvar and Nagykanizsa. From here they were sent to Auschwitz where they all perished.
In the second half of May a ghetto was set up in the area around the synagogue, which comprised 6-8 streets.

Together with Jews from the surroundings, there were about 2,800 people in the ghetto. At the beginning of June all the fit young people were conscripted for forced labor. The wealthy Jews were interrogated under torture in order to make them reveal where they had hidden their valuables. The Christian residents of the town expressed resentment against the use of this violence. One member of the gendarmerie was charged on these grounds after the war and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

In the ghetto there was a communal kitchen and the inmates did not suffer from hunger. The ghetto police were Jewish and doctors attended to the sick.

In the middle of June they were removed from the ghetto and held in a chemical fertilizers factory, without food or sanitary facilities. The municipality sent small supplies of food.
At the beginning of July they were loaded into cattle cars and transported to Auschwitz. 51 Jews, who were included in the Kastner "Bergen-Belsen train", were removed and sent to Budapest; the majority remained alive.

After the war about 500 people returned to Papa; communal life was renewed. The synagogue and cemetery were renovated and a memorial was erected to the martyrs. After the 1956 anti-Russian revolt, the people began to leave the town by degrees - the majority went overseas, including a few who went on aliyah to Israel. In 1972 there were only 50 Jews left in the place.

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.

Mainz

Yiddish: Magenca; French: Mayence; Hebrew: מגנצא

A city on the river Rhine. Mainz is the capital of Rheinland Pfalz, Germany.

21^st Century

There is a rapidly growing Jewish community in Mainz. A new synagogue was constructed by the architect Manuel Herz in 2010 on the site of the one destroyed by the Nazis on the Progrom Night (Nov. 9, 1938). 
The Jewish population in Mainz is about 2,000 persons. Just over half are community members, and the rest unaffiliated.

History

Mainz is one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany. It is presumed that Jews came to the town as merchants in the roman era and may even have founded a settlement there. It is asserted that the renowned Kalonymus family moved from Lucca in Italy to Mainz at the request of Charlemagne in the 9^th Century. Another assertion places their move to Mainz in 917. None of the above claims can be reliably corroborated.

In support of the claim that an organized Jewish community probably existed in Mainz in the tenth century, a report that a church council in Mainz declared in 906 that a man who killed a Jew out of malice must be made accountable like any other murderer. Archbishop Friedrich, the Catholic Archbishop of Mainz, (937-954) threatened the Jews with forcible conversion or expulsion, and limited their trade activities.

In 1012, after a priest had converted to Judaism, the Jews of Mainz were ordered by Emperor Heinrich II to convert to Christianity or be expelled from the city. The expelled were later allowed to return and continued to play an active part in the trade of the town, which was a commercial center on the Rhine. In 1080, many Jews fled Mainz in after being accused of starting a fire, in which their quarter was also damaged. They settled in Speyer and established the Jewish community there.

 

The Crusades

At the beginning of the First Crusade (1096), the Mainz community leader, Kalonymus ben Meshullam, secured an order from Emperor Heinrich IV protecting the Jews, in exchange for a considerable sum of money. About 1300 Jews gathered in the palace of Archbishop Ruthard, but the promise of protection was not kept. In May 28 1096, after a 2 day standoff, the gates were opened by the palace guards and the Crusaders entered the place. The Jews, who were armed, fought back as best they could, but were eventually overcome by the Crusaders. Over 1,000 died, some at the hands of the Crusaders and many by suicide as an act of martyrdom (“Kiddush ha-Shem”). Some of the Jews decided to accept conversion to Christianity to avoid certain death. Kalonymus ben Meshullam, in exchange for a hefty ransom, managed to escape with a group of about 60 of the community’s wealthy people to Rudesheim, but the group was captured the next morning by the mob, led by Count Emicho of Flonheim, and murdered. Kalonymus committed suicide. The synagogue (first mentioned in 1093) and most of the Jewish quarter were burned down.

12^th Century Jews immortalized the Mainz martyrdom as an example of supreme sacrifice (“Akedah”). The chronicle of Solomon ben Simon recounts the martyrdom (“Kiddush ha-Shem”) of 1096, and claims that Mainz is the most ancient and famous Jewish community on the Rhine.

The community slowly recovered in the following years, after Emperor Heinrich IV permitted those forcibly converted to return to Judaism, decreeing that the Jews were also to enjoy the "King's Peace", first announced in Mainz, which  regulated jurisdictions for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

During the Second Crusade (1147), the Mainz Jewish community also suffered several casualties. During the Third Crusade (1189-92), the Jews of Mainz were unharmed thanks to the resolute protection of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, who proclaimed the “Great Imperial Peace”, which extended the original “King’s Peace” and applied it to the whole Empire.

 

Persecution

The Mainz Jews were ordered to wear the special identifying badges in 1259. In 1281 and 1283 numerous Jews were victims of blood libels. The synagogue was also burnt in those years.

In 1286, because of these repeated persecutions, some Jews of Mainz, along with those of other German cities, wished to emigrate to the Land of Israel under the leadership of Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg.

During the Black Death persecution, (1349) the whole community almost perished. Some died in a battle against the mob who blamed them for this epidemic, but the majority (around 3,000 souls) perished in the flames of their burning synagogue and the Jewish quarter, set on fire by their own hands in an act of martyrdom (“Kiddush ha-Shem”). In 1356, Jews began to resettle in Mainz. However, the community did not attain its former standing.

The Jewry taxes, granted to the town in 1295 and renewed in 1366, became increasingly more burdensome. In 1385 they presented the council with 3,000 gulden "out of gratitude" for its protection during the anti-Jewish disturbances which had broken out in various places.

A series of pogroms and expulsions occurred in 1438 (Destruction of the synagogue and cemetery), 1462 (expulsion) and 1473, when the synagogue was converted into a chapel, and the cemetery tombstones were taken and used for building.

 

Economy

Until the second half of the 12th century, the Jews conducted lively mercantile activities and from a very early date attended the Cologne fairs. From this period onward, money lending became increasingly important in Mainz, as in all German communities. Records of the 12th, and especially of the 13th century, often reveal that churches and monasteries owed money to Jews.

From 1286 until the end of the 14th century, the Jewish community was led by a so-called Judenbishop (nominated by the Archbishop) and by not less than four elders (Vorsteher) who together constituted the Judenrat ("Jews' council").

In 1390 Mainz Jewry suffered a great financial setback when the King of Bohemia, Emperor Wenceslaus IV, annulled debts owed to Jews.

 

Jewish Scholarship

A yeshiva was founded in the tenth century by the Kalonymides. It had become prominent under Rabbi Gershom ben Judah, known as Rabbenu Gershom Me’or Hagolah (“The light of the Diaspora”), and his pupils and contemporaries, Judah ha-Kohen, Jacob ben Yakar, Isaac ha-Levi, and Isaac ben Judah.

The regulations (“Takkanot”) established by Rabbenu Gershom, which were applicable to the three Rhenish cities (Mainz, Worm and Speyer), were acknowledged by all the other German Jewish communities and even by other European ones, thereby achieving the force of law, a fact which enhanced the reputation of Mainz. In Germany, Synodal Assemblies were held in Mainz (1150, 1223, 1245, 1307 and 1381), in which primarily representatives of the three leading communities (Mainz, Speyer and Worms) took part. Their rulings and resolutions, the “Takkanot Shum”, were acknowledged by the rest of the communities of Germany and beyond.

The Mainz Rabbi, Jacob ben Moses Moellin (1356- 1427), known as the Maharil, promulgated regulations (“Takkanot”), chiefly concerned with ritual matters, aimed at the German and primarily the Rheinish Jewish communities. His collection of practices (“Minhagim”), compiled by his pupil Zalman of St. Goar, which rely mainly on the Mainz traditions, are connected with all German and some non- German communities, and were used to a large extent in the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayyim, the Code of Jewish Law.

Outstanding among the many notable scholars and personalities in medieval Mainz are, in addition to those already mentioned, Rabbi Nathan ben Machir ben Judah (c. 1100), Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan (c. 1150), Rabbi Meshullam ben Kalonymus (c. 1150), Rabbi Judah ben Kalonymus ben Moses (c. 1175), Rabbi Baruch ben Samuel (1200), and Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg (1220-1293).

A number of scholars originated from Mainz in modern times too, notably Michael Creizenach, Issac Bernays, Joseph Derenburg, and Ludwig Bamberger. Bamberger was a leader of the 1848 revolution, and one of the main leaders of the German liberals (1823-1899). In 1933, Solomon Levi and Moses Bamberger were Rabbis of the mainstream and Orthodox communities, respectively.

 

The Modern Era

In the early modern era only a few isolated Jews lived in Mainz. These few were expelled in 1579, but a new community was reestablished in 1583, reinforced by emigration from Frankfurt, (1614), Worms (1615), and Hanau. A Rabbi was subsequently engaged in 1630 by endorsement of the government, and a synagogue built in 1639. Another synagogue was built in 1673, enlarged and renovated in 1717, and again in 1773. It was later converted to a community center.

During the French occupation (1644-1648), the Jews were subjected to ever-harsher restrictions.

Influenced by the Toleranzpatent (“Edict of Toleration”, extending religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians living in the crown lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, issued by Emperor Joseph II (1781), the Archbishop-Elector improved the legal position of the Jews, and allowed them to open their own schools and attend general ones.

After the French Republic occupation of Mainz (1792), the Leibzoll ("body tax", a special toll which Jews had to pay in most of the European states in the Middle Ages and up to the beginning of the nineteenth century) was abolished.

On September 12 , 1798 the gates of the ghetto were torn down, and Jews began to acquire residences among the local population. Mainz Jews sent delegations to Napoleon’s Sanhedrin convention in 1806. In 1820 they were granted citizenship and in 1841 full equality as citizens of the French Republic.

In the mid-19th century, the community split when Rabbi Joseph Aub introduced ritual reforms, such as the use of an organ, in a newly built synagogue (1856). Marcus Lehmann founded a Jewish school (a high school with instruction in foreign languages) in 1859. Until the Prussian law of 1876 regulating secession from religious communities, the orthodox remained within the community and seceded only later.

Orthodox Jews, who objected to the Reform practices, founded a meeting place for their own congregation on the corner of Flachsmarkt and Margarethenstrasse. Renovated in 1879, this synagogue was enlarged to accommodate 300 worshipers. Eastern European Jews conducted services in a prayer hall at 13 Margarethenstrasse (established in the 1880s). Then the mainstream community inaugurated a new synagogue on Hindenburgstrasse in 1913, with 580 seats for men and 482 for women. Finally, in 1929, the Orthodox congregation opened another new synagogue.

In the 19^th Century the Jewish population of Mainz increased, and in the 20^th Century it declined. In the 20^th Century its percentage of the general population also declined:

2,665 (5.8%) in 1861
2,998 (5.8%) in 1871
3,104 (3.7%) in 1900
2,738 (2.5%) in 1925 
2,730 (1.8%) in 1933

 

The Holocaust

On November 9, 1938 (the “Kristallnacht” pogroms) the mainstream community’s synagogue (including the museum and library) was looted and burned down. The interior of the Orthodox synagogue was destroyed, but the ensuing fire was extinguished. The Eastern Europeans’ prayer hall was destroyed and looted. 1 local Jew was killed, two committed suicide and 60 Jewish men were deported to Buchenwald. On May 17’ 1939 only 1,452 Jews remained.The Orthodox synagogue was demolished in 1939/40, after which services took place in the community center (2, Forsterstrasse), until the deportations. The steady flow of emigrants was partly balanced by an influx of refugees from the countryside.

In March and September of 1942, the majority of the community was deported to Poland and Theresienstadt concentration camp, and on February 10, 1943 the remaining Jews suffered the same fate. Between 1,300 and 1,400 Mainz Jews perished in the Holocaust. 

 

Postwar

The Mainz Jewish community was reestablished by survivors in October 1945, and a synagogue was opened in 1947. In 1952 that synagogue was moved to the Forsterstrasse building, which had been returned to the community. The synagogue was renovated and enlarged in 1966, and a government office was built on the site of the mainstream community’s destroyed house of worship. In 1988, several of its original pillars were converted into a memorial.The Jewish community of Mainz grew from 80 persons in 1948 to 122 in 1970.