Adolph Aryeh Schwarz

SCHWARZ

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

Schwar(t)z means "black" in German and Yiddish. As a personal nickname, it often referred to the black hair or beard, or dark complexion, of its bearer. It is assumed that Schwar(t)z was a pejorative surname which was not chosen by Jewish families, but forced on them by Central European authorities in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. The term is found in a variety of spellings and translations: Schwartz is documented as a Jewish family name in 1387 in Strasbourg, eastern France; Swartz in 1509 in Budapest; and Schwarzschild, literally "black shield/sign" in German, in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, in 1560. Fekethe, the Hungarian for "black", is documented as a Jewish family name in 1381 in Budapest, Hungary. In France, Schwarzschild became Sarcil in 1925; Schwartzstein became Chastain in 1927; Szwarcbort was transformed into Charbord in 1951; Szwarcman was replaced by Sarmant in 1955; and Chwarzchtein translated as Rochenoir in 1956.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Schwarz include the German-born geologist, geographer, zoologist and botanist of Eretz Israel, Joseph Schwarz (1804-1865); the Austrian airship inventor David Schwarz (1845-1897); and the Austrian singer Vera Schwarz (1889-1964).

Arthur Zechariah Schwarz (1880-1939), rabbi and scholar, the son of R. Adolf Arie Schwarz, born in Karlsruhe, Germany. He graduated from Israelitische-Theologische Lehranstalt, a Vienna seminary leaded by father. Schwarz was district rabbi and teacher in Vienna, Austria.

When the Nazis took over in 1938 he was arrested and tortured. On his release, he went to the Land of Israel but died soon after. Like his father he was a distinguished scholar with especial interest in bibliography and the study of Hebrew manuscripts.

His publications include: "Die hebräischen Handschriften der k.k. Hofbibliothek zu Wien: (Erwerbungen seit 1851)" (1915); "Die hebräischen Handschriften der Nationalbibliothek in Wien" (1925); "Die Pflicht unserer Wissenschaft" (1919); "Hebräische Handschriften" (1920).

His daughter, Tamar (Anna Helena) Schwarz (1917-2013) married Theodor "Teddy" Kollek (1911-2007), who served as Mayor of Jerusalem for 28 years (1965-1993).

Karlsruhe

A city in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, formerly the capital of Baden.

21st Century

In 2020 the Orthodox community counted 854 members, making it the largest Jewish community in Baden. The community congregated in their synagogue and community center on Kielinger Allee. 

The community offers athletic and creative activities at Re’ut youth center that help to connect the young members of the community to their Jewish identity. Older members meet at the senior’s cafe. Additional activities include German language courses, EDV-courses, a chess club, and Israeli folk dance classes. The community center houses an integration bureau, a library, an art studio and the Alef choir that performs Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian songs nationwide. 

The community members are active in interreligious dialogue in the region and they warmly invite everyone who is interested in Jewish culture to attend concerts, lectures, exhibitions and other events at the community center.

History

Jews settled there shortly after its foundation in 1715. By 1725 the community had a synagogue, bathhouse, infirmary, and cemetery. Nathan Uri Kahn served as rabbi of Karlsruhe from 1720 until his death in 1749. According to the 1752 Jewry ordinance Jews were forbidden to leave the town on Sundays and Christian holidays, or to go out of their houses during church services; but they were exempted from service by court summonses on Sabbaths. They could sell wine only in inns owned by Jews and graze their cattle, not on the commons, but on the wayside only. Business records had to be kept in German. The community officials, including two to three unmarried teachers, were exempted from tax. They exercised civic jurisdiction and could commit members of the community to the municipal prison for Jews. A Chevra Kaddisha was founded in 1726; the cemetery, also used by Jews of other towns, was enlarged in 1756 and 1794.

There were 9 Jewish families living in Karlsruhe in 1720, 50 in 1733, 80 in 1770, and 502 persons in 1802. Nethanel Weil, who became chief rabbi of the two Baden Margravates (1750-1769), was succeeded by his son Jedidiah (Tiah) Weil (1770-1815). Nethanel Weil's commentary on Asheri, Korban Netanel (on tractates Mo'ed and Nashim) was printed in 1755 in Karlsruhe by L. J. Held, a successor to old and well-known Augsburg printers. His successors F.W. Lotter and M. Macklott continued publishing Hebrew works, including some by Jonathan Eybeschuetz (printed 1762-1782) and the Torat Shabbat of Jacob Weil (1839). The firm continued printing until 1899, mainly liturgical items, Judeo-German circulars, and popular stories. D.R. Marx, licensed in 1814, printed in 1836 a Hebrew Bible (1845), edited on behalf of the Jewish authorities (Oberrat) by a group of rabbis, among them Jacob Ettlinger. Altogether some 60 Hebrew books were printed in Karlsruhe.

Karlsruhe was the seat of the Central Council (Oberrat) of Baden Jewry, according to the articles of the 1809 edict which granted them partial emancipation. Asher Loew, a participant in the Paris Sanhedrin, was appointed rabbi of Baden and Karlsruhe in 1809; he was succeeded in 1837 by Elias Willstaedter. A new synagogue with organ was consecrated in 1875; the Orthodox faction seceded in 1878 and built its own synagogue in 1881. From the 1820's Jews were permitted to practice law and medicine. After attaining complete emancipation in 1862, Jews were elected to the town council and the Baden parliament, and from 1890 were appointed judges. The Jewish population numbered 670 in 1815, 1,080 in 1862 (3.6% of the total), 2,200 in 1892, 3,058 in 1913 (2.73%), 3,386 in 1925 (2.37%), 3,199 in June 1933 (2.01%), and 1,368 in May 1939. The Jews in Karlsruhe suffered from persecution during the Hep Hep riots in 1819. Anti-Jewish demonstrations took place in 1843 and 1848, and in the 1880's the anti-Semitic movement of Adolf Stoecker had its repercussions in Karlsruhe.

The community maintained a variety of cultural and educational institutions. A Lehrhaus (school for adults) was founded in 1928. During the first years of the Nazi regime the community continued to function and particularly to prepare Jews for emigration. An agricultural training school was founded and a biweekly newspaper (founded as a bulletin in 1840) was published. On October 22, 1938, all male Polish Jews living in Karlsruhe were deported to Poland. The synagogues were destroyed on Kristallnacht, November 1938; most of the men were arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp, but were released after they had furnished proof that they intended to emigrate. In October 1940, 895 Jews were expelled and interned by the French Vichy authorities in the concentration camp at Gurs in Southern France, most of them were deported from there to Auschwitz in November 1942. The 429 remaining Jews and non-Aryans were deported to the East between 1941 and 1944.

Post WWII

The community was renewed in November 1945. In June 1946 the community counted 91 members, some of them returning Holocaust survivors. The community congregated in their old community center on Herrenstraße, which was not destroyed during the war. The prayer room that was installed in the community center was inaugurated by a US-military rabbi in September 1946. It was financially impossible to build a new synagogue, but a synagogue was opened as a part of the community center in 1951. 

New plans to build a new synagogue and community center were advanced in the 1960s. The state of Baden-Württemberg granted the grounds on Knielinger Allee. The building was designed by architects Hans Backhaus and Harro Wolf Brosinsky in the form of a Magen David. The walls inside are slightly curved with a dome of glass on the top, making the room look like a tent. Underneath the main synagogue quarters is a ballroom including a small stage. The new synagogue was inaugurated in July 1971.

In the 1980s the community counted around 350 members. During the 1990s, the number of community members nearly tripled with the arrival of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Vienna

In German: Wien. Capital of Austria

Early History

Documentary evidence points to the first settlement of Jews in the 12th century. A charter of privileges was granted by Emperor Frederick II in 1238, giving the Jewish community extensive autonomy. At the close of the 13th and during the 14th centuries, the community of Vienna was recognized as the leading community of German Jewry. In the second half of the 13th century there were about 1,000 Jews in the community.
The influence of the "Sages of Vienna" spread far beyond the limits of the city itself and continued for many generations. Of primary importance were Isaac B. Moses "Or Zaru'a", his son Chayyim "Or Zaru'a", Avigdor B. Elijah Ha- Kohen, and Meir B. Baruch Ha- Levi. At the time of the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49, the community of Vienna was spared and even served as a refuge for Jews from other places.

Toward the end of the 14th century there was a growing anti-Jewish feeling among the burghers; in 1406, during the course of a fire that broke out in the synagogue, in which it was destroyed, the burghers seized the opportunity to attack Jewish homes. Many of the community's members died as martyrs in the persecutions of 1421, others were expelled, and the children forcibly converted. After the persecutions nevertheless some Jews remained there illegally. In 1512, there were 12 Jewish families in Vienna, and a small number of Jews continued to live there during the 16th century, often faced with threats of expulsion. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), Jews suffered as a result of the occupation of the city by Imperial soldiers. In 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II confined the Jews to a ghetto. Some Jews at this time engaged in international trade; others were petty traders. Among the prominent rabbis of the renewed community was Yom Tov Lipman Heller, and Shabbetai Sheftel Horowitz,
one of the many refugees from Poland who fled the Chmielnicki who led anti-Jewish massacres of 1648.

Hatred of the Jews by the townsmen increased during the mid 17th century. The poorer Jews were expelled in 1669; the rest were exiled during the Hebrew month of Av (summer) of the year 1670, and their properties taken from them. The Great Synagogue was converted into a Catholic church. Some of the Jews took advantage of the offer to convert to Christianity so as not to be exiled.

By 1693, the financial losses to the city were sufficient to generate support for a proposal to readmit the Jews. Only the wealthy were authorized to reside in Vienna, as "tolerated subjects", in exchange for very high taxes. Prayer services were permitted to be held only in a private house.

The founders of the community and its leaders in those years, as well as during the 18th century, were prominent Court Jews, such as Samuel Oppenheimer, Samson Wertheimer, and Baron Diego Aguilar. As a result of their activities, Vienna became a center for Jewish diplomatic efforts on behalf of Jews throughout the Habsburg Empire as well as an important center for Jewish philanthropy. A Sephardi community in Vienna traces its origins to 1737, and grew as a result of commerce with the Balkans.

The Jews suffered under the restrictive legislation of Empress Maria Theresia (1740- 80). In 1781, her son, Joseph II, issued his "Toleranzpatent", which, though attacked in Jewish circles, paved the way in some respects for later Emancipation.

By 1793, there was a Hebrew printing press in Vienna that soon became the center for Hebrew printing in Central Europe. During this period, the first signs of assimilation in social and family life of the Jews of Vienna made their appearance. At the time of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Viennese salon culture was promoted by Jewish wealthy women, whose salons served as entertainment and meeting places for the rulers of Europe.

The Jewish Community and the Haskalah Movement

From the close of the 18th century, and especially during the first decades of the 19th century, Vienna became a center of the Haskalah movement.

Despite restrictions, the number of Jews in the city rapidly increased. At a later period the call for religious reform was heard in Vienna. Various maskilim, including Peter Peretz Ber and Naphtali Hertz Homberg, tried to convince the government to impose Haskalah recommendations and religious reform on the Jews. This aroused strong controversy among the Viennese Community.

Jewish Immigration

During the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, the Jewish population of Vienna increased as a result of immigration there by Jews from other regions of the Empire, particularly Hungary, Galicia, and Bukovina. The influence and scope of the community's activities increased particularly after the annexation of Galicia by Austria. By 1923, Vienna had become the third largest Jewish community in Europe. Many Jews entered the liberal professions.

Community Life

In 1826, a magnificent synagogue, in which the Hebrew language and the traditional text of the prayers were retained, was inaugurated. It was the first legal synagogue to be opened since 1671. Before the Holocaust, there were about 59 synagogues of various religious trends in Vienna. There was also a Jewish educational network. The rabbinical Seminary, founded in 1893, was a European center for research into Jewish literature and history. The most prominent scholars were M.Guedeman, A. Jellinek, Adolph Schwarz, Adolf Buechler, David Mueller, Victor Aptowitzer, Z.H. Chajes, and Samuel Krauss. There was also a "Hebrew Pedagogium" for the training of Hebrew teachers.

Vienna also became a Jewish sports center; the football team Hakoach and the Maccabi organization of Vienna were well known. Many Jews were actors, producers, musicians and writers, scientists, researchers and thinkers.

Some Prominent Viennese Jews: Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951), musician, composer; Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911), musician, composer; Franz Werfel (1890 - 1945), author; Stefan Zweig (1881 - 1942), author; Karl Kraus (1874 - 1936), satirist, poet; Otto Bauer (1881 - 1938), socialist leader; Alfred Adler (1870 - 1937), psychiatrist; Arthur Schnitzler (1862 - 1931), playwright, author; Isaac Noach Mannheimer (1793 - 1865), Reform preacher; Joseph Popper (1838 -1921), social philosopher, engineer; Max Adler (1873 - 1937), socialist theoretician; Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), psychiatrist, creator of Psychoanalysis; Adolf Fischhoff (1816 - 1893), politician.

The Zionist Movement

Though in the social life and the administration of the community, there was mostly strong opposition to Jewish National action, Vienna was also a center of the national awakening. Peretz Smolenskin published Ha-Shachar between 1868 and 1885 in Vienna, while Nathan Birnbaum founded the first Jewish Nationalist Student Association, Kadimah, there in 1882, and preached "Pre-Herzl Zionism" from 1884. The leading newspaper, Neue Freie Presse, to which Theodor Herzl contributed, was owned in part by Jews.
It was due to Herzl that Vienna was at first the center of Zionist activities. He published the Zionist Movement's Organ, Die Welt, and established the headquarters of the Zionist Executive there.

The Zionist Movement in Vienna gained in strength after World War I. In 1919, the Zionist Robert Stricker was elected to the Austrian Parliament. The Zionists did not obtain a majority in the community until the elections of 1932.

The Holocaust Period

Nazi Germany occupied Vienna in March 1938. In less than one year the Nazis introduced all the discriminatory laws, backed by ruthless terror and by mass arrests (usually of economic leaders and Intellectuals, who were detained in special camps or sent to Dachau). These measures were accompanied by unspeakable atrocities. Vienna's Chief Rabbi, Dr. Israel Taglicht, who was more than 75 years old, was among those who were forced to clean with their bare hands the pavements of main streets. During Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938), 42 synagogues were destroyed, hundreds of flats were plundered by the S.A. and the Hitler Youth.

The first transports of deported Jews were sent to the notorious Nisko concentration camp, in the Lublin District (October 1939). The last mass transport left in September 1942; it included many prominent people and Jewish dignitaries, who were sent to Theresienstadt, from where later they were mostly deported to Auschwitz. In November 1942, the Jewish community of Vienna was officially dissolved. About 800 Viennese Jews survived by remaining underground.

Last 50 Years

In the last 50 years, Vienna has become the main transient stopping-place and the first refuge for hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees and emigrants from Eastern Europe after World War II.

The only synagogue to survive the Shoah is the Stadttempel (built 1826), where the community offices and the Chief Rabbinate are located. A number of synagogues and prayer rooms catering to various chassidic groups and other congregations are functioning on a regular basis in Vienna. One kosher supermarket, as well as a kosher butcher shop and bakery serve the community

The only Jewish school run by the community is the Zwi Perez Chajes School, which reopened in 1980 after a hiatus of 50 years, and includes a kindergarden, elementary and high school. About 400 additional pupils receive Jewish religious instruction in general schools and two additional Talmud Torah schools. The ultra-orthodox stream of the community, which has been growing significantly since the 1980's, maintain their separate school system.
Though the Zionists constitute a minority, there are intensive and diversified Zionist activities. A number of journals and papers are published by the community, such as Die Gemeinde, the official organ of the Community, and the Illustrierte Neue Welt. The Austrian Jewish Students Union publishes the Noodnik.

The Documentation Center, established and directed by Simon Wiesenthal and supported by the community, developed into the important Institute for the documentation of the Holocaust and the tracing of Nazi Criminals.

In 1993, the Jewish Museum in Vienna opened its doors and became a central cultural institution of the community, offering a varied program of cultural and educational activities and attracting a large public of Jewish and non-Jewish visitors. The museum chronicles the rich history of Viennese Jewry and the outstanding roles Jews played in the development of the city. The Jewish Welcome Service aids Jewish visitors including newcomers who plan to remain in the city for longer periods.

Jewish Population in Vienna:

1846 - 3,379

1923 - 201,513

1945/46 - 4,000

1950 - 12,450

2000 - 9,000

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.

Wrocław

German: Breslau

The largest city in western Poland. Capital city of the province of Lower Silesia. Part of Germany until World War II

CONTEMPORARY Wrocław

A Jewish revival began during the late 1980s, led by the community's chairman Jerzy Kichler. In the year 2000 the city reopened the Jewish Social-Cultural Society, and was home to a Jewish school. The wedding of Ellen Friedland and Curt Fissel, American documentary filmmakers, which was celebrated in the year 2000, was the first Jewish wedding to be held in the city in decades; in 2014 another Jewish wedding was celebrated in the city, this time between Katka Reszke and Slawomir Grunberg, two Polish Jews. The White Stork Synagogue, which had been used by the Nazis as an auto repair shop and to store stolen Jewish property, was rededicated in 2010 after a full-scale restoration.

As of 2014 there were 350 registered members of the Jewish community in Wrocław, making it the second-largest organized Jewish community in Poland, after Warsaw.

HISTORY

The oldest Jewish tombstone found in Wrocław is that of David ben Sar Shalom and dates back to 1203, indicating that by then Wroclaw was home to a permanent Jewish community. The community was granted its first privilege by Duke Henry IV Probus, which was confirmed by his successor, Henry V, around 1290; at that point, Wrocław had the second largest Jewish community in East Central Europe, after Prague. The Jews of the city worked primarily as moneylenders and traders; a smaller minority worked as artisans.

During the 14th century, however, the Jews of Wrocław were the victims of a number of outbreaks of violence directed against them. After a pogrom in 1349, about 5 families remained of the original seventy. Forty-one Jews were put on trial burned at the stake in 1453 after being accused of host desecration. That same year the Jewish community was expelled. Two years later the town was granted an official status of intolerance; Jews were forbidden to live in Wrocław until 1744 and could only visit during the annual fairs.

Though they were forbidden from living in the town itself, Jews began settling in the areas surrounding Wroclaw. Eventually, during the 1670s, the Council of Four Lands successfully persuaded the town council to allow their Jewish representatives from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, to settle in the town permanently. There were also a number of Jews living in Wrocław illegally, though Emperor Charles VI eventually ordered that they be expelled in 1738. The total number of Jews living in Wroclaw in 1722 (legally and illegally, though the majority were living there illegally) was 775.

In 1741 the city was annexed by Prussia, and in 1744 Frederick II allowed Jews to form an official community there. The Jewish population grew rapidly. In 1747 there were 532 Jews living in Wroclaw (1.1% of the total population); by 1810 that number had jumped to 3,255 (5.2%).

Wrocław became an important center for the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment). Maskilim (those in favor of the Haskalah) established schools that provided a modern education, in spite of opposition from opponents of the Haskalah. The Prussian Emancipation Act of 1812 also granted many civil rights to the Jews of the empire, while simultaneously highlighting divisions within the Jewish community. The Jewish community in Wroclaw eventually divided into an Orthodox congregation, led by Rabbi Solomon Titkin and his son Gedaliah, and a Liberal congregation led by Rabbi Abraham Geiger. Both communities were active in the religious and cultural lives of the Jews of the city, and were led by distinguished rabbis and scholars. Joseph Jonas Fraenkel, Isaiah B. Judah, Loeb Berlin, Ferdinand Rosenthal, Moses Hoffmann were major figures within the Orthodox community, and Abraham Geiber, Mauel Joel, Jacob Guttman, Hermann Vogelstein, and Reinhold Lewin led the Reform community. There was also a Hebrew literary circle that included Raphael Fuerstenthal, Joel Loewe-Brill, Solomon Pappenheim, and David Samoszc. The first Jewish student movement "Blau-Weiss" ("Blue and white") was founded in Wroclaw in 1912. There were also two Jewish newspapers serving the city. Another notable figure born in Wroclaw in 1825 was Ferdinand Lasalle, one of the founders of German socialism.

The Jewish Theological Seminary was founded in 1854 by Zachariah Frankel. It became a center of Jewish scholarship and learning and was the model for the Jewish Theological Seminary later established by the Conservative Movement in New York City. Among its teachers was Heinrich Graetz. The Seminary published the first comprehensive journal of Jewish learning, "Monatsschrift Fuer Geshichte Wissenshaft des Judentums."

The number of Jewish residents in the city was 19,743 in 1900, and 10,300 in 1939.

The city underwent an economic decline during the early 20th century. Post World War I there was a noticeable increase in anti-Semitic violence. Bernhard Schottlander, a socialist journalist, was murdered in one such attack in 1920.

After Hitler came to power in 1933 the situation became even worse. Jews had their civil rights revoked, and their property began to be confiscated. In November, 1938 Jewish cultural, social, and educational activities were halted and synagogues and Jewish schools were destroyed during the Kristallnacht pogroms.

Beginning in September 1941 Jews were driven from their homes and property and crowded into "Judenhaeuser" to be deported a few months later to transit camps on the way to Auschwitz. Between November 1941 and the summer of 1944 the Jews of Lower Silesia, including those from Wroclaw, were deported in 11 transports. The first transport took the Jews to Kaunas, where everyone was shot. Subsequent transports sent the Jews to the death camps of Sobibor, and Belzec, or the concentration camps Terezin and Auschwitz. Some Jews were sent to temporary labor camps. By 1943 only partners of mixed marriages and some children remained in the city. The last 150 Jews of the city were deported to Gross-Rosen in January 1945 where they were killed. The old cemetery, which had been founded in 1761, was destroyed.

Beginning in May, 1945 Wrocław was a transit center for Jewish survivors returning from concentration camps in Silesia and Poland. Jews from former Polish territories that had been annexed to the Soviet Union during the war began arriving in the city in waves beginning in 1946, making Wroclaw the largest Jewish community in Poland. Though the number of Jews in Wrocław rose to 17,747 in 1946, after the pogrom in Kielce in July of that year the numbers dropped considerably; by the spring of 1947 there were about 15,000 Jews living n Wrocław.

The postwar Jewish community attempted to rebuild and established a religious community, schools, Jewish cooperatives, and a Jewish theater, as well as other organizations and political parties. The community's independent social service organizations were closed by the state around 1950, which created instead the state-dependent Jewish Social-Cultural Society. The population continued to drop, largely as the result of emigration, and by 1960 there were 3,800 Jews left in the city.

The Six Day War and state-sponsored anti-Semitism led to a marked increase in emigration after 1967. This state-sponsored anti-Semitism also led to the closure of a Jewish school and the Jewish theater in Wrocław.

In 1974 there were 3,000 Jews in Wrocław.