The Jewish Community of Kosice, Slovakia
Košice
Yiddish: קאשוי, Kashoi; Hungarian: Kassa; German: Kaschau
A city in eastern Slovakia. Until World War I (1914-1918) Kosice was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary and known as Kassa. After World War I it became part of Czechoslovakia. Since 1993 it has been part of Slovakia.
21ST CENTURY
Four of the five major synagogues that existed in Kosice before the war have remained standing. The Neolog synagogue was converted into a philharmonic hall, and the Star of David that once adorned it was moved to the Jewish cemetery to serve as a Holocaust memorial. The Chassidic synagogue was converted into a lab building.
One Orthodox synagogue underwent a process of restoration, and serves as the center of Kosice’s Jewish community. The complex includes community offices, a kosher cafeteria, and a small synagogue. It also includes a mikvah (ritual bath) dating from the 19th century.
A second former Orthodox synagogue was abandoned and remained in a state of neglect for years. Beginning in the 21st century it began undergoing a process of restoration and renovation.
The Jewish cemetery in Kosice has continued to be used through the 21st century.
In 2001 the Jewish population of Kosice was 406.
HISTORY
Jews from nearby Rozhanovce (Hungarian: Rozgony) came to Kosice only for market days until 1840, when they received permission to settle there. Though some of the city’s residents still attempted to prevent the Jews from settling there, the city's Jewish population grew significantly and Kosice became one of the larger Jewish communities in Hungary. In 1869 there were 2,178 Jews (10% of the total population) in Kosice and by 1910 there were 6,723 (15%). Additionally, Kosice would absorb many refugees from World War I who chose to remain in the city after the war, so by 1930 there were 11,195 Jews living in Kosice (16.4% of the total population).
Economically, the Jews of Kosice benefitted from a number of developments that took place over the years. Jews were heavily involved in the city’s major industries: the brewery, flour mills, brickworks, and the soap factory. The community experienced further economic gains in 1860 with the arrival of a railroad interchange to Kosice. After World War I, the community profited from the town's position as the gateway to Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Carpatho-Russia) in the newly created Czechoslovakian Republic. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee established its institutional headquarters in the town, as did other Jewish and Zionist institutions.
Kosice housed two major Jewish communities, the Orthodox and the Neolog, each of which had their own synagogue and even separate sections in the Jewish cemetery. Both communities also supported Jewish schools in which the language of instruction was Hungarian and/or Slovak. Indeed, the Kosice Yeshiva was among those recognized by the government as an institution of higher learning. A new Neolog synagogue was built in 1927, which included 600 seats for men and 500 for women, along with an elementary school, rooms for teachers, a gymnasium, a laboratory, and an office. That same year, the Orthodox community (which increased from 236 members in 1914 to 700 in 1927) constructed its own Moorish-style synagogue building.
THE HOLOCAUST
Immediately after Hungary annexed the city in November 1938, a number of antisemitic economic restrictions were applied, first against those holding government licenses (tobacconists, restaurateurs, and lawyers), and then expanded to include other professions.
After World War II (1939-1945) broke out in September 1939, refugees from Slovakia and Poland came to Kosice; in 1940 there were 3,000 people being supported by the Hungarian Jewish Relief Organization (OMZSA) in Kosice. Kosice absorbed another wave of refugees when the Slovakian deportations began in 1942.
Beginning in 1940, all Jewish men between the ages of 40 and 45 were conscripted for forced labor, and those between 21 and 40 were forced to serve in the Hungarian Army labor battalions serving in Russia.
When Hungary was occupied by the Germans on March 19, 1944, forty members of the Orthodox and Neolog communities were arrested and held as hostages. Large sums of money were demanded as ransom for the community. A Judenrat was also formed, made up of members from both the Orthodox and Neolog communities.
On April 28, 1944 the Jews of the city began to be concentrated in specific areas; 11,830 Jews were confined to 11 streets, which were then reduced to 3 on April 30. Finally, the Jews were ordered to move into the four-acre area of the local brick factory, which was located on the outskirts of the town.
Deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau began on May 15th, 1944. By June 7th, there were no Jews left in Kosice. 70% of the Jews from Kosice were killed.
POSTWAR
After the war, a number of Jewish groups returned to the city but the Jewish population continued to decline. During the 1960s the Jewish population of Kosice was approximately 1,300.
Rebecca Kohut
(Personality)Rebecca Kohut (1864-1951), educator, vocational expert, and community leader, born in Kassa, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire, now Kosice, in Slovakia). She was the daughter of Rabbi Albert Bettelheim. The family moved to the Unites States in 1867. For two years they lived in Philadelphia, PA, for seven years in Richmond, VA, then they moved to San Francisco, where Rebecca had most of her schooling. She also attended the University of California for two years, specializing in English and history. In 1886 Rebecca came to New York, and in 1887 she met and married Alexander Kohut, the Hungarian rabbi and scholar, and who had recently lost his first wife and had eight children to care for.
Rebecca became a member of the Ladies' Health Protective Association of New York. When Alexander died (1894), she undertook to support the family by giving a series of lectures on Jewish topics, held at the home of Mrs. Jacob Schiff. In 1899 Rebecca founded the short-lived Kohut School for Girls; later she became a director of the Columbia Grammar School. She was president of the New York Council of Jewish Women from 1897 to 1901, and in 1914 headed the Young Women's Hebrew Association's employment bureau. Recognized for special competence in the problems of the unemployed, she was appointed to the Federal Employment Clearing House in 1917, and in 1931 to the New York State Employment Service Advisory Commission. She served in 1932 on the State Legislative Commission on Unemployment. In 1942 she became president of the World Congress of Jewish Women; she also played a leading role in the American Women's Association, the Vocational Service for Juniors, and the Bureau of Jewish Social Research.
In 1934, Rebecca was awarded the honorary D.H.I., degree by the Jewish Institute of Religion.
Her books include the autobiographical My Portion (1925); As I Know Them (1928); George Alexander Kohut: His Memoir (1936); His Father's House, a study of George Alexander Kohut (1938), and More Yesterdays (1950).
Gyula Kosice
(Personality)Gyula Kosice (1924- ), sculptor and poet born as Fernando Fallik in Kosice, Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia) and was brought to Argentina at the age of four. He was one of Argentina's first abstract artists who used water and neon gas, light and movement in his works. He produced many extremely large monumental sculptures which have been exhibited in many countries. In 1945 he helped to found the "Arte Concreto Invención" ("Concrete Art Invention"), then as founder of the Madi art movement in 1947 he used neon lighting in art for the first time. In the 1950s he started to produce monumental sculptures using concrete, polyester and marble as well as plexiglass fountains and hydrospatial designs. In the context of this innovation. These monumental sculptures included hydrospatial routes and hydromurals. In 1958 he held a retrospective exhibition of his work called "A Hundred Works of Kosice, a Forerunner" at the Di Tella Institute (1968) and then another retrospective exhibition in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires in 1991.
Kosice also published 15 books of essays and poetry. He made more than 50 personal exhibitions and participated in more than 500 group exhibitions.His works appear in museums and private collections in Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Asher Schwarzman
(Personality)Asher Schwarzman (1890-1919) Poet.
Born in Korostyshev, Ukraine, he was influenced as a young boy by H.N. Bialik, who was friend of the family. From 1911 Schwarzman served in the Russian army and was decorated for his bravery during World War I. After the War he lived in Kiev and participated in publications of Yiddish Communists. Following the Kiev pogrom (1919) he fought the counterrevolutionary bands and was killed in battle.
Schwarzman wrote some 60 poems, collected posthumously under the title Lider un Brif (1934).
The tombstone of Rabbi Aharon Ben Meir Horvitz in the Jewish cemetery, Kosice, Czechoslovakia, 1988
(Photos)in the Jewish cemetery, Kosice, Czechoslovakia, 1988
Photo: Andres Lacko, Israel
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot.
courtesy of Andres Lacko, Israel)
Office of the President of the Jewish Community, Kosice, 1988
(Photos)in Kosice, Czechoslovakia, 1988
On the walls a Parokhet (left) and a photograph of the head
of the Communist party in Czechoslovakia. The office is located in a building next to the synagogue on Zvorkarska street
Photo: Andres Lacko, Israel
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
courtesy of Andres Lacko, Israel)