The Jewish Community of Velke Kapusany

SPIEGEL, SPIGHEL, SCHPIGEL, SCHPIEGEL, SZPIEGEL, SPIEGEL-ADOLF

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

Literally "mirror" in German, the Jewish family name Spiegel may indicate a occupation involving the manufacture or sale of glass used in the production of mirrors. It could also derive from a house sign in the medieval German city of Frankfurt am Main picturing a mirror. The surname, and its equivalents, among them Spigler, Spiegleman and Spiegelglass, were adopted by mirror makes and traders. The form Spiegel is documented in Frankfurt am Main in the 16th century. The variant Szpiegel is the Polish spelling of the same name, the "z" being added in order to preserve the original German sound of "sh".

A Hungarian Jewish Spiegel family is mentioned in Brazil in the late 19th century.

Distinguished bearers of these names include the Czech educator and senator, Ludwig Spiegel (1864-1926); the Bukovinian-born 20th century American theologian Shalom Spiegel; the Austrian-born 20th century American film producer, Samuel P. Spiegel; and the 20th century Austrian-born American physician and professor of colloid chemistry, Mona Spiegel-Adolf.

Presov

In Slovakian: Prešov; Hungarian: Eperjes

A town in east Slovakia, formerly in Czechoslovakia.

In the 15th century Matthias Corvinus granted Presov the privilege of excluding the Jews. Later, immigrants escaping the harsh familiants laws and the Orkuta blood libel (1764) settled in the vicinity of the city and attended its annual fairs. The communities of the district eventually united under the vigorous leadership of Marcus Hollaender (1760-1849), originally of Tarnopol, who in 1790 received citizen rights in Presov. Becoming a prosperous merchant and collector of the toleration tax, he founded a synagogue outside the city gates. Jews began settling within the town in the early 19th century and services were held in Hollaender's home.

In 1843 a community was founded under the leadership of Leo Hollaender, Marcus' son, and subsequently a synagogue and school were built. In 1848 some Presov Jews served as officers of the revolutionary Hungarian army. Prominent among them was the Rabbi Solomon Schiller-Szinessy, who was forced to emigrate and went to England. During the revolution the Christian craftsmen vehemently demanded the expulsion of the Jews, particularly those who had recently arrived from Poland. Mayer Austerlitz served as rabbi for half a century (1860-1913). In 1871 the Orthodox founded their own community, which soon grew to include more than half of Presov's Jews. Most of their institutions were founded in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1930 an impressive Orthodox synagogue was built. The two communities led parallel, separate, and unconnected lives; there was also a Chasidic community. A yeshivah, founded by Rabbi M. C. Law, had 100 students in 1927. A Jewish museum was founded in 1928; during the war it was confiscated by the Fascists and subsequently moved to Prague.

Zionism was established in Presov at an early date by Karl Ferbstein, one of the Zionist leaders of Czechoslovakia and delegate to Zionist congresses. In 1930 there were 3,965 Jews in Presov and in 1940 about 4,000 (about 40% of the total population), supplemented by about 2,000 refugees from the countryside. All were deported to various camps during World War II. After the war a new community was established. The synagogue, desecrated during the war, was restored in 1957.

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/

Uzhhorod

Ужгород / Uzhhorod; in Hungarian: Ungvar; in Czech: Uzhorod; in Russian: Uzhgorod

A town in Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine. Part of Austro-Hungary until 1920, then in Czechoslovakia; between 1938 and 1945 in Hungary; and since then until 1991 in the Soviet Union.

21st Century

In 2005 there were about 600 Jews, mostly elderly, still living in the town and they received support from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Community. They have a synagogue, Jewish community center, a Jewish Day school and they publish a magazine called Gut Shabbos which covers Jewish activities in the Carpathian Mountains. The nearby Jewish communities of Munkatch, Chust, Vinograda and Rachov participate in their activities. There is a Chabad which run a pre-school and mikvah.

The magnificent synagogue, built in 1904, has served as a concert hall Transcarpathian Philharmonic Hall since WWII. All Jewish symbols were removed from the building, but as of 2012 there is a plaque commemorating the 85,000 Jews from Zakarpattia Oblast murdered in the Holocaust.

History

The Jewish community of Uzhgorod, probably dated from the 16th century. There is some controversy about who were the original Jewish settlers. Some say Sephardic Jews came in the fifteenth century, some say survivors of the Chemilnitzki massacres (1648-1649) were the first to settle. At the end of the 1720s, approximately 30 Jewish families lived in the town, which at that time belonged to the Habsburg monarchy. In 1730, they employed Rabbi Bodek Raisman from Lviv who was considered the founder of the local community. In the 18th century, the local Jews lived primarily off winemaking and agriculture; the community was very poor. Jews from Galicia came in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and contributed to the growth of the town.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century a yeshiva was established. Some of the outstanding rabbis, disciples of the Hatam Sofer, of Hungary served in Uzhgorod, notably Rabbi Meir Eisenstadter (Maharam Esh; officiated until 1852), his son Menaḥem Esh (d. 1863), and Ḥayim Tsevi-Hirsh Mannheimer (1814–1886). They also played national roles and had great spiritual influence on Uzhgorod and Hungarian Jewry in general. Solomon Ganzfried, author of the Kitztzur Shulchan Arukh, served as dayyan in 1866.

In 1864 Karl Jaeger established a Hebrew printing press with types bought in Vienna. The first book printed was M. Eisenstadter's Responsa Imrei Esh, (part 2). Printing continued until 1878. In 1926 another press was set up by M. S. Gelles and continued to be active until World War II. About 70 works were printed in Uzhgorod. The city remained a center for the publication of traditional rabbinic works from the 1920s until the Holocaust.

During the Hungarian revolution in 1848–1849, Ungvár sent 14 Jewish men to serve in the army, and the congregation fully equipped a battalion of soldiers.

The concentration of secular intelligentsia, and large numbers of physicians, lawyers, printers, and clerks, contributed to both the rise of Magyar nationalism and the appearance of a more liberal Judaism. However, the efforts of this sector to develop modern education met with determined opposition by the Orthodox. When in the mid-1860s a debate developed around the establishment of a rabbinical seminary, Me’ir Eisenstadt led the opposition successfully. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, government authorities imposed secular schools on the population as part of its Magyarization program. In 1868 the community split to found a separate Neolog community, whose first rabbi was M. Klein, translator of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed into Hungarian. Soon after the establishment of the community, however, most of its members returned to Orthodox Judaism.

At the turn of the 20th century, Hasidism gained significant influence in Uzhgorod. Among the most prominent tzaddikim residing in the town were Yitzchak Teitelboim (1869–1944) and Issachar Ber Lifshitz (1889–1944), as well as the Leifer family (Issachar Ber Leifer and his sons Meir, Chaim Lejb and Reuwen Menachem), representing the Przemyśl dynasty, and Chaim Jakub Safrin of the Zhydachiv dynasty.

In 1890 a Jewish elementary school was established. The language of instruction was first Hungarian and later Czech.  The community also maintained a Talmud torah school and a yeshivah. In 1904 a central synagogue was established in a magnificent building. In 1909, a Chasiddic synagogue was built.  The community was vibrant with three women’s associations, a Jewish hospital, an old people’s home, and a free eatery.

In 1914, the town experienced an influx of thousands of Jewish refugees from Galicia, which had been seized by the Russian army. When the front line approached Uzhgorod, most of the local Jews escaped, but in 1915, when the danger passed, almost all of them returned.

Between the two world wars Uzhgorod became a center of intense Jewish national and Zionist (revisionist) activities. In 1930 the community numbered 7,357, about one-third of the total population.

In 1934, a Hebrew high school was founded; it upheld conservative religious values and encountered only minor rabbinical opposition. After the Hungarian occupation of the region, the high school underwent intensive Magyarization, and in April 1944, with the beginning of deportations to Auschwitz, it closed its doors.

In 1938 the Jewish population was 9,676. They were an important force in the local economy, and many Jewish politicians were elected to the local government. One of the town’s streets was named in honor of Theodore Herzl, and another in honor of local doctor W. London. In 1919, two Jewish primary schools were opened in Uzhgorod, one with Czech as the language of instruction and the other one with Hebrew, followed by a middle school with Yiddish in 1924. A branch of the Zionist Organisation was established in 1919, and in the 1930s the town became one of the centres of the revisionist movement. In the interwar period, the Zsidó Néplap Zionist weekly was published in Uzhgorod.

Before WWII, Uzhgorod was a busy trading center with shops, workshops, restaurants and banks - primarily operated by Jews. The vast majority were employed in small trade and about 25-30% in major and minor commerce. There were also Jewish doctors and lawyers. Jews worked in government offices, health organizations, court houses, banks and cultural institutions. There were also wealthy Jews - the Moskovits family who owned brick factories - and others.

The Holocaust

Following the Munich pact (1938), Uzhgorod was annexed by Hungary, which immediately implemented anti-Jewish legislation. Local Magyars spearheaded the persecution of the Jews in the community. In the winter of 1939/40, all Jews of Polish citizenship or Czech citizens originally from Poland were expelled to Poland, and many died under the severe conditions. The young were conscripted into forced labor and sent to the Russian front, never to return.

With the Nazi occupation in March, 1944, the situation became much worse. On Passover (April 21-23) 1944, all the Jews of Uzhgorod and the surroundings (25,000 persons) were concentrated in a ghetto located outside the town in a brick factory and a lumber yard. There was not enough food or water and there was an outbreak of an epidemic. Three weeks later all were deported to Auschwitz. The first transport left on May 17 and the fifth and last on May 31. 

Postwar

Following the war, several hundred survivors returned, but many left for Czechoslovakia and Israel.

Trebisov

In Hungarian: Toketerebes

A town in the district of Zemplen, south-east Slovakia.

Trebisov is situated near the town of Kosice, on a railway junction in an agricultural area, and a sugar industry developed in the place. Until 1918 Trebisov belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and since then until 1993 to the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

It is believed that Jews had lived in Trebisov already in the 14th century but an organized community was formed only shortly before the establishment of a hevra kaddisha (burial society) in 1829. At that time a cemetery was also consecrated, a synagogue was built, and it seems that the first rabbi of the community, Rabbi David l. Silberstein, was the religious leader. The second rabbi was Rabbi Salomon Teitelbaum. Rabbi Marcus Guttman later occupied the chair for 30 years and the last rabbi was Rabbi Rosenblutt. Because of the proximity of Trebisov to Galicia , the life of the community was influenced by the way of life of the Jews of Galicia. The community belonged to the orthodox stream of communities of Hungary. Among the ashkenazi Jews of Trebisov lived also a group of sephardi Jews, with their own synagogue. A mikveh was built in the middle of the 19th century. The first synagogue was destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 20th century and a new one was built in its place.

On the initiative of the president of the community, Meir Markovic, a Talmud torah school was founded at Trebisov in 1912. The community opened also an elementary school with three teachers, and a library. In the Godfathers Society (Komaegyesulet), which supported needy families, were scores of members. In 1922 some 800 Jews, including Jews of small neighboring communities, were registered in the community of Trebisov. The president was then Antal Danziger and the secretary D. Breuer. In the 1930s the president was M. Burger.

Most of the Jews of Trebisov were shopkeepers and artisans. But there were also one doctor and one lawyer. Some of the Jews of the community needed aid.

In 1867 the Jews of Hungary were granted full civil rights. The republic of Czechoslovakia recognized the Jews as a national minority with appropriate rights and they became involved in the social and political life of the country. The Jewish youth were organized in local branches of Hashomer Hazair and Betar. In 1937, in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 16 Jews of Trebisov took part.

In 1930, 559 Jews were living at Trebisov.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement (September 1938), about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was dismembered. Slovakia declared its autonomy and on March 14,1939, it became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime of Slovakia gradually deprived the Jews of their civil rights and property.

At the end of 1940 there were 648 Jews in Trebisov. At the end of March 1942 started the deportation of the Jews of Slovakia to concentration and extermination camps in Poland, where they were murdered by the Germans. The Jews of Trebisov were apparently among a transport of 1,040 Jews which left Trebisov in the direction of Lublin in the first week of May 1942. The women were taken off the train apparently at the camp of Lubartov and the able-bodied men were sent to Maidanek.

In October 1942 the deportations were temporarily stopped. In Trebisov remained only Jews whose work was of vital importance to the authorities, Jews who were married to non-Jews and some who managed to find a hiding place. Some members of the community escaped to Hungary and avoided death.

Survivors of the community who returned to Trebisov after the war left the place in the late 1940s. Some of them went to Israel, others emigrated to the USA. The synagogue was turned into a warehouse, until it was finally destroyed in the 1970s, and on the site of the Jewish cemetery dwelling houses were built.

Michalovce

In Jewish sources – Michalowicz; Hungarian – Nagymihaly

A town on Laborec River, eastern Slovakia

Michalovce was established in the 11th century and, until the end of World War I, constituted part of the region of Zemplen, Hungary. After the laying of a railroad line (at the end of the 19th century), the town developed as a marketing center for agricultural produce. In 1919, concurrently with establishment of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, the Zemplen region was divided between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and Michalovce became the center of the Czechoslovak part.

Jewish landowners and agents were present in Michalovce already in 1724. The community was established by approximately 400 Jews who were resident previously in the nearby village of Pozdisovce; they established a synagogue and Mikve (ritual bath) and resided on Zeiden Gasse (street of silks). Michalovce's old cemetery was located in the Stranani suburb, on the left bank of the river. The suburb had a synagogue and in 1797 a Hevre Kadisha (burial society) was established. In the 19th century, as the town's population increased, Neue Gasse (new street), populated mainly by Jews was constructed.

Four rabbis served consecutively in Michalovce: Rabbi Judah Landesmann, Rabbi Jacob Landesmann, Rabbi Ahron Grunberger and Rabbi Simeon Ehrenfeld, grandson of the "Hatam Sofer".

In 1865, a national congress of orthodox rabbis was convened in Michalovce. A decision signed by 71 rabbis bound Hungary's orthodox Jewish communities. As a result of granting citizenship rights to Hungarian Jews (1867) and a congress of Hungarian Jews (at the end of 1868), at which the dispute between the revival and the orthodox branch was deliberated, the Michalovce community joined the orthodox branch, notwithstanding its openness to western culture and education.

The consecration date of the first synagogue on Zeiden Gasse is unknown. The Great Synagogue was consecrated in 1888 opposite the town hall at the initiative of the head of the community, Bernat Spiegel. In the same period, a Bet Midrash (house of study), Torat Chesed, was founded and became a central place of worship.

After the end of World War I and after establishment of the Republic of Czechoslovakia in 1919, Jewish refugees from Poland joined Michalovce's Jews and the community increased rapidly to 4,200 out of a total population of 14,200 in the year 1940. Most of the Jews conversed in Yiddish, while the educated elite spoke Hungarian and German and the young people, who studied in public schools, also knew the Slovak language.

Between the world wars, Michalovce's Jewish community had a Great Synagogue, the Old Synagogue on Zeiden Gasse, which became a Bet Midrash for Chasidic Jews led by Rabbi Moshe Grunberger and in which the prayer was conducted in the Sephardic tradition, and the Minyan Synagogue in the Stranani suburb.

Pupils studying in the government elementary school supplemented their Jewish studies in a Cheder during afternoon hours; those studying in the academic high school and in the public school participated in separate lessons in religion for all sects. The public school was a regional institution and 70 percent of its 600 pupils were Jewish.

In addition to the Talmud Torah, which was established in 1910 and in which studies were conducted in German, the town had several small Yeshivot, a Poalei Tzedek and several private Chederim. The Chasidim maintained their own Talmud Torah and Yeshivot. In the 1930s, Bet Yaakov, a school for girls, was opened for religious studies.

The community's institutions included a Hevre Kadisha (burial society), Gemilot Chasidim (that provided assistance for the needy), Agudat Hanashim (a women's society that from 1897 provided a kitchen for the needy also among non-Jews and supported widows and orphans), Aguda Socialit Shel Yehudei Michalovce (Social Society of Michaelovce Jewish Community that provided hot meals and professional training for poor children), and Hevra Tsedaka (that supported needy and other occasional passers-by).

Until World War I (1914 – 1918), Michalovce had a large Yeshiva founded by Rabbi Simeon Ehrenfeld. After the War, The Chasidic judge, Rabbi Moshe Grunberger founded a Yeshiva in his name. The Yeshiva of Rabbi Eliezer Davidovce, founder of Shas, existed until after World War I.

In 1906, a flour mill, operating on steam, was opened, owned by the Landesmann Family. In the evening, the mill provided electricity for illumination. In 1924, a Matzah bakery was opened and in 1928 a steam bath with a new ritual Mikve was constructed. Next to the small Bet Midrash, a large Bet Midrash was constructed, and a building was constructed in which all of the community's Chederim were now centralized. Michalovce provided many learned scholars who served as rabbis in other communities.

Heads of Michalovce's Jewish community, in consecutive order were Dr. Mor Brunn, Viliam Landesmann, Bernart Spiegel, Dr. Max Brugleradolf, David Herskovic, Lazar Fuchs, Markus Vider, Simon Lang Goldschmiedt. The Hungarian poet, Szenes Erzsi was born in Michalovce.

Most of Michalovce's Jews were merchants and factory owners, inter alia, tailors, bakers, upholsterers, shoemakers, carpenters, locksmiths, watchmakers, barbers, tanners and photographers. Between the World Wars, most of Michalovce's wholesale and retail merchants and most of its physicians and attorneys were Jews. Among the Jewish population, Dr. Josef Kalai was the Honorable President of the district's Association of Attorneys-at-Law, and Dr. Markus Vider was the Honorable President of the district's Association of Physicians. The town's three pharmacies were all owned by Jews. All business enterprises owned by Jews were closed on Saturday and on Jewish holidays. Michalovce had a Jewish bank whose first manager was Ludvik Lorand, and Jews managed several other banks in the town.

In the period of the Republic of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars, which recognized Jews as a national minority holding rights, a Jew served as Michalovce's secretary-controller, and the town council included several Jewish members. Relations between the Christian and the Jewish population were good until the 1930s, when the position of the Slovak nationalists began to strengthen. In 1936, the government refused to grant citizenship to 35 Jewish refugee families, which were deported from the district.

The religious Zionist organization, Moriah, operated in the community until before World War I. After the War, comprehensive Zionist activity commenced, initiated and encouraged by Rabbi Ehrenfeld. In the 1920s, a scouts' movement, Hashomer Kadima (the Forward Guard), was organized in Michalovce, which later became Hashomer Hatzair (the Young Guard). Later, branches of Ha'mizrachi and Beitar were established in Michalovce and Ha'mizrachi established, in the 1930s, a branch of Tzairei Ve'halutzei Mizrachi (Mizrachi Youth and Pioneers). A branch of B'nei Akiva (Sons of Akiva) was established in the town in 1931 and a branch of Poalei Tzion (Workers of Zion) was established by several Jews who escaped from Poland; the branch's members were also active members on the town council. A League for Workers of the Land of Israel also operated in Michalovce.

In 1926, prior to the elections for the Fifteenth Zionist Congress, Shekelim (membership in the Zionist Labor Union and voting rights at the Zionist Congress) were purchased with a value of 1,470 Slovak koruna; and in 1937, one hundred twenty of Michalovce's Jews participated in the elections for the Twentieth Zionist Congress. After Hitler's rise to power, former Hashomer Hatzair members established a branch of He'halutz (the Pioneer). The first agricultural training framework in Slovakia was established in Medov, close to Michalovce. Dozens of Zionist youth immigrated to Israel after completion of their training, before the outbreak of World War II, and helped to establish settlements throughout the land.

A branch of Maccabi was opened at the initiative of Ing. Brill in 1936, and its members thereafter established a branch of Maccabi Hatzair (Maccabi Youth), the pioneer scouting movement.

The first Beitar congress in Slovakia was held in May 1933 at Michalovce's town hall. Former Beitar members organized in a Brit Hatsahar (Zionist Alliance). The positive relations between the government and the movement enabled its members to receive military training at Czech military bases.

Michalovce also had branches of Agudat Yisrael, WIZO (World International Zionist Organization) and Ahad Ha'am – a non-political movement intended to renew national awareness among Jews and to promulgate Israeli culture.

In 1941, Michalovce had 3,955 Jews.


Holocaust Period

As a result of the Munich Pact, which was signed in September 1938, approximately one year prior to the outbreak of World War II, and which forced Czechoslovakia to hand over the Sudeti region to Germany, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was dismantled. On October 6, 1938 Slovakia declared autonomy and on March 14, 1939 an independent government was established, headed by the priest, Josef Tiso.

Anti-Semitic incitement increased; members of Hlinková Garda arrested Jews arbitrarily and stole their property. Jews found guilty of political activity were imprisoned in Ilava. Racial legislation and decrees isolated Jews from social and economic life and activity.

In 1939, prior to removal of Jewish pupils from government educational institutions, the community established a Jewish school with ten classes and workshops. The Jewish Council, in cooperation with the Zionist faction and the community council, organized courses for professional training for Jews who lost their work and their property, in order to integrate them in productive activity; their number increased.

Jews who were mobilized in forced labor camps in Slovakia were saved from deportation and transmission to the Germans on occupied Polish territory; deportation of Michalovce's Jews commenced in 1942 with deportation of young Jewish women to Auschwitz. Sometime later, young boys and men were also taken. In May, 1942 deportation of entire families started and within several days, 3,000 members of the community were deported. They were sent in three transports of 1,000 Jews each to central camp locations near Lublin, Poland. In raids during the same summer, more Jews were seized and deported and only 550 Jews remained in Michalovce.

When the War front approached from Russia, Jews in eastern Slovakia, including Michalovce, were forced to move quickly to western Slovakia.

In August 1944, the Slovak people rebelled against the government and young Jews from Michalovce, who were located in a work camp in Novaki, joined the rebellion and fought together with the partisans. Some fell in battle and others died from the hardships of life in the mountains.

The Germans occupied Slovakia in September, and in October 1944 the deportations were renewed. Most Jews who remained in the town were sent to death camps.

On November 26, 1944, Michalovce was liberated by the Red Army. The Bet Midrash and the synagogues were destroyed in the War. Until the end of summer 1945 approximately 15 percent of Michalovce's Jews returned to the town and to the area. They elected a community council, headed by Simeon Goldschmidt. The Great Synagogue was renovated and Jewish life in the town was renewed. Both Hashomer Hatzair and Beitar renewed their activity.

During the years 1945 – 1948, Michalovce numbered approximately 800 Jews, of whom approximately 300 were members of the original Michalovce community. Many emigrated in 1949 and approximately 400 Jews remained in the town.

In 1956, Adolf Simonovic was elected head of the community, and community members served as Mashgiah Kashrut (kashrut supervisor), Shamash (caretaker), Melamed (learned person), Hazan (cantor) and responsible for Hevra Kadisha (burial society). A Shochet (ritual slaughterer) came once a week from Kosice. A monument was constructed in the Jewish cemetery in memory of the Holocaust victims.

In 1957, an additional 150 Jews left the town; in 1967, the Jewish community numbered only 200 – 250, including children born after the War, and in 1970 community life still existed. The Bet Midrash building was used as a garage and the Matzah bakery as a municipal printing press. In 1975, the government destroyed the Great Synagogue and in 1988 the Jewish cemetery was neglected, its fence was broken down and many tombstones were missing. In the same year, the town had few Jews and organized Jewish life was no longer evident.
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Sobrance

In Hungarian: Szobranc

A small town in north-east Slovakia.

Sobrance lies near the border with Ukraine on the highway between Kosice and Uzhorod. Until 1918 it had been part of Hungary and at the end of World War I it was annexed to the Republic of Czechoslovakia. From 1993 it is part of Slovakia.

Jews had apparently lived at Sobrance already in the 17th century. This is testified by tombstones in the cemetery. A hevra kaddisha (burial society) was formed at the beginning of the 19th century. At first there was in Sobrance only a prayer house, later a synagogue was built. In the synagogue there was a chair decorated with appropriate inscriptions, which served for circumcision ceremonies. Sobrance also had a Talmud torah school. To the rabbinate of Sobrance were affiliated also Jews of 8 villages in the neighbourhood, but they had their own cemeteries. The last rabbi of Sobrance was Rabbi Menashe Friedman, who occupied the position for 40 years. Among the heads of the community were Lazar Lebovic, Jacob Schoenberger, Ignaz Weinberger and J. Berkovitz. In a cholera epidemic in 1873 most of the inhabitants of the town found their death, among them also Jews.

The fertile land of the area supplied plenty means of livelihood to the local inhabitants. Among the Jews of Sobrance were shopkeepers, innkeepers, and merchants who traded also in the markets of Uzhorod and Michalovce.

In 1867 Hungary granted its Jews full civil rights. Since then they adopted a wider range of occupations and became involved also in municipal affairs. The Republic of Czechoslovakia, between the two world wars, recognized the Jews as a national minority with appropriate rights. At that time some Zionist activity also developed at Sobrance. In 1924 prior to the elections to the 14th Zionist Congress, the local representatives of Hamizrachi reported the sale of Shekels, membership in the Zionist Organization and a voting right in Sobrance. In 1937, prior to the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 7 Shekels were acquired by Jews of the town.

In 1930, 336 Jews were living in Sobrance and 1,933 in the whole area of its jurisdiction. 1,298 of them declared themselves as belonging to the Jewish nation.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. Slovakia broke away from the republic on October 6, 1938, and under the encouragement of Nazi Germany established an independent Fascist regime. Gradually all the Jewish businesses were transferred to Aryan hands and the Jews remained without any means of livelihood. A local branch of a Jewish country-wide organization to help to impoverished Jews was opened at Sobrance.

In the spring of 1942 Jewish young women were deported to concentration camps in occupied Poland. The women were soon followed by young Jewish men and finally by whole families. Information as to the exact time of the deportation of the Jews of Sobrance is not available. They were apparently deported in the first 10 days of may 1942, via Michalovce, to the area of Lublin in Poland, where most of them found their death. A number of young Jews who had managed to escape joined the Slovak partisans in 1944 and fought the Germans.

After the war survivors of Sobrance returned to the town and revived the life of the community. They dedicated a prayer house and with the material of the ruined synagogue built a mikveh (purification bath) on the site of the synagogue.

In 1948, 396 Jews lived at Sobrance, with Ignaz Weinberger as president. Later most of the Jews left the place. Some of them went to Israel and some to other countries. In 1953 only 9 Jewish families remained at Sobrance. The prayer house and the mikveh were still used by them, although the ownership of the prayer house had been transferred to the union of Jewish communities in Bratislava.

In the 1980s there were no longer any Jews in Sobrance.