DOBRUSCHKA-SCHOENFELD

DOBRUSCHKA-SCHOENFELD , family in Moravia. Its first known member, jacob moses dobruschka (Dobruska; d. 1763), bought the concession for the Jewish eatinghouse in Brno in 1734, and by 1750 held the tobacco monopoly in Moravia. His son solomon (c. 1715–1774) in 1759 obtained permission to retain a "small Torah" in his home, and to hold services at the rear of his house. Solomon's wife, Schoendl (1735–1791), obtained the potash monopoly and other concessions, and by skillful management increased the family fortune. Wolf Eybeschuetz stayed in her home in 1761 where he was reputed to have worked miracles. Jacob *Frank used the alias "Dobruska" while staying in Brno (1773–86); Schoendl, his cousin and an admirer, presumably supported him financially. After Solomon's death, eight of their 12 children embraced Christianity. In 1778 six were ennobled receiving the title "Edler von Schoenfeld." Four became Austrian army officers. Other members of the family married into the Polish and Austrian nobility; only two of them remained Jews. Solomon's second son, Moses *Dobruschkamoses (b. 1753), published in 1774 Sefer Sha'ashu'a, a commentary on the Beḥinat Olam of Jedaiah *ha-Penini, approved by leading rabbis and dedicated to Joachim *Popper whose niece he had married a year before. He subsequently wrote poems in German, dramas, and reviews, and translations from the Psalms. Moses, who had connections with Jacob Frank, was considered by some as a candidate for his successor. His sister, Franceska, married into the *Hoenigsberg family, notorious for its Frankist connections. In 1782 Moses (now Franz Thomas von Schoenfeld) moved to Vienna. He was one of the founders of the "Asiatische Brueder," a masonic lodge with predominantly Jewish members, and formulated its doctrines. With his brother emanuel (formerly David; b. 1765), he went to revolutionary France, where they appeared in Strasbourg in 1792 under a new name, Frey (Moses used the symbolic name, Siegmund Gottlob Junius Brutus Frey). The "Frey" brothers contributed magnanimously to patriotic causes and attracted many to their salon in Paris. Junius published two anti-Girondist pamphlets. The influential radical politician François Chabot married their youngest sister, Leopoldine, for the sake of her large dowry. Thereafter all three were caught bribing members of a parliamentary committee deciding the future of the Compagnie des Indes. Chabot lost his influence and the Frey brothers were suspected as Austrian spies. On April 5, 1794, they and their accomplices were guillotined, together with Danton.

bibliography:

G. Scholem, in: H. Gold (ed.), Max Brod. Ein Gedenkbuch (1969), 77–92; E.E. Kisch, Tales from Seven Ghettos (1948), 21–41; H. Schnee, Die Hoffinanz und der moderne Staat, 4 (1963), 319, 355 n. 14; 5 (1965), 226–8, 276; Kwasnik-Rabinowicz, in: Zeitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslowakei, 1 (1930/31), 267–78; L. Kahn, Les Juifs de Paris pendant la révolution (1898), 248–66; L. Ruzicka, in: Juedische Familienforschung, 6:3 (1930), 282–9.

[Henry Wasserman]