HODONIN

HODONIN (Czech Hodonín ; Ger. Goeding ), town in S. Moravia, Czech Republic. In 1648 the Jewish community is mentioned as having existed "for many years." It had two cemeteries in 1682, and by 1688 the Jewish quarter on an island in the Morava (March) river comprised 30 houses and a synagogue. Jews owned vineyards and wine cellars. In 1773 the community numbered 415. *Maria Theresa, herself the local lord, expelled the Jews in 1774, and 20 of them founded the community of Kostelec near *Kyjov. Later *Joseph II permitted 13 families to resettle in Hodonin. There were 109 Jews living in the town in 1836, 215 in 1853, 433 in 1869, 976 in 1900, and 797 in 1921. In 1930 the community numbered 670 (4.5% of the total population). Under Nazi rule it was constituted as a district community (1939). The Jews were sent to Kyjov and then Theresienstadt in 1942 and from there to extermination camps while the synagogue equipment was transferred to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. In 1970 there was a small community in Hodonin affiliated to Kyjov. Virtually no Jews remained by the end of the century. The Austrian liberal politician, Joseph *Redlich, was a native of Hodonin.

bibliography:

G. Treixler, in: H. Gold (ed.), Die Juden und Judengemeinden Maehrens (1929), 211–24; idem, in: Zeitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslovakei, 1 (1930/31), 160–70; 2 (1931/32), 106–9; 5 (1938), 28–36; Donath, in: E. Rychnovsky (ed.), Thomas G. Masaryk and the Jews (1941), 125–47; I. Halpern, Takkanot Medinat Mehrin (1951), index.

[Meir Lamed]