Jindrichuv Hradec
JINDRICHUV HRADEC
JINDRICHUV HRADEC (Czech Jindřichův Hradec ; Ger. Neuhaus ), town in S. Bohemia, Czech Republic. In 1294 the local lord asked permission to settle eight Jews in the town and receive royal prerogatives over them. The Jews built a small hut outside the city walls in 1315 to shelter those who arrived after dark or those visiting the town. A settlement of Jews is noted in 1389. At the request of the burghers, in the 15th century the number of Jewish families in Jindrichuv was reduced to four and its economic activities were restricted. Among the permitted occupations was that of glazier. Of the six families (31 persons) recorded in 1682, one was expelled as exceeding the limit; at that time the Jews mainly traded in textiles. Jews expelled from Prague settled in Jindrichuv in 1745. The synagogue and Jewish houses were burned down in a fire in 1801. The cemetery, consecrated around 1400, was extended in 1576. Samuel Judah b. David *Kauder served as rabbi in the town from 1822 to 1834.
Severe anti-Jewish excesses occurred in Jindrichuv in 1859, when the Jews were suspected of opposing the Hapsburgs, and again during World War i, when they were accused of being pro-Hapsburg. Jewish shops were plundered in 1919. The pro-Czech Jewish movement (*Cechů židů), led by Eduard (Leda) *Lederer, was very active in Jindrichuv. In 1905 it had the Jewish German-language school in the town closed down. There were 791 Jews in the district in 1869 and 617 in 1880; the community had 339 members in 1902 and 234 (2.5% of the total population) in 1930, eight of them of declared Jewish nationality.
The remainder of the community who had not left by 1942 was deported to the Nazi death camps. The community was not reestablished after World War ii. The synagogue equipment was sent to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. The synagogue was used from 1952 by the Hussite church. The cemetery was also used after World War ii.
bibliography:
M. Rachmuth, in jggjČ, 3 (1931), 185–216; 4 (1932), 183–252; idem, in: M. Gold, Die Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1934), 447–51; Germ Jud, 2 (1968), 576. add. bibliography: J. Fiedler, Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia (1991), 88–89.
[Meir Lamed]