Zahradníček's Blog for English Speaking Students
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Zahradníček’s blog for English speaking students Part twelve: Kohanim or Leviyim? These two terms refer for two very traditional Jewish tribes – kohanim are priests with likelihood of direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron, leviyim are people with specific religious duties in Jewish/Israeli community. Both of them are widely represented in the culture of the world (just let me mention Leonard Cohen or Levi’s jeans). And both of them were represented also in Brno – if you visit the Jewish cemetery in Brno, you can find both names and also pictures typical for both of them, but also for other moments typical for Jewish community. The first data about Jews in Brno come from 13th century. Jewish people lived mostly around today’s Masarykova street – the gate in the fortifications, that has been localised somewhere between today’s Nádražní and Josefská, had the name Jewish gate (Židovská brána, Judentor). Unfortunately, already in 15th century, under the influence of Franciscan priest John of Capistrano the Jews have been expelled from many cities, including Brno. Nearly four hundred years (1454–1848) it had been forbidden for Jews to live in Brno. That is why very nice old Jewish communities exist in smaller towns in South Moravia (Mikulov, Třebíč, Boskovice or Lomnice), but not in Brno. In 19th century the pragmatism won in Austria (or later Austria-Hungary) and Jews, as perfect businessmen, have been allowed to live in Brno again. In very soon time they started to live there. In the second half of 19th century Brno developed very quickly, and big part of this success is due to Jewish merchandisers and industry founders. The families Gomperz, Stiassni or Löw-Beer (do you know Villa Stiastni or Villa Löw-Bee?) gave the new look to the city. During World War I, Brno hosted a large group of Jews from Galicia (Halič – not the Galicia in Spain, but the one now divided into Poland and Ukraine). They were several thousands; nevertheless, Brno has been able to take them, although the city itself had many problems resulting from the war. (It is funny that recently, when Brno is much more rich than in 1915, some Czechs considers a big problem to accept just tens, not speaking about thousands, refugees.) Well, there were some cultural problems – the newly coming Jews were very orthodox, while those settled in Brno were much more liberal. Nevertheless, Brno Jews (namely Löw-Beer family) were able to help the refugees. After war, majority of them returned, but some of them remained; they were almost organized around the synagogue on Křenová street, that used to serve to orthodox Jews (now it is the only synagogue that remained). The development of Jewish Brno continued after war. Apart from businessmen, Jewish community had also other excellent personalities, as excellent physicist George Placzek (the grand-son of Baruch Placzek, one of the first rabbis in Brno), architect Ernst Wiesner (author of functionalist Brno crematory) and many others. Of course, business of existing families also blossomed: Alfred Löw-Beer donated a part of the garden belonging to Löw-Beer villa to his daughter Greta, later Greta Tugendhat, and she and her husband let the Dutch architect Mies van der Rohe to build a new functionalist Villa Tugendhat, now one of the most famous monuments in Brno. All this finished with approaching Nazi period. Already 16th March 1939, one day after creation of Nazi-ruled “Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia” the Brno Great synagogue has been burnt off. Brno Jews had to leave their houses and flats, only some flats remained, but they had to serve for several families together. Jews have been forbidden to visit cinemas, restaurants, majority of parks (the park near today’s Koliště street has been one of a few exceptions) and they had many other problems. All this has been only beginning. Between November 1941 and July 1943 there were 12 transports sent from Brno – one to Minsk, eleven to Terezín in Bohemia, which had been just a temporary place for them. Majority of them died in Auschwitz, eventually other concentration camps. Just stolpersteine (especially on Třída kapitána Jaroše street) memorize them. So Jewish element nearly disappeared (in 30-s there lived about 12 000 Jews in Brno, now they are about 3000 in the whole Czechia). It is good that it comes back symbolically at least in Israeli students of MU Brno. nd Ondřej Zahradníček, 2 May 2019 .