BECHYNE

BECHYNE (Get. Bechin), town in Bohemia, Czech Republic. Legends are connected with R. Ḥayyim, living in Bechyne in the 16th century, who apparently forbade the building of a burial hall at the cemetery. Five Jewish taxpayers are mentioned in 1570. In 1685 the representatives of Bohemian Jewry complained that the community of Bechyne had failed to comply with its ordinances. In 1695 the Jews there were prohibited from residing in the same building as Christians. The community numbered 81 persons (14 families living in six houses) in 1715, and 56 persons in 1725. In 1898 the community's German-language school was closed down. The community numbered 145 persons in 1902 and 32 in 1930. It was liquidated by the Nazis in 1942. Several of the Jewish houses in the Jewish street, and the cemetery with remarkable tombstones   from the last quarter of the 17th century, were preserved. There were also Jewish communities in the vicinity in Bernartice and Stadlec. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Chleborád, in: H. Gold (ed.), Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens (1934), 23–25. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Fiedler, Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia (1991), 42–43.