HROZNETIN

HROZNETIN (Czech Hroznětín; Ger. Lichtenstadt, Heb. לייש), town in N.W. Bohemia, Czech Republic. The presence of Jews in Hroznetin is first documented in 1503. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was one of the most important communities in Bohemia and seat of the primator of Bohemian Jewry, abraham aaron lichtenstadt . It is frequently mentioned in responsa of this time and among Jews who regularly attended the leipzig fair. Hroznetin Jews had business connections with nearby carlsbad , where some of them lived illegally, laying the foundation for the later community. Lichtenstadt, and the Hebrew abbreviation Lash, occur frequently as a family name. In 1570, 16 Jewish families lived in Hroznetin, in 1708 the community numbered 298; 47 families were recorded in 1724, 457 persons in 1857 (29% of the total population), 77 in 1869, 44 in 1921, and 7 in 1932. The community ceased to exist before World War II. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Treixler, in H. Gold (ed.), Die Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1934), 378–82; I. Ziegler, Dokumente zur Geschichte der Juden in Karlsbad (1913), 29 and passim; S. Krauss, in: Zeitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslowakei, 2 (1931/32), 147–9; M. Lamed, in: BLBI, 8 (1965), 302–11. (Jan Herman)