MORAVSKE BUDEJOVICE

MORAVSKE BUDEJOVICE (Czech Moravské Budějovice; Ger. Maehrisch-Budwitz), small town in S. Moravia, Czech Republic. Its Jewish community is mentioned among those suffering from the wave of massacres following the Host desecration of pulkau in 1338. One Jew, Jacob, is mentioned in 1363 and in 1386 as a member of a consortium buying and selling a village. From 1528 transactions between Jews and gentiles, involving loans and the sale of houses, horses, and grain, are mentioned frequently in the town records. In 1562 the community numbered 47, and its members were not permitted to sell alcoholic beverages or to brew beer. The community was expelled in 1564. There were no Jews in the town until 1774, when a tobacco agent settled there, and in 1808 a Jew leased a distillery. Between 1794 and 1842, 120 Jewish merchants attended the local fairs. There were 19 Jews in Moravske Budejovice in 1848, 58 in 1869, 127 in 1890, and 97 in 1900. A congregation was founded in 1867 and recognized as a community in 1890. A cemetery was consecrated in 1908 and a synagogue in 1910. From 1926 the community was administered by the Safov (Schaffa) community. Its members numbered 77 in 1930 (1.8% of the total population). In 1942 those Jews remaining after the German occupation were deported to extermination camps, and the synagogue equipment was sent to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. No community was reestablished after World War II. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Fiser, in: H. Gold (ed.), Juden und Judengemeinden Maehrens (1929), 343–67; Bondy-Dworský, 1 (1906), nos. 673, 679; Germ Jud, 2 pt. 2 (1968), 512 S.V. Maehrisch-Budwitz. (Meir Lamed)