BONDY, BOHUMIL

BONDY, BOHUMIL (Gottlieb; 1832–1907), Czech politician, industrialist and author. In 1866 Bondy became head of his father's iron works in Prague, which he expanded considerably. He was elected president of the Prague Chamber of Commerce (1884); the first Jew to be elected to any function on a Czech nationalist ticket. In 1885 he became president of the Industrial Museum. He also was a member of the Bohemian Diet. In 1906 he published Zur Geschichte der Juden in Boehmen, Maehren und Schlesien, a two-volume collection of documents dealing with the period 906–1620, edited by the director of the Bohemian Archives, Frantíšek Dvorský, in a Czech   and a German edition. A projected third volume did not appear. This collection of records is of particular importance, since about three-quarters of its contents were published for the first time. It is still a standard work for the student of Bohemian Jewish history. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bondy-Dvorský, 1 (1906), 3–4 (preface); Teytz, in: česko-židovský kalendář (1907), 80–81; S.H. Lieben, in: MGWJ, 50 (1906), 627–33; ZHB (1905), 17; The Jews of Czechoslovakia, 1 (1968), 4–5. (Oskar K. Rabinowicz)