BUCOVICE

BUCOVICE (Cz. Bučovice; Ger. Butschowitz), small town in southern Moravia, Czech Republic. Its Jewish community, one of the oldest in Moravia, increased in importance when Jews expelled from brno in 1454 settled in Bucovice. Moravian community synods were held there in 1709, 1724, and 1748. Bucovice was one of 52 communities officially recognized in 1798. A synagogue was built in 1690, and rebuilt in 1853. The community numbered nine families in 1673, 508 persons in 1798, 566 in 1848, 180 in 1900, and 64 in 1930 (2.07% of the total population), 13 of whom declared their nationality as Jewish. Rabbis included Avigdor, son of the "saintly" R. Paltiel (d. 1749), Abraham Hirsch Halberstadt, and bernard loewenstein (1857–1863), author of Juedische Klaenge (1862), popular poems which he dedicated to the community. In March and April 1942 the Jews were deported to Theresienstadt and from there to the death camps. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Gold (ed.), Juden und Judengemeinden Maehrens (1929), 173–6; I. Halperin, Takkanot Medinat Mehrin (1952), 176–81, 197–211, 232–7. (Oskar K. Rabinowicz)