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The History of Jews in Turnov
The History of Jews in Turnov
- 1527 The names of Mojžíš (Moses), hatmaker, and his son-in-law Jakub (Jacob) are written in the municipal books, thus representing the first mention of Jew’s presence in the town
- 1557 The Jew Chajim and his wife bought a house in Hruštická Street (5. května Street today)
- The Jewish settlement disappeared for unknown reasons around the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century
- 1623 Albrecht z Valdštejna invited new Jewish settlers to the town
- 1625 The Jews bought a land for a cemetery that is still preserved (5. května Street these days)
- 1627 The first known synagogue was built (at the place of current pharmacy building in Antonín Dvořák Street)
- 1643 The synagogue burnt down due a mischance caused by Swedish soldiers
- 1647 The new building of synagogue and a Jewish school were built in the current street of Krajířová (not the same place as today’s synagogue). The Jewish neighborhood was born, later transformed into ghetto, situated on the bank of the arm of Jizera River (so called Malá Jizera), among the streets of Krajířová, Palackého and Trávnice
- 1707 The second documented synagogue and the school burnt down during a large fire destroying the town. The fire also destroyed a burger house and its ruins were bought by Jews to build the third stone synagogue
- 1719 The finished synagogue was registered in property book records
- 1751 The Jews bought additional land in Sobotecká Street to the cemetery, thus enlarged it
- 1800 The Jews bought additional land in Sobotecká Street to the cemetery, thus enlarged it
- 1845 The Jews bought additional land in Sobotecká Street to the cemetery, thus enlarged it
- 1905 The synagogue was rebuilt; it was electrified, bima (rostrum) having been in the middle of men’s prayer room was demolished and synagogal chairs were removed due to limited capacity and were replaced by benches
- 1916 Large number of so called Galicia refugees arrived to Turnov. Those represented practicing Jews from the region of Poland, Galicia, Bukovina and Ukraine who were fleeing from the First World War fronts and pogroms (they were threatened from both the Whites and the Red units). Four graves of these refugees are still preserved in the cemetery. After the war they were repatriated back
- 1938 The Munich Agreement and annexation of the borderlands caused almost 450 Jewish refugees from the area of so called Sudety, mainly from the towns of Liberec and Jablonec nad Nisou, to come
- 1941 Reichs-protektor R. Heydrich ordered to close all synagogues within the borders of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. The equipment of synagogues was systematically collected in Jewish museum in Prague
- 1943 All the Jews who were living in Turnov were summoned and transported via Mladá Boleslav to Terezín on January 1943. On January 20, 1943 another transport is dispatched from Terezín to Osvětim, where most of them were murdered
- 1945 Only 19 Jews arrived back to Turnov after the war. First they had tried to reestablish the life of religious community, but after the communist putsch in 1948 the majority left
- Around 1950 The rest of Jewish community could not afford to maintain the synagogue and handed it over to Drobné zboží Pardubice enterprise. Due the new purpose that was a storehouse of housewares, the synagogue was drastically rebuilt
- 1952 The Chief Rabbi Dr. Richard Feder unveiled in the Jewish cemetery a glass memorial plaque mentioning the names of 115 Jewish victims of Shoah (Holocaust)
- 1956 The last burial at Jewish cemetery in Turnov: 12 years old Milan Obereigner who died tragically
- 1961 The Jewish community (in the form of synagogal choir) definitively ceased to exist
- 1964 1500 Torah scrolls from Czech and Moravian synagogues deposited in nationalized Jewish Museum in Prague were sold abroad by the communist government. The Torah scrolls from Turnov were amongst them and finally passed to the reformist congregation of Temple Adath Isreal, Lexington, Kentacky, USA
- 1985 The glass memorial plaque on the wall of cemetery house was destroyed by unknown vandals. The copy was installed in the 1990’s thanks the financial support of Reeuwijk, Neetherlands, a partner town of Turnov
- 1988 The construction of the motorway above the Jewish cemetery in Sobotecká Street started
- After the year 1989 The synagogue was passed in the process of small-scale privatization to the hands of private owner who kept it as a warehouse
- 1997 Thanks to the initiative of Turnov, the synagogue became a cultural monument. Turnov opened negotiations with the owner with the aim to purchase it
- 2003 The synagogue is bought by the Turnov municipality
- 2005 Turnov applied for EU grants concerning the reconstruction of the synagogue
- 2006 The Norwegian Financial Mechanism financially supported the reconstruction
- 2007 The reconstruction
- November, 2018 The synagogue was ceremonially reopened
- May 2009 – October 2009 The first touristic season in the synagogue
- 12 September, 2009 First service after almost sixty years was held. The service of the reformist branch was led by Rabbi Tomáš Kučera and Chazan Michal Foršt for the members of reformist congregation Bejt Simcha Prague and Jewish Community Liberec.
23.9.2011 13:16:54 | read 5666x | Terezie Dubinová
