Jelka Synagogue

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Die Geschichte von Jelka Synagogue

Jelka lies in the upper Žitný ostrov (Csallóköz) east of Bratislava, close to the left bank of the Little Danube. Until 1920 it belonged to the Somorja district of Pozsony county, and it was part of Hungary again between 1938 and 1945. In the mid-nineteenth century it was one of the larger Jewish settlements of this rural area: Elek Fényes's geographical dictionary of 1851, quoted in the Hungarian Wikipedia article on the village, counted 243 Jewish inhabitants in the twin villages of Nagy- and Kisjóka, beside about 2,100 Christians, and listed a synagogue among the village's buildings, together with two manor houses and the Catholic and Reformed churches.

Nothing more is known about the building itself. No photograph, plan, address or construction date has been found, and Maroš Borský's survey of Slovak synagogue architecture does not mention Jelka. The Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities in Slovakia (Pinkas Hakehillot) has an entry for Jelka (Joka), but its translation is not online. The Slovak and Hungarian Wikipedia articles on the village both state that the community's synagogue and school were demolished, without a date or a name. The Jewish cemetery on Nová cesta, with gravestones from 1820 to 1931, is the only Jewish site in the village that survives.

STANDORT

Where it stood

Historic: Nagyjóka (Jóka), Pozsony county; street and house number unknown. Today: unknown; placeholder pin at the centre of Jelka, 925 23, Galanta district (approximate).

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Die jüdische Gemeinde

Jews were settled in Jelka by the early nineteenth century: the oldest gravestone recorded by the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative survey of the village cemetery dates from 1820, and the cemetery still holds 182 standing, numbered stones, the newest from 1931. Fényes counted 243 Jews in 1851, about one inhabitant in nine. The Slovak Wikipedia article describes the community as made up of merchants and entrepreneurs, and both Wikipedia articles say it kept its own synagogue and a Jewish school, which points to an organised congregation rather than a few families attached to a neighbouring town. Jelka is listed as a separate community in the Pinkas Hakehillot volume on Slovakia (page 283), but that entry has not been read, so the community's foundation, its religious affiliation, its rabbis, its numbers between the wars and its leaders are all unknown. It was close to Galanta and Šamorín, the larger Jewish centres of the district, but no source read describes its ties to them.

Architektur und Gestaltung

No description of the Jelka synagogue has been found. Fényes's dictionary of 1851 is the earliest source to mention it, so the building, or an earlier one on the same site, existed by the middle of the nineteenth century; whether it was rebuilt later is unknown. Its size, materials, style, seating, the arrangement of the women's section and the position of the Jewish school in relation to it are not recorded in any source consulted. No photograph has been found either: the two picture postcards of Jóka held by the Zempléni Múzeum in Szerencs (1904 and 1913) show the manor house, the gendarmerie barracks, the churches, the Reformed school and a street scene, but not the synagogue. The building is not among the demolished synagogues described by Maroš Borský in his 2005 survey, which suggests it was a modest village building that left no record in the architectural literature.

Leben in der Synagoge

Almost nothing is known about religious life in the Jelka synagogue. The sources read do not say whether the congregation was Orthodox, as most communities of the Žitný ostrov were, or name any rabbi, cantor, ritual slaughterer or teacher who served it. The existence of a Jewish school beside the synagogue, recorded in both Wikipedia articles, shows that the community educated its own children, at least for part of its history, and the cemetery, in use from 1820 to 1931 and later, shows that it had its own burial society or burial arrangements. The Pinkas Hakehillot entry for Jelka (Joka) probably holds the names of its religious officials and the dates of its institutions, and should be read to fill this section.

Zerstörung

The date and circumstances of the synagogue's destruction are unknown. The Slovak Wikipedia article states only that the community had its synagogue and school in the village but that both buildings were demolished (zbúrané); the Hungarian article says the synagogue and school were destroyed (lerombolták). In both texts the sentence follows the account of the deportations of 1944, but neither says whether the building was wrecked during the war, stood empty afterwards, or was pulled down in the Communist period. Neither names who did it, and who demolished the synagogue is not recorded in any source found. The two articles are probably not independent of each other, and neither cites a source for the statement. No document of a sale, a demolition permit or wartime damage has been found.

Das Schicksal der Gemeinde

In November 1938 Jelka was transferred from Czechoslovakia to Hungary by the First Vienna Award, so its Jews were not caught up in the Slovak deportations of 1942 but in the Hungarian deportations of 1944. After the Nazi German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, according to the Slovak and Hungarian Wikipedia articles, almost 250 Jews were taken from the village to the concentration camps. The route is not recorded in the sources read. In nearby Galanta, Pinkas Hakehillot records that a ghetto was set up around the synagogue on 5 June 1944 and that about 600 Jews from nearby communities were brought into it, then sent to a camp in Komárno and deported to Auschwitz on 13 June 1944; whether the Jews of Jelka were among them is not stated. The Slovak article says that all who survived moved to Israel. No Jewish community re-formed in Jelka after the war.

Der Ort heute

The site of the synagogue has not been identified in any source consulted, so it is not known what stands on the plot today. No surviving fragment and no marker are recorded. The village's own history page and the e-obce.sk history of Jelka do not mention the Jewish community at all. The only Jewish site that remains is the cemetery on Nová cesta, surveyed by the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, with 182 numbered gravestones. The map pin for this entry is a placeholder at the centre of Jelka and does not mark the synagogue. Locating the building will need the cadastral maps of Nagyjóka, the Pinkas Hakehillot entry or local memory.

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