Old Synagogue of Přerov

הקהילה היהודית

The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 says a Jewish street existed in Přerov in the time of Charles IV, but that the community stayed small until 1454, when Jews expelled from Olomouc and Breslau settled in the suburb of Širšava with their own synagogue and cemetery. Fiedler gives eight house-owning Jewish families in 1564 and sixteen in 1614. The 1638 charter of Balthasar of Žerotín protected Jewish property against arson and allowed schools, a hospital, a ritual bath and a cemetery; the old cemetery in Wurmova street was founded in 1585. In 1724 there were fourteen Jewish houses and in 1830 twenty-one. Fiedler counts 66 Jews in 1756 and 230 in 1791, about eight per cent of the town, and from the late eighteenth century the number of families allowed to live there was fixed at 44. There were 286 Jews in 1830 and 342 in 1848. The street suffered a pogrom in 1774 and anti-Jewish riots in 1850, and repeated town fires in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries caused heavy losses.

אדריכלות ועיצוב

Almost nothing is known of the building's appearance. No drawing, photograph or description of its exterior or interior was found. Klenovský writes that its schematic outline is recorded on the separation plans of 1727-28, the surveys that marked off Jewish from Christian houses, but those plans were not located for this entry. Both Klenovský and Fiedler describe it as smaller than the synagogue of 1860, and Klenovský calls it no longer adequate by the mid-nineteenth century. It stood at the western edge of the former Jewish street, the same plot later used for the new synagogue on what is now Československé armády street. Whether it was a free-standing building or part of a house, how it was built, how many seats it had and who designed it are all unknown. The Jüdische Gemeinden site calls the sixteenth-century place of worship a prayer room, so the building of the seventeenth century may have replaced an earlier, humbler room. The community's silver Torah ornaments dated from 1707 and were presumably used here.

החיים בבית הכנסת

The Jewish Encyclopedia lists the rabbis of Přerov from the late eighteenth century, all of whom served while this building was in use. Abraham Schick held office from 1790 to 1793 and Solomon Fried from 1793 to 1820, followed by Moses Mandl from 1820 to 1825 and David Schrötter from 1825 to 1829. Abraham Placzek, a native of the town who later became Landesrabbiner of Moravia, was rabbi from 1829 to 1834 according to the encyclopaedia, or from 1827 to 1832 according to its separate biography of him; either way he was rabbi when the 1832 fire struck. He was succeeded by Samuel Schallinger from 1834 to 1836 and Aaron Jacob Grün from 1837 to 1857, who led the congregation in the patched-up building. Wolf Fried, rabbi from 1857 to 1883, saw the move into the new synagogue in 1860. Fiedler says seventeen Přerov rabbis are known by name from the sixteenth century onwards. The synagogue shared its square with the community school and hospital.

הרס

The old synagogue was not destroyed by an act of persecution. Fiedler and Klenovský both state that it was damaged by fire in 1832; the Jüdische Gemeinden site says the prayer house was destroyed by fire in the 1830s. Klenovský adds that the building was then repaired as an emergency measure and kept in use. The sources do not say how the fire started or whether it was part of one of the town fires that repeatedly struck Přerov in this period. In 1860 the Jewish community built a new synagogue on the site of the old, small and inadequate building, which implies that the congregation itself had the old one cleared. No source describes the demolition in detail, and it is not recorded whether any of the old walls were reused in the new building. The 1860 synagogue was itself partly burned in 1868 and rebuilt in 1898, and it survives today.

גורל הקהילה

The Jewish community of Přerov grew after the old synagogue was replaced, reaching 622 people in 1890 and 717 in 1901, then fell to 267 in 1930 and 316 in 1938. The composer Gideon Klein was born in the town in 1919. After the Nazi German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, the Jews of Přerov were subjected to the persecution laws of the Protectorate. According to the Jüdische Gemeinden site, most of those still in the town were deported in late 1941 or early 1942, and most of them were murdered. The Nazi authorities dissolved the community in 1942, Klenovský records. Gideon Klein died in 1945 in the Fürstengrube concentration camp. An attempt to re-establish a Jewish community between 1945 and 1947 failed, and no congregation was revived. The old Jewish cemetery was turned into a small park in 1956 and its gravestones moved to the new cemetery on Partyzánská street.

האתר כיום

The site of the old synagogue is occupied by its successor, the synagogue of 1860, on Československé armády street at the western edge of the former Jewish street, about 100 metres below Horní náměstí and south-west of the castle. That building was rebuilt in 1898, served the Jewish community until the Second World War and has been used since the 1950s as a church of the Orthodox Church; its original fittings do not survive. Nothing of the older synagogue is visible, and it is not known whether any of its fabric survives inside the later building. The former Jewish street is today the western part of Žerotínovo náměstí.

שמות בולטים

Abraham Placzek

1799-1884Rabbi of Přerov, c. 1827/1829 to 1832/1834

Placzek was born in Přerov in January 1799 and became rabbi of his native town in 1827, or in 1829 according to the encyclopaedia's list of Přerov rabbis. He was serving when fire damaged the old synagogue in 1832, and soon afterwards moved to Hranice (Weisskirchen) and in 1840 to Boskovice. From 1851 until his death in 1884 he was acting Landesrabbiner of Moravia, succeeding Samson Raphael Hirsch.

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Aaron Jacob Grün

UnknownRabbi of Přerov, 1837-1857

The Jewish Encyclopedia lists Aaron Jacob Grün as rabbi of Přerov from 1837 to 1857, which makes him the rabbi who served longest in the old synagogue after its emergency repair following the fire of 1832. His twenty years in office covered the growth of the congregation to more than 340 people by 1848 and the riots of 1850. Nothing further about his life was found.

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Wolf Fried

UnknownRabbi of Přerov, 1857-1883

Wolf Fried was rabbi of Přerov from 1857 to 1883, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia. He was therefore the last rabbi to officiate in the old synagogue and led the congregation when it replaced the building with a new synagogue on the same site in 1860, and through the fire that partly destroyed the new building in 1868. No further biographical details were found.

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Solomon Fried

UnknownRabbi of Přerov, 1793-1820

Solomon Fried served as rabbi of Přerov from 1793 to 1820, the longest term among the rabbis the Jewish Encyclopedia lists for the old synagogue. He followed Abraham Schick and was succeeded by Moses Mandl. His years in office fell in the period when the number of Jewish families allowed to live in the town was fixed at 44. Nothing further about him was found.

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