Nikolsburg/Mikulov, South Moravia. Tempelgasse, linking the Upper and Lower Synagogues, in the early 20th century
In the 16th century, Moravia was one of the last strongholds of religious tolerance. The Princes of Liechtenstein in Nikolsburg, eager both to signal their independence from the Habsburg rulers and to enrich their town and treasury, welcomed every artisan and merchant expelled from Austria for their faith. This is how the Anabaptist craftsmen known as Hutterites found a home in one part of the burgher town below the castle, while Jewish merchants settled in the other.
The “certificate of local belonging” of the Nikolsburg Jewish community, issued to Cäzilia Schweinburg, 1883
Although the first Jews expelled from Vienna settled in Nikolsburg’s Jewish quarter as early as 1421, the true flourishing of the community began in the 16th century. This was when Nikolsburg became the political, cultural, and spiritual center of Moravian Jewry, home to the provincial rabbinate. Lying halfway between Brno and Vienna, the town was an important commercial hub: Moravian wine and Bohemian cloth were transported south to Vienna through here, Hungarian hajdús drove cattle westward to the German lands, all mediated by local Jewish merchants and moneylenders. The Jewish town east of the castle consisted of 317 houses, and in the 1600s, 620 Jewish families—nearly half the population—lived here.
The present-day map of the Nikolsburg Jewish quarter
Of the city’s twelve Renaissance synagogues, the most prestigious was the Upper Synagogue, which still stands today. Built around 1550 and restored after the fire of 1719, it follows the well-known Polish model: a central bima supported by four pillars holding up a nine-part vaulted ceiling decorated with colorful stuccoes and frescoes—just like in the early heartlands of Polish Hasidism, such as the beautiful Łańcut synagogue, or in Hungary, at Mád. The rabbi here was considered not only the leader of Nikolsburg but one of the foremost spiritual authorities of all Moravian and Bohemian Jewry.
It was here that Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel founded his famous yeshiva between 1553 and 1573, before moving to Prague to create the Golem. Here, in 1648, the renowned legal scholar Menachem Mendel Krochmal drafted the constitution of the Moravian Jewish self-government, which remained in force until 1919. Here, in 1692, Rabbi David Oppenheimer established the first foundation for educating poor children. Here, Samuel Schmelke Horowitz—one of the first-generation Hasidic masters—brought the teachings of his spiritual lineage to Moravian soil. And from here came Josef Sonnenfels, the Viennese professor of law and imperial councillor, who, carrying the spirit of Nikolsburg with him, persuaded Emperor Joseph II to issue the Edict of Tolerance.
The Hauptstrasse (today Husova) in the Nikolsburg Jewish quarter in the early 20th century. On the right, the Upper Synagogue; on the left, the rabbinical building, whose basement revealed a mikveh (ritual bath) during restoration in the 1990s
All this is captured, almost symbolically, in the early-20th-century photograph below. It shows the bet midrash and yeshiva adjoining the Upper Synagogue—founded by Rabbi Loew. The passageway beneath the yeshiva leads to an inner courtyard: this was where the rabbinical well stood, and where the former “Kabbalist Room” opened. The upper floor of the courtyard housed the Oppenheimer Foundation’s library, which, with its seven thousand printed volumes and one thousand manuscripts, was one of the most important libraries of Czech-Moravian Jewry. Like the Jewish quarter of Nikolsburg itself, the collection miraculously survived the destruction of the occupation; today it is preserved at the University of Oxford.
On July 27–28, Mazsike is organizing a trip to explore the Jewish historical heritage of South Moravia, and they’ve asked me to guide it. Over two days, we’ll visit the Jewish quarters, synagogues, and cemeteries of Nikolsburg/Mikulov, Trebitsch/Třebíč, and Brünn/Brno, stroll and have lunch on the island of Telč—one of the loveliest small towns in the Czech Republic—and on the way there, we’ll make a short stop to recall the memory of the old Jewish quarter of Bratislava. With four UNESCO World Heritage sites in two days, we may even set a Guinness record. There are still places available; you can sign up at mazsike@gmail.com.
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