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Golcuv Jenikov

GOLCUV JENIKOV (Czech. Golčův Jeníkov; Ger. Goltsch-Jenikau), town in E. Bohemia, Czech Republic. Jews appear to have settled in Golcuv Jenikov at the end of the 16th century. Documents indicate that there was a synagogue in 1659 which was rebuilt in 1806 and 1870; it continued in existence after World War II. Because of plague the Jews settled temporarily outside the town in 1681. In 1724 there were 28 families in Golcuv Jenikov; there were 613 Jews there in 1847 (27.8% of the total population), and 79 (3.9%) in 1931. The community had a Jewish German-language school from 1797 to 1907. R. Aaron *Kornfeld, whose yeshivah was the last in Bohemia, lived in Golcuv Jenikov. Those members of the community, who had not succeeded in leaving by 1942, were deported to Nazi extermination camps. The synagogue accessories were transferred to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. After the Holocaust, some Jews returned to Golcuv Jenikov, where the Jewish quarter (rebuilt after a fire in 1808) and cemetery (the oldest monument dates from 1726) still existed in 1970. The synagogue was put at the disposal of the Prague State Jewish Museum in 1969. In nearby Habry (Habern), a Jewish community was founded in the 14th century. Its synagogue dates from 1650. Habry had 21 Jewish families in 1724; 120 families in 1848; 143 persons in 1893; and 79 in 1930. In 1898 it was incorporated in the Golcuv Jenikov community. Other than the few who emigrated in World War II, the Jews of Golcuv Jenikov were deported to the death camps of Poland via Theresienstadt in 1942.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Maximovič, in: H. Gold (ed.), Die Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1934), 152–7; O. Kosta, in: Židovská ročenka (1970/71), 71–79.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.