Also see GABOLTO.

Alternate names: Bardejov [Slov], Bártfa [Hung], Bartfeld [Ger], Bartfeldt, Bardegov, Bardijov, Bartpha. 49°17' N, 21°17' E, 20 miles N of Prešov (Eperjes). 1900 Jewish population was about 1,500.

• Tsekhoslovakyah; mi-yom hivasdah ve-ad hurbanah (Brooklyn, 1988

• Pinkas HaKehilot, Slovakia (2003), p. 112: "Bardejov (Bartfa, Bartfeld)"
• JewishGen Hungary SIG
• Bardejov.org [Oct 2015]

We have done extensive work on the Bardejov Jewish Cemetery. An index of all headstones is available in pdf format and direct links to color photographs and vital information for each of the headstones. This work was done several years ago through the efforts of Emil Fish of California and the nonprofit group he formed - the Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee. History of the restoration is on the website. Source: Diane Siegel, Executive Director, Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee [June 2011]

Ľudovíta Štúra Cemetery: The Bardejov Jewish cemetery is situated outside the city center, near the main road to Bardejovské Kúpele. The cemetery consists of two sections; the old part with the graves dating from the 18th century, and a new part, together about 1000 graves. Among others, graves of descendants of the famous Hassidic dynasty, the Halberstams from Nowy Sącz (Zancz), can be found here. The graves of Moshe (1848-1903), Rachel Fajga and their son Jechiel Natan (1866-1934) Halberstam are located in the brick building (so-called ohel) in the middle of the cemetery. Most of the old grave stones are decorated with various symbolical animal motives (lions, deer, birds, unicorn), crowns, candlesticks, while on the new gravestones the motif of a weeping willow or the Shield of David usually appear. Among frequent symbols one can find blessing hands of Kohanim and the Levi's jar. In the recent past whole cemetery has been reconstructed in order to make this unique complex a dignified commemoration place of a lost Jewish community. Source and photos [Sep 2014]

US Commission No. SLCE000038

Bardejov is located in Bardejov, N of Presov 4917 211]7, 205.3 miles ENE of Bratislava.

The urban isolated hillside has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, a fence without gate surrounds. 500-5000 18th-20th century gravestones in the cemetery, most in original locations, are marble, granite, limestone, sandstone, and other materials flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, or multi-stone monuments with Hebrew and German inscriptions. The property is Jewish cemetery only. Adjacent properties are commercial/industrial and residential. Occasionally, private visitors stop. Individuals cleared cemetery vegetation. There are no threats.

November 1997: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.r wrote to Stanley Finkelstein in Bloomfield, Michigan: "I suggest you begin to put together a committee including descendants and survivors to design your approach. It sounds as if you and your family members are ready to do this. It is advisable to raise money (or pledges), too, as funds will be needed regardless of the solution. Perhaps Mr. Spira in Bardejov can supply an estimate of work costs to clean the site." If you are interested in this project, contact Stanley Finkelstein [whose email no longer is operable. ]

Synagogues Without Walls: see photos! "Bardejov is a major city in the Saris region in northeastern Slovakia. It is close to the Polish border, just south of the Topka River and a stop on the trade route between the Baltic and Black Seas. Already a fortified town in the 14thcentury, it had walls and towers protecting a settlement built around a large, rectangular market place. Jews, however, did not have a place in Bardejov until the mid-18th century, since settlement in Slovak towns was forbidden to them unless they had special permission. A Jewish presence there is first documented in 1747, when Jews from Galicia moved in, settling northeast of the marketplace and working as farmers in nearby villages. Growing rapidly, the Bardejov kehillah and hevrah kadisha were established by 1806. The first synagogue, the Altschul, was built in 1830 and in just a few years, the growth of the community required the addition of two prayer rooms. Sticking to their Galician roots, the Bardejov community remained largely Hasidic. Three of their rabbis, Moshe Leib Halberstam, Zalman Leib Halberstam, and Chaim Natan Halberstam, were descendants of the Hasidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Chaim Halberstam. As their community continued to expand, the Jews maintained their traditions in custom and dress, whether at home or in public. Over the years, the community built a Jewish civic complex near Bardejov's historical core. Planned according to Talmudic regulation, it came to include the synagogue, a beit midrash, a mikveh, and a slaughterhouse.Jews and Armenians were among the first to develop the hot springs close to Bardejov as a health resort and spa. Spaciously landscaped along a narrow park, the spa became one of the most renowned in Europe and patronized by royalty. Still functioning, though not in Jewish hands, it caters to visitors from Israel, among others. The well-dressed guests stroll leisurely along the shady lanes, sipping mineral waters from specially spouted ceramic cups.By 1935 there were 2,264 Jews in Bardejov and the community constituted 40% of the city's population. A booklet written at that time by the Bardejov municipality devoted some space to the Jews of the area. It described them as being, mostly, shopkeepers, with a few farmers, traders and scholars. The orthodoxy of the community was still evident, and they were said to "walk around in their long black kapotes and wear traditional shtraymlekh, fur trimmed hats." The author also remarked on the importance of religious education for the Jews, and even went on to speculate that the health of the Jewish children was imperiled because they were cooped up for such long times, daily, in the heder. When the deportation of the Jews began in May of 1942 the kehillah included 2,700 people, of whom 2,400 were sent away. After the war, Bardejov became a place for refugee rehabilitation and a center for staging "illegal" immigration to Palestine.In 1991, Vaclav Havel, then President of Czechoslovakia, visited the Altschul Synagogue. He declared it and the rest of the Jewish complex to be a national monument. The buildings were to be preserved, to remember the once vital Jewish presence they contained. Nonetheless, they are still occupied as storage and workshops by a plumbing supply house.Only one Jew still lives in Bardejov, Max Spira, who hid in the Polish forests during the war. The last representative of his kehillah, he works as a shohet and a hazzan, serving the few Jews of the surrounding areas. Still meticulously Orthodox, he often conducts services all by himself in his Bikur Holim synagogue, built in 1929. If friends should ask him with whom he prayed so audibly on a Friday evening, he replies, 'Elijah, the Prophet, was with me'." [February 2009]

January 2009:

Map of Town

Town Bardejov
	Address:	Phone:	00 421 54 486 21 22
	Mestský úrad	Fax:	00 421 54 472 24 76
	Radničné námestie 16	Email:	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	085 01 Bardejov SLOVAKIA	Web:	www.bardejov.sk