Alternate names: Jičín [Cz], Jitschin [Ger], Jiczyn [Pol], Gitzinum [Lat], Gitschin, Titschein. 50°26' N, 15°21' E, 46 miles ENE of Praha (Prague) in the scenic region of the Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj) under the Prachov Rocks (Prachovské skály). Jewish population: 358 (in 1880), 90 (in 1939). The town is landmarked due to its significant architectural character. The town was home of Jacob Bassevi (1580-1634), Jewish court financier
The community's Torah survived and was salvaged by the Westminster synagogue in London.photo [February 2008]
website in Czech with photo: landmarked. "The cemetery located 1.5 km NE of the fields at the edge of Forest Industries was founded in 1651, the oldest tombstones extant from the same period. The last burial took place in 1949 (Dr. Ida Šindelková - Yong, diplomate in the School of Political Sciences in Paris). The rectangular 1,822 m2 has about 360 visible gravestones, among them Baroque and Classical and valuable Gothic examples. A small mortuary with a Holocaust plaque was repaired in the early 1990s and early 21st century. Devastated several times, gradual reconstruction commenced in the 1990s when bushes and self-seeded vegetation was cleared. Later, repairs were made to the quarry stone enclosing wall and the mortuary. Maintained for several years, vegetation took over again to be destroyed in 2000-2004. At that time, the most endangered historic 19th and 20th century gravestones also were restored. By 2007 the remaining were knocked down. Currently cemetery maintenance and completion of repairs ceremonial hall is necessary." [Oct 2011]
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| Report on the Jičín Fire of 23 June 1840 (Found in the Genizah of Jičín Synagogue) | |
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Synagogues Without Jews [February 2009] History: No documentary record of the Jewish community origin exists. Jews settled in Jičín in the 14th century. In the first quarter of the 17th century, Duke Albrecht of Wallenstein marked off a street as a ghetto. 14 Jewish families are recorded in the town in the 18th century, 20 families (67 persons) in the mid-19th cent.ury, 119 persons in 1930 and about 90 in 1939. A Jewish. community was established here about the 17th century. After World War II the community was not revived. The houses in Jičín were owned by Jacob Bassevi (1570 Verona - 1634 Mladá Boleslav), financier of Emperor Rudolph II, Mathias and Ferdinand II, the first Jew in Bohemia and the entire Habsburg monarchy to be enobled, a patron of Jičín community. The Austrian writer and literary historian Karl Kraus (1874 - 1936 Vienna) was born in Jičín, in 1987 a memorial tablet was put up on his birthplace in Fortna street. The Jewish Street, today´s Židovská street, runs parallel with the north side of the square, in the northern part of the town´s historical center. The eight houses were mostly rebuilt in the 19th century. , e.g. a Neo-Classical Jewish school with a rabbi's flat and the school used to be at No. 100. Birthplace of writer Karl Kraus (1874-1936 Vienna) on Fortna Street has a plaque placed there in 1987. At the end of Židovská street near the wall is a synagogue dating back to the second half of the 18th century. Its interior is dominated by a valuable Baroque tabernacle. Its present Classicist appearance dates after a 1840 fire. The municipal council bought the building in 1982 and plans to convert it into an exhibition hall. The Baroque aron ha-kodesh has been preserved. The cemetery set amid fields near a wood called Obora, 2 km NE of the square was founded in 1651 with gravestones of the Baroque and Neo-Classical types, the oldest one from the second half of the 17th century. Burials took place until 1949. Baroque tombstones and a Holocaust memorial exist. Ancestors of the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg are buried here. The following communities used the cemetery: Kopidlno (a small town 13 km SSW with a prayer room recorded in the 19th cent.); Libáň (a small town 11 km SW with a small synagogue from the 2nd half of the 19th century (today a Hussite Church). A Jewish section of the municipal cemetery dates from 1910. The birth-place of the Czech-J. poet Jiří Daniel (1916-1946 Bergen-Belsen). [February 2009]
US Commission No. CZCE000345
Alternate names (German): Gitschin. Town is in Bohemia, Jicin at 50°26' N, 15°21' E , 30 km E of Mlada Bleslav, 40 km NW of Hradec Kralove, and 46 miles ENE of Praha (Prague). Cemetery: 2 km NE of main square. Present population is 5000-25,000 with fewer than 10 Jews.
- Town: Mestsky Urad, 506 01 Jicin; tel. 0433/415.
- Regional: 1. Okresni Urad, Referat Kultury, (head: J. Gottlieb), 506 01 Jicin; tel. 0433/412; 2. Jewish Congregation ZNO Praze (Ms. Jana Wolfova), Maislova 18, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/231-69-25; and 3. Pamatkovy ustav vychodnich Cech, Zamek 4, 530 02 Pardubice; tel. 040/51-60-21.
- Interested: 1. Statni Zidovske Muzeum, Jachymova 3, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/231-06-34 or 231-07-85 and 2. Okresni Muzeum, namesti 1, 506 11 Jicin; tel. 0433/320-43.
Earliest known Jewish community was the 17th century. Jewish population: 358 (in 1880), 119 (in 1930), and 90 (in 1939). Jewish Street established in the first half of the 17th century. Financier Jacob Bassevi (first Jew in Hapsburg monarchy raised to nobility) was a patron of local Jewish community in first half of 17th century. Peak Jewish population in late 19th century with 277 people in 1890. Later, they moved to big towns. Living here were J. Bassevi (1570-1634) [see above]; native town of violinist and conductor Joseph Markus (1853-1926) and of Austrian editor and writer Karl Kraus (1874-1936.) The Jewish cemetery originated possibly before 1652 with last known Conservative Jewish burial 1949. The ancestors of German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg are buried here. Kopidlno, 13 km away, used this unlandmarked cemetery between fields and woods. The flat isolated site has no sign but has Jewish symbols on gate or wall. Reached by crossing private property, access is open with permission via a continuous masonry wall and locking gate. Size of cemetery before and after WWII: 0.1104 ha.
100-500 gravestones, 1-20 not in original locations and less than 25% toppled or broken, date from 1734-20th century. Some stones removed from the cemetery are incorporated into roads or structures. Vegetation overgrowth seasonally prevents access. The marble, granite, and sandstone flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, double tombstones, multi-stone monuments, or obelisks have Hebrew, German, and/or Czech inscriptions. Some have portraits on stones and/or metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. Within the limits of the cemetery is a pre-burial house with a memorial tablet listing Holocaust victims. Praha Jewish community owns Jewish cemetery. Adjacent properties are agricultural and woods. Occasionally, private visitors stop. Vandalism occurred between 1945 and ten years ago and occasionally in the last ten years. local or municipal authorities and Jewish groups within the country re-erected stones, cleared vegetation, fixed wall and gate, and mortuary done. Restoration work is carried on continuously. Current care: occasional clearing or cleaning by authorities. Security (uncontrolled access), vegetation, and vandalism are moderate threats. Weather, erosion, pollution, and incompatible nearby development (existing) are slight threats.
Vlastimila Hamackova, Zabelska 37, 312 15 Plzen; tel. office 02/231-06-34 and Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5; tel. 02/55-33-40 completed survey on 25 August 1992. Documentation: 1. 1651, 1890, and 1930 Censuses; 2. Notes of the Statni Zidovske Muzeum Praha; 3. Die Juden and Judengemeinden Mahrens (1929); 4. Jan Herman: Jewish Cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia (1980); and 5. Antonin Horsky: "þa na hrbitove pasti dobytek" (in Dnesek, 1948, p. 633). Other documentation exists but was inaccessible: No. 14, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 in archives of Jewish Congregation in Praha. Hamackova conducted no interviews but visited site in 1990.
http://www.zchor.org/valasske.htm [March 2003]