Alternate names: Kojetín [Cz], Kojetein [Ger]. 49°21' N, 17°19' E, 16 miles S of Olomouc (Olmütz), 12 miles SE of Prostějov (Prossnitz). Jewish population: 506 (in 1857), 72 (in 1930).
website in Czech with photo. landmarked. "The birthplace of David Kaufmann (1852-1899), professor of the rabbinical school in Budapest. Jewish Quarter - now Hus Street on the western perimeter of the urban center, consisted of 83 houses, including town hall with Jewish school No. 796 and spa built in the 1867. Synagogue at Hus 58, a Baroque building dating from 1718 to 1726 on an older core of [?], stucco decoration of the vaults and ritual hall ceramic sink became a Hussite church in 1952-3. The facade at the entrance has a Holocaust plaque identified 1992 victims. Cemetery on Olomouc Street, 800 meters N off the square, dates from as early as 1574. Today's area is 5908 m2. The oldest legible tombstone from the late 17th century is one of the total of 426 gravestones. A 1901 ceremonial hall by the architect W. Stiassny in the corner at the entrance was demolished in the early 1970s. Brick wall of the reinforcement [?]. Ongoing repairs" [October 2011]
The Jews of Kojetin website. [October 2011]
Kojetin website. I have local community information. I have about 350 photos of gravestones . This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Jerusalem. [August 2009]
Regina and Amos Pick Visit to Kojetin: article and "Husova St. - formerly Jewish St." (see photo) Memorial reads: "Memorial Board on the Synagogue of Kojetin. Citations from Psalms (116.13). Under the Star of David it says: “To the memory of Jewish citizens, who had lived in these places for hundreds of years and have been deported in June 1942 to concentration camps. Town of Kojetin, 1992."[February 2009]
List of those who perished in WWII [February 2009]
Torah and Torah [February 2009]
A Moravian town in the Olomouc Region, Kojetin has 6,557 inhabitants at 49°20′58″N 17°18′4″E. Multiple pre-medieval historic records document the existence and history of Kojetín in Czech and Moravian archives. According to undocumented, but often quoted legends, the origins of Kojetín can be traced to Samo's Empire and Samo's legendary son Kojata, who allegedly defeated Avars at this location and founded a settlement named Kojata, later Kojetín. Local Czech historians in the past issued various theories about the above and some other "Kojata's" - most prominent being Kojata Všeborovic and Kojata Hrabišic, who was a chaplain in Olomouc in 1223. Filological and geographical studies have shown that the settlement was probably founded in the 13th century. Wikipedia. [February 2009]
Synagogues Without Jews: Kojetin: see photos and maps. Expelled from Olomouc in 1454 with refuge in Kojetin. Earliest mention of Jews in Kojetin dates from 1566: lists 56 Jewish families living in the Judengasse. Synagogue of brick and stone at the entrance to the Judengasse with renovation and expansion in 1614. Judengasse was a clean with meadows and gardens behind the houses. Most Jews were peddlers until permissions granted for business. Some raised cattle. Mid-17th c, Polish and Ukrainian Jews arrived, fleeing Bogdan Chemielnicki's Cossaks (1648-1649). During this period, synagogue lost roof in fire. Took 50 years to fund repair. Town officials refused offer of Jewish Court Banker, Samuel Wertheimer of Eisenstadt vto restore the synagogue on square. Community petitioned Chancellery of Prague. In 1718 permission granted. Impoverished after the fire. Community reorganized. Ghetto renamed Zidovska Ulice in 1727 with 500 Jews in 40 houses. The Rescript of the 1727 had prohibited Jews from renting houses that were Christian property. In 1827, the Imperial and Royal District Office stopped the law. 443 Jews by 1830 when "secret" marriages recognized. Second half of 19th c good for Jews of Kojetin. Zidovska Ulice remained center of social and cultural life. By 1930, 32 Jewish families remained. In 1942, "the Nazis captured 83 of the 90 registered Jews and deported them to Terezienstadt. Few returned. The Nazis had planned to destroy the synagogue, but local residents demanded permission to use it as a warehouse. The Protestant Hussite Congregation known as the Czech Brethren bought the building in 1953 for use as a church. In 1992 the synagogues in the U.S.A. and England who were recipients of the Torah scrolls, sent representatives to Kojetin to visit the former synagogue and the cemetery in a memorial ceremony 50 years after the deportation of Kojetin's Jews." SEE CEMETERY MAP and TOWN MAP [February 2009]
CEMETERY: Land-register district Hojetin, lot number 303,777 site, Olomoucha Street. Historic monument residter number 8-451, not currently listed as a historical monument by the state. Owner: Jewish Congregation of North Olmou. Location 800 meters north of square. Independent site location on the outskirts of the town, on slightly ridged ground.5908 square meters Founded before the year 1574, the last burial was in 1942. Included Structures: surrounding wall with gates, area with tombstones Jewish settlement from the 15th century to the Second World War.
In the town register of purchases from the year 1574, there is a record that Jan Suchanek sold part of his meadow on the so-called Krizice to the Jews of Kojetin. "To their burial and cemetery", probably for the expansion of their then -burial site. The eastern part of the cemetery was named after the local "track" Peklo ("Hell"). The cemetery itself lies on a knoll near the fish-pond Jordan (the whole area slants slightly towards north-east, on the south-east edge of the area ends a sort, steep slope). The shape of the lot is an irregular rectangle. In the south-west wall there is a new additionally built gate with a medal-clad door and the remnants of a well. The surrounding wall is made of brick on a stone foundation reinforced by 2 meter high pillars and topped with flat-laid bricks slanting inwards. The wall is missing in part of the south-east section. There are some architectual decorations on the front of the wall that separates the cemetery from the street. The wall is "stepped" corresponding to the slope of the terrain (see photograph above).
In the western corner of the cemetery there used to be an art-nouveau ceremonial hall from 1901 designed by a Vienna architect Wilhelm Stiassny. It was a free-standing one-storey structure on a symmetric ground plan with a mansard roof and wooden windows and doors. It was demolished in the beginning of the 1970s and only traces of masonry are left.
The tombstones are distributed evenly over the area of the cemetery except for its central part. The front section contains tombstones in about 25 straight, discontinuous rows. In the rear section there are individually dispersed tombstones near walls. The rows of tombstones run from north-west to south-east with inscriptions facing the entrance which is south-west. They total approximately 500 pieces, the oldest ones date from 1782 and 1795. The new tombstones are dispersed among the old ones.
The tombstones of the older type are made mainly of sandstone, granite, limestone and marble., their design, shape and decorations are rather simple and typical of Moravian cemerteries. The inscriptions are in Hebrew and the symbols include: Kohen's hands, Levite vessels, a ring pierced by an arrow, urovorus, (snake biting its tail) crown, two deer with antlers, harp, and clasped hands. The newer tombstones are of dark and light granite, with somber decoration, the inscriptions are in German and Czech.
Notable local people buried here include: Rabbi Jakob ben Michael Brull (1812-89), the parents of Rabbi David Kaufmann (Leopold and Rosa) and Moric Lowenthal (from 1835) the long-time chairman of the Jewish congregation and philanthropist. Trees and shrubs freely grow in the area - arbor vitae, linden, spruce, birch, maples, and hazelnuts. The cemetery has a strong tendence to be overgrown by "air-raid" plants (those from which the seeds are borne on the wind). Location plan: 1:1000 Photos: former ceremonial hall and entrance,
Bibliography and references: D. Riegl; Dejiny Zidvske obce v Kojetine, (History of the Jewish congregation and the Jews of Kojetin) supplement of the calendar of cultural events of Kojetin 1995-6. Translated from Jewish Monuments of Moravia and Silesia - Part 1, Cemeteries Klenovsky, jaroslav, Brno:1999 [February 2009]
US Commission No. CZCE000106
Alternate names (German): Kojetein in Morava-Prerov at 49°21' N, 17°19' E , 16 miles S of Olomouc (Olmütz), 12 miles SE of Prostějov (Prossnitz). Cemetery: 1 km NW on Olomoucka-Str. Present population is 5000-25,000 with fewer than 10 Jews.
- Town: Mayor Engineer Vladimir Sevela, Mestsky Urad, 752 01 Kojetin; tel. 0641/96479.
- Regional: mgr. Oleg Dejnega, Okresni Urad-Referat Kultury, Smetanova 7, 750 00 Prerov; tel. 0641/2141.
- Interested: Okresni Blastivedne Muzeum, dir. Ladislav Foukal, Horni namesti 22/23, 750 00 Prerov; tel. 0641/3286.
- Caretaker with key: Frantisek Piegel, Kuznikova 906, 752 01 Kojetin; tel. 0. Dobromil Maly, Husova 796, 752 01 Kojetin; tel. 0641/96232 may also have information.
Earliest known Jewish community was 1454. 1930 Jewish population was 72. It was self-standing political community from 1850-1919. Noteworthy individuals were Dr. David Kaufmann, rabbi, 19th century; Sigmund Steiner, writer, 19th century; and Dr. J. Lowenthal, physician, 19th century. The cemetery originated before 1574. Jakob ben Michael Brull, rabbi, 1889 is buried here with last known Conservative Jewish burial in 1942. Landmark: number 451 N.M. The flat isolated suburban site has no sign. Reached by turning directly off a public property, access is open to all via a continuous masonry wall and locking gate. The size of cemetery before and after WWII was 0.5908 ha.
500-1000 gravestones, in original location with 25%-50% toppled or broken, date from 17th-20th century. The marble, granite, sandstone flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, obelisks have Hebrew, German, and/or Czech inscriptions. Some have traces of painting on their surfaces, iron decorations or lettering, and/or metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. Within the limits of the cemetery are a pre-burial house ruin and a well. Olomouc Jewish congregation owns the property used for Jewish cemetery only. Adjacent properties are agricultural and residential. Occasionally, private visitors stop. Vandalism occurred from 1945 to now. Past maintenance: cleared vegetation and fixed wall by Jewish groups within country in 1970's. Olomouc Jewish Congregation pays the caretaker. Security (uncontrolled access), pollution, vegetation, and vandalism are moderate threats. Vegetation overgrowth constantly disturbs stones. Weather erosion, and incompatible nearby development are minor threats.
Engineer arch. Jaroslav Klenovsky, Zebetinska 13, 623 00 Brno; tel. 0 completed survey on 22 February [year?]. Documentation: Hugo Gold: Die Juden und Judengemeinden Mahrens (1928) and Jan Herman: Jewish Cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia (1980). Other documentation exists but was too old. Klenovsky visited site in August 1991. No interviews.