Brüx:

By: Gotthard Deutsch , A. Biach

Town of Bohemia, 14 miles north of Saaz. Documents prove that, as early as the fourteenth century, Jews were living at Brüx. In 1393 Borso the Younger, of Riesenburg and Petschau, gave his note for fifty schock of Prague groschen to the Jews Isaac and Asher of Brüx; and similar notes were given in 1394, 1413, and 1419 to the Jews Eberleyn and his wife Esther, Michael and Heyneman, Michael the Larger, and Michael the Smaller. In a document dated Feb. 17, 1456, a Jewish cemetery of Brüx is mentioned, which Frederick, duke of Saxony and margrave of Meissen, gave to a certain Hans Wickart. According to a Latin document, dated June 20, 1464, the king of Bohemia, George Podiebrad, forbade the Jews to reside at Brüx or within a mile of it, for which the city had to pay an annual tribute of six shocks of Prague groschen to indemnify the king for his loss of the Jews' annual toleration tax ( Schutzgeld ). For four hundred years there was no Jewish community at Brüx; in fact, since the sixteenth century Jews were not permitted to live in the mining towns of Bohemia.

Jewish congregations existed in Harreth and Lischnicz (about one hour's distance from Brüx), and these became parents of the congregation of Brüx, which was founded in 1868. A synagogue was built in 1873, and the cemetery was dedicated in 1878. The prosperity, harmony, and high standing of the congregation are due primarily to its able and public-spirited leader, Joseph Spitz, who took charge in 1885. The following associations may be mentioned: The Ḥebrah Ḳaddishah, the Hebrew Women's Benevolent Society, and the Kronprinz Rudolf Stiftung for poor wayfarers. There are, besides, the Kaiser Franz Joseph Jubiläums-Stiftung, for poor Hebrew artisans, and a Ludwig Bloch Stiftung. A pension fund for the Jewish clergy is to be founded. Adam Sattler, for many years religious instructor in the public schools and at the gymnasium, on being pensioned was decorated with the Golden Cross of Merit. Among the rabbis and religious teachers at the public schools and the gymnasium may be mentioned: Alexander Kisch, 1874-1877; I. S. Bloch, 1877-80, editor of the "Oesterreichische Wochenschrift," and at one time a member of the Reichstag; Jacob Tauber, 1880-86; Gotthard Deutsch, 1887-91, later professor in Cincinnati; and, since 1891, Adolf Biach.

The Jewish population of about 1,000—one-twentieth of the entire population—speak German. There are among them 10 lawyers, 5 physicians, and 2 clerks of the court; but the larger number are merchants.