Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) Synagogue

The synagogue in Karlovy Vary as depicted on an old postcard. Karlovy Vary (German: Karlsbad) is a famous Czech spa town in western Bohemia Jews were expressly probited from living in Karlovy Vary from 1499 to 1793, and until 1848 Jewish residence in Karlsbad was contested in protracted litigation by non-Jewish merchants, in which the authorities generally took the part of the Jews. However, Jews living in the nearby communities of Becov (Petschau; 18 in 1930), Luka (Luck; 21 in 1930), and Hroznetin (Ger., Lichtenstadt) did business in Carlsbad. After 1793 Jewish peddlers were permitted to visit the town, while Jews could take the cure at the city's spas there during the official season and ailing individuals on doctors' orders during the winter. A hostel for needy Jewish patients, founded in Carlsbad by a Prague philanthropic association in 1847, was the first Jewish institution of its kind. Religious services were held during the season. A number of Jews began to settle in Carlsbad and acquired houses after 1848. The community received authorization to form a congregation in 1868, and it grew rapidly. A 2000-seat synagogue, designed by Edwin Oels Oppler, opened in 1877. Ignaz Ziegler was the Rabbi of the synagogue from 1888 until its destruction by the Nazis in 1938. He fled in the fall of 1938 and died in Jerusalem in 1948. In the nineteenth century, Jewish families founded significant industrial works, including a porcelain factory (Benedikt) and glassworks (Moser). Among the well-known artists and scientists who came from Karlovy Vary were Ernst Löwenstein (1878–1950; physician); Bruno Adler (1889–1968; writer); Walter Serner (1889–ca. 1942; a leading figure of the Dada movement); Franz Allers (1905–1995; conductor); and Walter Kaufmann (1907–1984; composer and conductor). In addition to the spas the town was popular as a a rendezvous of matchmakers and as a meeting place for rabbis and communal leaders from Eastern Europe. The 12th and 13th Zionist Congresses were held there in 1921 and 1923. By 1930, the Jewish population was over 2,100 persons. In 1938, Karlovy Vary and its surrounding areas were annexed to Nazi Germany. The Great Synagogue, dating from 1877, was torched in 1938 and torn down in 1939. Nearly all of the town’s Jewish residents fled into the Czech interior, while the rest were interned; between 1942 and 1944 at least 90 percent of those who had fled died in Nazi death camps. A memorial to Nazi victims and the fallen in World War II was erected in 1956 on the site of the destroyed synagogue. It was demolished in 1983.