<BRATISLAVA (Ger. Pressburg, Hg. Pozsony), capital of *Slovakia,  Czechoslovakia; till 1918 in Hungary; former chartered capital of the kings of Hungary. It was one of the most ancient and important Jewish centers in the Danube region.

[Romans - Crusades - charter of King Andrew III - money lenders, merchants, artisans, and vine - expulsions]

The first Jews possibly arrived with the Roman legions. The *Memorbuch of the community of Mainz commemorates the "martyrs of Pressburg" who perished in the First Crusade. The first documentary mention of Jews in Bratislava dates from 1251.

In 1291 (col. 1310)

King Andrew III granted a charter to the community, which paid taxes to the royal treasury, and from 1345 also to the municipality. Bratislava Jews mainly engaged in money lending, but included merchants and artisans, vineyard owners, and vintners. A synagogue is first mentioned in 1335 and was rebuilt in 1339.

In 1360 the Jews were expelled from Hungary, and some of the Jews of Bratislava took refuge in Heimburg (Austria). They returned in 1367 and resumed possession of their homes. In 1371 the municipality introduced the Judenbuch [["Jewish book"]] regulating financial dealing between Jews and Christians.

Isaac *Tyrnau officiated as rabbi in Bratislava about 1410. In 1392 King Sigismund exempted Christians for a year from paying the interest on loans borrowed from Jews; in 1441 and 1450 all outstanding debts owed to Jews were canceled; and in 1475 Jews were forbidden to accept real estate as security. An attempt by many Jews to leave Bratislava in 1506 was prevented by Ladislas II who confiscated the property of those who had already left.

[Expulsion and new settlement - a "Jewish street" - trade]

The Jews were expelled from Bratislava in the general expulsion from Hungary in 1526, although they apparently continued to live in several places, including the Schlossberg ("Castle Hill"), outside the municipal bounds. The first Jew subsequently to reside within them was Samuel *Oppenheimer, who received permission to settle in a suburb in 1692. He was followed by other Jews and a synagogue was built in 1695, where the first known rabbi to officiate was Yom Tov Lipmann.

In 1699 the *Court Jews Simon Michael, who had settled there in 1693, was appointed head of the community; he built a bet midrash (col. 1310)

and acquired land for a cemetery. By 1709 there were 189 Jews living in Bratislava and 772 by 1736. The Jewish quarter in the Schlossberg remained outside the municipal jurisdiction. It later passed to the jurisdiction of the counts Palffy, who gave protection to the Jews living there.

In 1714 they granted a charter of privileges to the 50 families living in its precincts and in Zuckermandel. the Jews in the Schlossberg resided in a single row of houses, but in 1776 the municipality permitted Jews to settle on land owned by the city opposite the houses and thus to constitute a "Jewish street". The Jews living on the Palffy side, however, enjoyed different rights from those under municipal jurisdiction, the former, for instance, being permitted to engage in crafts and all branches of commerce. They enjoyed freedom of religious worship. After the status of the community improved, the customary provision of geese to the Viennese court on St. Martin's Day, formerly an onerous tax, developed into a ceremony (performed until 1917).

The Jews in Bratislava pioneered the textile trade in Hungary in the 18th century. Under the direction of Meir Halberstadt the yeshivah [[religious Torah school]] became an important center of Jewish learning, while the authority of Moses *Sofr (d. 1839) made Bratislava a center of Orthodoxy for all parts of the Jewish world. During the reign of Maria Theresa (1740-80) the representatives of Hungarian Jewry used to meet in Bratislava to arrange the tax administration.

[1848 revolution  and riots - Jewish quarter protected by military - Jews driven into the Jewish quarter - Jews in the army and antisemitism - blood libel cases - Orthodox Jewry against racist Zionism - newspapers]

During the revolution of 1848, anti-Jewish riots broke out. The Jewish quarter was put under military protection and Jews living elsewhere had to retire within it. Jews volunteered to serve in the National Guard but were opposed by the general public. Further outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence followed the *blood libel case in *Tisza-Eszlar in 1882 and 1883. From 1898 tension mounted between the Orthodox and the pro-Reform members of the community (see *Reform: *Hungary).

After 1869 the Orthodox, Neolog [[enlightenment]], and states-quo-ante [[present status]] factions in Bratislava organized separate congregations. The Orthodox provincial office (Landeskanzlei) later became notorious for its opposition to Zionism. The Neolog and status-quo-ante congregations united in 1928 as the Jeshurun Federation. A large part of the Jewish quarter was ravaged by fire in 1913 but was later rebuilt.

Jewish institutions in Bratislava included religious schools, charitable organizations, and a Jewish hospital founded in 1710; a new building was constructed in 1931). [...]

During this period several Jewish newspapers and a Hebrew weekly Ha-Yehudi, were published there. In 1930 the Jewish population in Bratislava numbered 14,882 (12% of the total population), 5,597 of declared Jewish nationality. [...]

[Racist Zionist organizations in Bratislava]

The Hungarian Zionist Organization was founded in Bratislava in 1902 and the world *Mizrachi Organization in 1904, both on the initiative of Samuel *Bettelheim. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1919 anti-Jewish excesses were prevented by a guard formed by Jewish veterans. With the establishment of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava became the center of a number of Jewish national communal institutions and of Jewish national as well as Zionist activities. Bratislava also became the center of *Agudat Israel in Czechoslovakia. [...] (col. 1311)

Jewish Printing.

Some 340 Hebrew and Yiddish books were printed in Bratislava between 1831 and 1930, the first being Torat ha-Emunah, an ethical treatise in Yiddish. But already in 1789 and 1790 two smaller items had been issued here. In 1833 the well-known Vienna printer Anton Edler von Schmidt bought the press of K. Schniskes, and Schmidt's son printed Hebrew books to 1849. He was succeeded by Heinrich Sieber, and he and his heirs were active to 1872, and their successors F. and S. Nirschi to 1878. O. Ketterisch, later K. Ketterisch and Zimmermann, set up a Hebrew press in 1876. The first Jewish printers were Lewy and Alkalay, later A. Alkalay only, whose firm printed from 1877 to 1920. (col. 1312)

[[There is no indication about the time of segregation from Austria-Hungary 1918-1919 with heavy unemployment and Jewish immigration from eastern Europe and new anti-Semitism by the immigration]].

[Nazi time in Bratislava 1939-1945: exclusions, discriminations, deportations - cemetery destroyed]

[[Generally there was a heavy collaboration of the local population with the regime which is never mentioned in this article]].

In the titularly independent state of Slovakia set up under Nazi auspices in 1939, Bratislava was the seat of the Jewish central office (Ústredňa židov). Even before the declaration of the independent state, attacks on the synagogues and yeshivah [[religious Torah schools]] on Nov. 11, 1938, inaugurated the regime of anti-Semitic terror. Nearly a thousand Jewish students were expelled from the university. Subsequently, anti-Jewish terrorization, restrictive measures, and pogroms increased.

On the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 all Jewish shops were confiscated, and in (col. 1311)

August 1940 the Jews were forced to surrender their homes. Many transports of the "illegal" immigration to Palestine were organized in Bratislava. Numbers of Jews who had fled from Nazi persecution in Vienna in 1938 were put into camps in the Patronka and Petržalka suburbs. IN spring 1945, 497 Jews were massacred by the Nazis in Petržalka.

Mass deportations of Jews from Bratislava continued until a few weeks before the downfall of Hitler. Only a fraction of the Jewish population survived the Holocaust. The old cemetery was destroyed in a town planning project during the war. A small plot including the tomb of R. Moses Sofer was spared by the fact that a road was built above it. [...]

[SH. W.-H.]

[[All antisemitic activity in the Nazi time was performed with a great collaboration of the local population and authorities]].

Contemporary Period. [Jewish institutions after 1945 - racist Zionist training camps - restitution of property -  emigration waves to Herzl Israel]

On April 15, 1945, a few days after the liberation of the city, the Jewish community of Bratislava was reestablished, and Max Weiss became its chairman. In September, Chief Rabbi Markus Lebovič was installed in his post in a ceremony in the only synagogue that had not suffered damage during the war; the first public prayer services were held there also on the occasion of the High Holidays.

In 1946 Bratislava became the headquarters of the 42 reconstituted Jewish communities of Slovakia. Religious functions - ritual slaughter, mikva'ot [[ritual baths]], a kosher butcher and canteen, and religious instruction in the schools - were reintroduced; the Chief Rabbinate also insured the supply of mazzot [[unleavened bread]] and kosher wine.

In 1947, when the membership of the Jewish community had grown to 7,000, a second synagogue was opened. [...] International charitable organizations (notably *ORT and the *American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) played a prominent role in the revival and development of the religious, economic, and social life of the Jewish community. Homes for the aged, youth centers, and a hospital were also established.

The *Ha-Shomer ha-Zair built training farms (hakhsharot) to prepare Jewish youth for settlement in Palestine under the (col. 1312)

auspices of *Youth Aliyah. Jewish periodicals, notably Tribuna, Ha-Mathil, and Ha-Derekh, came into being, and Bratislava became the center of the rapidly developing Jewish life in Slovakia. An archive on the Holocaust period was founded after the war by the Union of Slovakian Jewish Communities and a large section of it was later transferred to *Yad Vashem.

Difficulties were encountered, however, in the restitution of Jewish property; the local Slovaks, who had become the "Aryan owners" of such property during the war, did all they could to prevent its return to its rightful owners. Antisemitic hate propaganda, which accused the Jews of having been "the tools of Magyarization and exploiters of the Slovak people", resulted in anti-Jewish riots and the plunder of Jewish property (during the summer of 1946 and in March 1948).
[Antisemitic communist regime since 1949]

The year 1949 was a turning point in the renewed history of the Jewish community. Under the Communist regime Jewish religious and cultural life was gradually restricted, the property of Jewish organizations was nationalized, and the existing social and economic institutions were deprived of their Jewish character.

An agreement between Czechoslovakia and [[racist Zionist Free Mason Herzl]] Israel facilitated the emigration of about 4,000 Bratislava Jews. IN 1949 a new chief rabbi, Elias Elijah Katz, later of Beersheba, and a new community chairman, Benjamin Eichler, were appointed. Any attempts to reactivate Jewish life, however, were nipped in the bud.

In January 1952 the Bratislava Pravda warned against "Jewish citizens who are in the service of the American imperialists and are trying to undermine Slovak life". Until the end of the decade, the Jewish community, which had been reduced to about 2,000 persons, lived under the threat of dismissal from employment, compulsory manual work, evacuation to different places of residence, and long prison terms. The political changes which took place in 1963 resulted in the immediate resumption of Jewish activities and contact with world Jewry. Several Jews who had been wrongfully imprisoned were rehabilitated, and Jews found it easier to gain employment.

Religious instruction was intensified and Jewish ceremonies, such as bar mitzvahs [[day of religious maturity of Jewish boys and girls]] and religious weddings, became a more frequent occurrence.

After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (August 1968), about 500 Jews left Bratislava. The Jewish population of Bratislava in 1969 was estimated at about 1,500 [...]. (col. 1313)

One synagogue building serves now as a television studio. (col. 1312)

[E.KU.]

Bibliography

-- S.H. Weingarten: Sefer Bratislava (1960; vol. 7 of: Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael
-- H. Goldd (ed.): Die Juden undd Judengemeinde Bratislava... (1932)
-- O. Neumann: Im Schatten des Todes (1956)
-- M.D. Weissmandl: Min ha-Mezar (1960)
-- A. Charim: Die Toten Gemeinden (1966), 37-42
-- L. Rotkirchen: Hurban Yahadut Slovakyah (1961), index
-- Y. Toury: Mehumah u-Mevukhah be-Mahpekhat 1848 (1968), index s.v.: Pressburg
-- A. Nir: Shevilim be-Ma'galot ha-Esh (1967)
-- MHJ, 4 (1938), index

HEBREW PRINTING

-- P.J. Kohn, in: KS, 31 (1955/56), 233ff.
-- N. Ben-Menahem: ibid, 33 (1957/58), 529ff.
-- Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 7 (1960), 171

CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

-- P. Meyer et al.: Jews in the Soviet Satellites (1953), 69-204, and passim
-- Jewish Studies (Prague 1955), passim
-- R. Iltis (ed.): Die aussäen in Tränen mit Jubel werden sie ernten (1959), 127-38> (col. 1313)

	Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Bratislava, vol. 4, col. 1309-1310	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Bratislava, vol. 4, col. 1311-1312	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Bratislava, vol. 4, col. 1313