Professor Dr. Max Grünfeld

Brünn, Legionärstrasse 39.

Birth record Kroměříž 908 (213) 1856.

Obituary (http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?apm=0&aid=nfp&datum=19330610...)

Maxmilián Julius Grunfeld (1856 – 1933) – představitel židovské literatury v Kroměříži. (http://www.kromeriz.cz/index.php?id=firma&fce=detail&i=340)

Author of Die Leue des ghetto: realistiche erzählungen und schilderungen (Prague: Druck und Verlag von Jakob B. Brandeis, c. 1900) and Leben und Lieben im Ghetto (Prag, 1896)

The title translates as: the people of the ghetto: realistic narrations and descriptions. Dr. Grunfeld (1856 or 59-1933) was born in Kromeriz and was a historian. He is also the author of Leben und Lieben im Ghetto (Prag, 1896). Interestingly, Harvard University owns three editions of this title. However, one has 96 pages, one has 103 pages, and the third is the Czech translation (with subject headings that indicate that the ghetto under discussion is specifically that of Kromeriz).

Kromeriz, town in central Moravia, Czech Republic. The Jewish community of Kromeriz was among the oldest in Europe. In 1322 the bishop of Olomouc (Olmuetz) was permitted to allow one Jew to settle in the town, exempt from servitude to the royal chamber (servi camerae regis). A community under the protection of the bishop grew up soon after; it remained under the protection of the successive bishops until 1848, and the synagogue and community house displayed the episcopal coat of arms, with a cross and cardinal's hat. In the 1340s a Jew sued a gentile before the town court. In 1546, the Jews moved to another part of the town because of conflicts with their neighbors. In 1642, during the Thirty Years' War, the community was destroyed by the Swedes, an event mourned in several contemporary selihot. Kromeriz absorbed many refugees from the Chmielnicki massacres (1648) and eight families expelled from Vienna settled there under the bishop's protection (1670). In 1676, 27 Jewish families lived in the town. In 1689 Kromeriz was considered the most important and most affluent Moravian community after Mikulov (Nikolsburg) and from then until 1697 it was the seat of the country rabbinate. However, during the 18th century the community became impoverished and many left. After protracted legal proceedings (begun in 1785) the community had to give up the site of its old cemetery in 1882; a new one had been opened in 1850. Following a blood libel there was unrest in the town in 1889 and again in 1896. In 1910 a new synagogue was dedicated. In Kromeriz, under the Familiants Law there were 106 families (546 persons) in 1829; 783 Jews lived there in 1880, 611 in 1900, and 390 in 1921. In 1930 the community numbered 382 (12% of the total population). After the Nazi occupation (1939) shehitah was forbidden. The Czech population paid little attention to the anti-Semitic laws promulgated in 1940. However, the Nazis attempted to blow up the synagogue; the community was deported in 1942, and the synagogue equipment sent to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. The scholars Joseph Weiss and Emanuel Baumgarten were natives of Kromeriz. Among rabbis who served there were Menahem Mendel Krochmal (1636–42), Issachar Berush Eskeles (1710–19), and the historian Adolf Frankl-Gruen (1877–1911). (http://www.virtualjudaica.com/Item/14127/Die_Leute_des_ghetto)

More on Kroměříž: (http://www.jewishbrno.eu/index.php?Itemid=18&id=35&lang=en&option=c...)