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Jewish Families from Nové Zámky, Slovakia

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This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Nové Zámky, Slovakia.

Jews first arrived in the early 19th century in Nove Zamky and formed a religious community, establishing a school and Chevra Kadisha. Originally, the community was led by the chief rabbi of Nagysurany (Surany). The local population accepted the Jewish immigrants because it expanded the trading area and commerce. From 1849 to 1895, Rabbi Ignac Kramer directed the services and communal life. By the 1860s, the first synagogue was established in Nove Zamky following the neolog-congressional style of a synagogue in Budapest (destroyed in March 1945). A few Orthodox Jews did not like the “untraditional” style of the synagogue and, in 1870, established another congregation. This congregation came under the leadership of Chief Rabbi Josef Richter and Rabbi Samuel Klein in 1913. The first elected rabbi of the Orthodox congregation was Benjamin Zeev Wolf, followed by his son in law, Henrik Sonnenklar in 1882. In 1880, the Orthodox congregation built a separate synagogue that still exists today. The most recent renovation of the synagogue occurred between 1991 and 1995. In 1991, the Slovakian government declared the building a nationally protected monument. The Orthodox community also opened a five-year elementary school. In 1927, the neolog congregation founded a middle school, which placed emphasis on industrial and commercial subjects rather than religion (this building was destroyed in 1945). The first Jewish weekly newspaper covering in Nove Zamky and the surrounding area, Szombat.