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This project seeks to list representatives of all of the Jewish families from the Bohemian town of Brandýs nad Labem (Brandeis an der Elbe) in the Czech Republic.
The first Jewish settlement in the beginning of the 16th century was located in the suburb of Hrádek. After the general expulsion from Bohemia in 1559, the Jews from Brandys went to Poznan. However, the Brandys municipality undertook to safeguard Jewish property there for an annual payment of 20 groschen. In 1568 the Jews were permitted to return and to reclaim their property. Nine houses in Jewish ownership are recorded in 1630. Subsequently, a considerable number of the Jews expelled from Prague in 1745 found refuge in Brandys. There was a small Jewish ghetto in the town in the 17th to 19th centuries. Filip Bondy officiated as rabbi from 1856 to 1876. Brandys was one of the first communities in Bohemia to introduce liturgical reforms in its synagogue. The Jewish population numbered 380 in 1893; 272 in 1921 (6% of the total), 13 of declared Jewish nationality; and 139 in 1930. The community ceased to exist during the Holocaust and was not revived thereafter. The well-known Jewish surname Brandeis was probably derived from the name of the town.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Mandl, in: H. Gold (ed.), Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens, 1 (1934), 56–58. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Fiedler, Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia, (1991), 65.
Note: For the purposes of this project we should consider the towns and villages immediately surrounding Brandýs as part of the city. Jewish vital records from the below listed villages were managed at least to some degree by the Brandýs Jewish community, and appear in the Brandýs records books. We'll add to the list as we get more information.
Brandýs nad Labem (German = Brandeis an der Elbe)
Brazdím (incl. Velký and Nový/Starý Brazdím)
Veleň (German = Welenka)
Lázně Toušeň (German = Tausin)
Kostelec nad Labem (German = Elbekosteletz)