Secrets of the Svihov Torah
Most of you know that Congregation Albert has the honor to be the home of the Svihov Torah, which was rescued from Czechoslovakia after World War II. As we celebrate Simchat Torah and consecrate our new Centennial Torah, we thought it was fitting to learn more about the Jewish community in the town of Svihov, the original town of our Torah.
Sixty-Seven miles southwest of Prague is the village of Svihov nestled in a small valley. The village includes a town square, post office, town hall, and a famous water castle. Svihov was chartered in Bohemia in 1501 and later became a part of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. The earliest known Jewish settler arrived in 1570 and within 50 years there was a Jewish community which survived another 300 years. Svihov is the second oldest Jewish community in the area - one other dates from the late 1400s. Although the Jewish Community in Svihov never grew beyond about 20 families, by 1670 they had built a prayer room, and, soon after, a wooden synagogue. When these were destroyed by fire in 1773, a new Rocco style Synagogue was built, where services were held until World War II. After World War II, the synagogue property was sold. The building was torn down in the 1960's and a house built on the land.
Svihov’s Jewish Street (now Vrchlického St.) was on the north side of the square. It was a ghetto of about 78 people who owned 16 houses. The ghetto was established in 1736 by the forced exchange of houses between Christians (who gained better homes) and Jews (who moved down). Several Jewish families moved outside the street after it was destroyed by fire in 1773. We assume the Jewish inhabitants were a strong presence in the community. At one point about three quarters of the factories in the district were established by Jews. During the 19th century, Svihov’s young people began to move to larger villages, such as Klatovy, and then on to cities like Prague. Only 21 Jews lived in Svihov in 1930 and those remaining were likely deported with the rest of their district to concentration camps in the fall of 1942. Only one woman and her daughter returned to Svihov after World War II, living there until they immigrated to the U.S. in 1955.
The Svihov Torah was written in 1850, its scribe supported by a Jewish community of 17 families. In the manner of the time, the "fundraising" probably included some money for supplies, but primarily consisted of room and board for the scribe, who moved from home to home while he wrote the new Torah.
The old Jewish cemetery in Svihov, near the railroad, was consecrated in 1644 and enlarged in 1828. It includes sandstone markers which date from 1644 to 1913. A new Jewish cemetery was founded in 1878, and abolished by law 1890. Burials continued there, however, until WWII. Most sources state it was destroyed after WWII, but Seymour Lefton, a member of our Congregation, visited it only a few weeks ago, and found it standing, with beautiful marble obelisk monuments suggesting families that were rather well off. Seymour reports that the old cemetery is totally overgrown and its markers deteriorated beyond reading. He took photographs of both cemeteries so perhaps we will be able to read names on some of the markers. Knowing how many years have likely passed without memorial, Seymour said Kaddish at the cemetery for the families whose legacy has come to us with their Torah.
We have been trying to learn everything we can about the Jewish Community of Svihov, to locate any survivor’s or descendants of survivors and to learn the names of those who died in, or were deported from, Svihov. We have located one descendant of a Svihov family, whose grandparents left in the early 1900's.
In our search for information we received guidance and information from a new father in New York, a Rabbi’s wife in D.C., a chaplain at West Point and a family in Missouri. We were sent copies of a 1905 postcard depicting Svihov, recent photographs, tourbook articles, and from Paris, a German article (now being translated) about the town’s history. We will be assembling a photo display, from these sources and Seymour’s visit, and hope to discover more Secrets of Svihov.
We remember them.
Judie Ning
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October 1998 Bulletin
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