Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 2, 1959 Page: 5 of 12
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Czechoslovakia
Continued From Page 1
of 380,000.
“We had 14 bar mitzvahs in
the first five months of the year,
an important landmark in bur re-
birth,” he said.
“From 1941 to 1945, when the
Germans were in power, until a
few months ago we did not know
what it was to have a young
Jew in Czechoslovakia.”
Czech Jews have struggled
painfully to regain a share) of
their pre-war life when they were
prominent in the political, eco-
nomic and academic life of the
country, westernmost of the Sfo-
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viet-bloc satellities.
The outlook continues grim
despite the outlawing of anti-Se-
mitism and the Czech govern-
ment's subsidies for the, opera-
tions of the Jewish community
and its agencies.
Official claims to the contrary,
life in present-day Prague and
other centers of Jewish life in
Slovakia, Moravia and Bohemia
is as difficult as ever.
The mood is one of resignation
and acceptance of life as it is.
The Jewish populace, generally
elderly, tends to avoid unpopular
causes. But without question, the
position of the Jews here has
continued to deteriorate.
On the surface, matters look
much improved. The country’s
seven rabbis, 14 cantors and other
religious officials are under sa-
lary to the Ministry of Educa-
tion and Culture.
Interviews with key Jewish fi-
gures are easily obtained. At bne
time, no responsible Jewish lea-
der would meet a Western news-
man without government permis-
sion or an official witness. Now,
a request to Czech officials to
interview the Chief Rabbi was
dismissed with a “no permission
is required.”
Kosher wine and brandy are
bottled by the government. Reli-
gious instruction is available upon
the written request of both pa-
rents each semester. Occasional
anti-Semitics are publicly chas-
tised.
Two Czech teenage boys were
fined earlier this month for
throwing stones in a Jewish ce-
metery. Rabbi Sicher, informed
of the matter by the local police
chief, said other cases were “iso-
lated.”
Gray-bearded, Vienna-trained
Dr. Sicher, Chief Rabbi since
1947, and Dr. Rudolf litis, gene-
ral secretary of the Council fof
Jewish Religious Communities in
Prague, gave official answers to
questions on the religious com-
munity but shied away fifom po-
litical matters.
Both stressed the critical short-
age of rabbis and the problem of
building for the future. They
proclaimed the importance of
identifying the Jewish Community
with the Czech nation as a whole.
But the predominant fact of
life for Jews here is the shadow
of Rudolf Slansky. Once the most
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important Jewish figure in the
Czech government, Slansky, them
secretary general of the Cz^ch
Communist Party, was hanged se-
ven years ago in the last of the
big Stalinist purge trials.
He and 10 others, including se-
ven Jews, were denounced for
treason and accused of plotting
agfeinst the state, collaborating
with Tito, conspiring to help
Czech Jews immgrate to Israel
and attempting to seize the
government.
Rabbi Sicher denied that the
trial was anti-Semitic.
“Slansky himself was not a
practicing Jew. The trial did,
however, unleash a wave of latent
anti-Semitism in people wBo al-
ways have that tendency,” he said.
Yet at present no Jews hold
important positions in the Czech
government.
On paper, freedom of religion
flourishes. But social pressure in
the schools and Communist youth
movements make it difficult for
Jewish youth to follow thjeir pa-
rents.
There is a universal under-
standing that it is better flo be
with the population as a whole
than as someone outside the state.
On Yom Kippur, however, both
Prague synagogues were filled.
About 1,500 of Prague’s 5,000
Jews (compared to a pre-war
services in the 13th Ceptury-old I
population of 35,000) attended
New Synagogue, oldest and most
famous synagogue in Central Eu-
ropeN and in the 50-year-old Je-
rusalem Street Synagogue.
Services are held daily in the
Old-New Synagogue, in the heart
of the former Ghetto, and on
Fridays, Saturdays and holidays
in the newer lone.
Contact with Israel is nil, al-
though unlimited immigration was
permitted until 1949, according to
Dr. Sicher.
“Two women and two children
left recently to join relatives in
Israel,” Dr. litis said. “Their vi-
sas were approved on humanita-
rian reasons. One was a 35-year-
old woman joining her brother.
The other was a widow with two
children. There may have been
other cases but we do nbt know
of them.”
The prospects for finding new
rabbis to replace or augment the
seven now serving are dim, in
1939 there were 100.
The youngest now serving, Dr.
Elias Katz, Chief Rabbi fof Slo-
vakia, is 42. The second youngest,
Rabbi Emil Davidovic, head of
the Jerusaldm Synagogue, is 45.
Other rabbis serve in Karlovy
Vary, Brno, Kosice and Banska.
All serve as regional rabbis.
Dr. Sicher hopes to educate
Czechs to a level advanced
Thur>., July 2, 1959 Texas Jewish Poet Dallas Page 5
FIRST JEWISH SPONSORED MEDICAL SCHOOL )
GRADUATES FIRST CLASS OF DOCTORS
America’s first medical school under Jewish auspices, the Albert Einstein |
College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, graduated its first class at
Commencement Ceremonies on the College campus. Dr. Samuel Belkin 1
(second from left) is shown presenting diplomas to graduates while Dean
Marcus D. Kogel (left) looks on. Instead of the Hippocratic Oath, students i
accepted the. Declaration of Geneva, in which genocide is foresworn. They
pledged not to use their “medical knowledge contrary to the laws of
humanity’* nor to “permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party
politics or social standing to intervene between duty and patient.” The >
ceremonies closed with the recital of the Prayer of Maimonides.
AnnDreyfus-Irving Schwartz Repeat Vows
A June seven ceremony read
by Rabbi Charles Martinband at
B’nai Israel Temple in Hatties-
burg, Miss., united Miss Tyrrell
Ann Dreyfus and Irving Schwartz
of Fort Worth in marriage. The
bride is the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Frank Dreyfus of Hatties-
burg and the bridegroom is the
son of the late Mr. and Mrs.
Joseph Schwartz of Fort Worth.
Miss Sjqe Ellen Dreyfus was
her sister’s matron of honor. Miss
Julie Lauren Dreyfus,, an/other
sister, and Miss Lolly Brener of
New Orleans, niece of the bride-
grobm, were bridesmaids.
Michel Brener of New Orleans,
brother-in-law of the bridegroom;
enough to enable them to study
in the Rabbinical Seminary in
Budapest or for other European
countries to supply rabbis.
At present one Hungarian is
studying the Czech language for
eventual assignment here.
To keep the community alive,
the Prague council publishes a
monthly 20-page newspaper with
a circulation of 2,000 as well
as a literary yearbook.
A kosher restaurant is main-
tained in the basement of the
Jewish Town Hall, where Dr.
Sicher has offices,, and 10 Kosher
butcher shops serve the country.
One is in Prague, another in
served as best man. Walter Drey-
fus Jr. of Hattiesburg, cousin
of the bride, Robert Dreyfus of
Hattiesburg, uncle of the bride,
and Max Ellis of Houston were
groomsmen and ushers.
The bride was given in mar-
riage by her father. She wore a
gown fof imported silk chiffon
styled with a shirred bodice and
a square neckline. The sheath
skirt was draped in front and
joined to the back with medal-
lions of lace. She carried a bou-
quet of valley lillies, white noses,
and stephanotis centered with a
white orchid and carried on a
white Bible.
A dinner was held afterward
at the temple. The bride attended
the University of Miami and gra-
duated from Mississippi Southern
College.
Mrs. David Schwartz and chil-
dren, Susan, Frances Jo and Rfon-
nie Schwartz of Fort Worth at-
tended the wedding and dinner.
Karlovy Vary and eight others
in Slovakia.
Matzohs were prepared by a
Slovakian bakery under Dr. Katz’s
supervision. Homes for 85 aged
men and women in Marianske
Lazne, 75 in Podebrady and 40
in Brno are maintained undeo* the
government’s social welfare pro-
gram.
There are no orphanages or
apprentice-training schools. There
is no one to fill them.
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Rabbis from the United States,
France, Sweden and East Berlin
have visited Prague recently, but
there is a profound thirst for
information on the status of
Jews everywhere.
The Old-New Synagogue (a
new synagogue was built on the
site of an Older one) and the
520-year-old Jewish cemetery re-
main showplaees for visitors to
Prague and are included in aM
tours of the city.
The cemetery, overgrown with
shrubbery, is filled with fallen
tombstones. The Ghetto, begun
in the 13th Century and levelled
in 1906, resembles dozens of
other streets in medieval Prague.
The only reminders are the
Star of David on the synagogue
and old Town Hall and the clock
with Hebrew numbers atop the
o*ynag#gue.
Mementoes of the Ghetto are
k'ept in the government-run Jew-
ish Museum, a carefully preserv-
ed record of the time when Pra-
gue was a reeting place for the
countless Jewish merchants ply-
ing the tirpeless trade route from
Mainz be HKe*\
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Wisch, J. A. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 2, 1959, newspaper, July 2, 1959; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754740/m1/5/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .