Mikulov (German Nikolsburg) is a town in the Czech Republic, in South Moravian Region. Population: 7,608 (2004). It is located directly at the border to Lower Austria. South Moravian Region (Czech: Jihomoravský kraj) is an administrative unit (Czech: kraj) of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. ... Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) is one of the nine federal states or Bundesländer in Austria. ...

Geography

Mikulov is located at the edge of a hilly territory and a large lake. It extends from a sea level of 200 to 250m. The UNESCO Biosphere reservate begins at Mikulov, and so does the Moravian Karst. For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ... UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1946. ... The biosphere is that part of a planet earths outer shell—including air, land, and water—within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. ... Moravia (Czech: Morava) is the eastern part of the Czech Republic. ... Karst topography is a landscape of distinctive dissolution patterns often marked by underground drainages. ...

History

In 1938, the town had 8000 (mostly German-speaking) inhabitants, but only a population of about 5200 in 1948. The most remarkable historic sights are the former princely palace of the Dietrichstein family and the Piarist College. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Economy

Important economic factors in Mikulov are the machine and clay industry, as well as the oil founded at the edge of the Vienna Basin. Oil is a generic term for organic liquids that are not miscible with water. ...

People

• Adolf Schärf

Adolf Schärf (April 20, 1890, Mikulov — February 28, 1965, Vienna) was from 1957 to his death the president of the Republic of Austria. ...

Jewish Mikulov

The settlement of the Jews in Mikulov dates probably from 1420, when, after the expulsion from the neighboring province of Lower Austria, fugitives settled in the town under the protection of the princes of Lichtenstein. The expulsions of the Jews from the cities of Brno and Znojmo (1454) may have brought additional settlers. The community first became important in 1575, when the emperor gave Mikulov to Adam von Dietrichstein, whose son, Cardinal Franz von Dietrichstein, was a special protector of the Jews, their taxes being necessary to the prosecution of the Thirty Years' war. The expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670 brought another large group of new settlers to Mikulov, which is about 50 miles distant from the Austrian capital, and at the census taken under Empress Maria Theresa of Austria 620 families were found established there, making the Jewish population of the town about 3,000, or one-half of the total population. Naturally, only a few of them could win a living in the town; most of them peddled, or frequented the fairs in Lower Austria, from which the inhabitants of the various fair towns endeavored to exclude them as late as 1794. The congregation suffered severely in the Silesian war, when the Prussians levied a contribution of 9,000 florins, and took all horses owned by Jews (1744). The Jews of Mikulov had further tofurnish their share in the contribution of 50,000 gulden exacted by the government of Maria Theresa from the Jews of Moravia. In 1778, during the preparations for the war with Prussia, the Neu-Schul was used as a military storehouse, although the congregation offered other places. Quite a number of Mikulov Jews continued to earn their livelihood in Vienna, where they were permitted to stay for some time on special passports. The freedom of residence which was conceded to the Jews there in 1848 and 1860 reduced the number of resident Jews in Mikulov to less than one-third of the population which it contained at the time of its highest development. In 1904 there was 749 Jewish residents in the city in a total population of 8,192. Events May 21 - Treaty of Troyes. ... Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) is one of the nine federal states or Bundesländer in Austria. ... Brno  listen? (German: Brünn) is the second-largest city of the Czech Republic, located in the southeast of the country, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers. ... Znojmo (German: Znaim) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. ... Events February 4 - In the Thirteen Years War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederacy sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master. ... Events August 5 - Henry Sidney is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. ... The victory of Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) The Thirty Years War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the Central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. ... This article is about the city and federal state in Austria. ... Events January 21 – Highwayman Claude Duval is executed in Tyburn, Middlesex April - Pope Clement X is elected. ... This page is about Maria Theresa of Austria (often only known as Empress Maria Theresa), ruler of the Habsburg Empire from 1740-1780. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Events The third French and Indian War, known as King Georges War, breaks out at Port Royal, Nova Scotia Ongoing events War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Births May 19 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen of George III of Great Britain (d. ... Moravia (Czech: Morava) is the eastern part of the Czech Republic. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Synagogues and Schools

Up to 1868 the community had about a dozen synagogues, some named after their founders—as the Wiener Schul, founded by the Vienna exiles—and some serving as centers for the gilds (of which the community had quite a number)—as the Kazowim-Schul and Schuster Schul. Another synagogue, founded by Schmelke Horowitz, was consecrated to the propagation of the Chasidic doctrine and was called "Chasidim-Schul". In 1868 the synagogues were reduced to five, and at present there are only two—the Alt-Schul, the cathedral synagogue of the "Landesrabbiner" of Moravia, and the Neu-Schul. A synagogue (from Greek synagoge place of assembly literally meeting, assembly,) is a Jewish house of prayer and study. ...

Owing to the importance of the rabbis who officiated in Nikolsburg, the city was the seat of a very prominent yeshibah, which often had from 300 to 400 disciples. It achieved its greatest fame under Mordecai Benet (1790-1829); declining gradually, it disappeared after the death of Solomon Quetsch (1856). A modern parochial school was established in 1839, and after 1853 was under the management of Moritz Eisler. Since 1868 the school has been in the hands of the state. Owing to the removal of many Jews from the city and the settlement of Christian families in the old ghetto, the majority of the school-children now (1904) are Christians, as are the principal and some of the teachers. The area of the former ghetto, however, still continues to be administrated as a township under the name of Israelitengemeinde Nikolsburg, having its burgo-master and its board of trustees. There are quite a number of societies, including a chebra qaddisha, a Talmud Torah, and well-endowed foundations for charitable and educational purposes. 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... A ghetto is an area where people from a specific ethnic background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Personalities

The first rabbi of Mikulov was Judah Löw ben Bezaleel, who officiated in Mikulov about 1553-1573. Others were: Judah Löb Eilenburg (1574-1618); Yom-Tob Lipmann Heller (1624); Pethahiah ben Joseph (1631); Menahem Mendel Krochmal (1648-61); Aaron Jacob ben Ezekiel (1671); Judah Löb, son of Menahem Krochmal (1672-84);Eliezer Mendel Fanta (1690); David Oppenheim (1690-1705); Gabriel Eskeles (1718); Gershon Politz (1753-72); Schmelke Horowitz (1773-78); Gershon Chajes (1780-89); Mordecai Benet (1789-1829); Nehemias Trebitsch (1831-42); Samson Raphael Hirsch (1846-51); Solomon Quetsch (1855-56); Mayer Feuchtwang (1861-88), and his son David Feuchtwang (1892-1903); and Moritz Levin (since 1904). Events June 26 - Christs Hospital in London gets a Royal Charter July 6 - Edward VI of England dies July 10 - Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England - for the next nine days July 18 - Lord Mayor of London proclaims Queen Mary as the rightful Queen - Lady Jane Grey... Events January - articles of Warsaw Confederation signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland. ... Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (June 20, 1808 - December 31, 1888) was the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. ...

Among the Jewish scholars and authors whose names are identified with Mikulov are the following: Eliezer Nin (author of "Mishnat Eliezer", Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1710); Naphtali Hirsch Spitz (author of the "Melo Ratzon", Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1717); Moses ben Menahem Prager, the cabalist (wrote there his "Zera' Qodesh", Fürth, 1696, in which he reports an exorcism in Mikulov). In 1785 the story of an exorcism was reported by Abraham Trebitsch, both in Hebrew and in Yiddish, under the title "Ruach Chayyim" (Brno ?). Trebitsch, who was secretary to the "Landesrabbiner", wrote a meritorious chronicle of his time under the title "Qorot ha-'Ittim" (Brno, 1801). To Mikulov belong also Moritz Eisler, the philosophical author, Joseph von Sonnenfels, Heinrich Landesmann, and Leopold Oser, professor of medicine at Vienna University. Hirsch Kolisch, the philanthropist, was born at Mikulov (end of 18th cent.; d. Vienna Dec. 11, 1866). Kolisch established there a school for deaf-mutes under the administration of Joel Deutsch (1844). The institute was transferred in 1852 to Vienna, where Kolisch took up his residence. Fürth - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Brno  listen? (German: Brünn) is the second-largest city of the Czech Republic, located in the southeast of the country, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers. ...

References

• Bibliography: Trebitsch, Qorot ha-'Ittim, Brünn, 1801;
• Löw, Das Mährische Landesrabbinat, in Gesammelte Schriften, ii. 165-218, Szegedin, 1890;
• Friedländer, Qore ha-Dorot, Brünn, 1876;
• Feuchtwang, Epitaphien Mährischer Landes-und Localrabbiner von Nikolsburg, in Kaufmann Gedenkbuch, pp. 369-384, Breslau, 1900;
• Wertheimer, Jahrbuch, i. 51.D.

Article References

• JewishEncyclopedia (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=292&letter=N)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. Please feel free to update it like any other article. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ...