The oldest preserved written source documenting the presence of Jews in the city is from 1294, when there could have been eight Jew-ish families here. The original eight Jewish families gradually evolved into a Jewish community. The highest number of Jews, 301, lived here in 1880 (about 3% of all inhabitants of the city), in 1900 it was 253 (2.7%), and in 1930 there were only 234 Jews here (2.2%).
A Jewish street is mentioned in written sources for the first time in the 16th century. By the 18th century, the Jewish settlement consist-ed of four houses in Jewish ownership that stood at the western side of today’s Kostelní Street. After a fire in 1801, the houses were rebuilt as they look today. The corner house No. 188/I served as a municipal house with a school and the seat of the Rabbi.
The synagogue. Until the 18th century, the Jews had only a prayer room. In 1770 a new synagogue was evidently built here which was rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1801. In 1867, the synagogue was enlarged and annexed in neo-Gothic style. The synagogue was used for regular worship service until the Nazi occupation. In 1951, the synagogue was purchased by the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, which repaired it and uses it for worship even today.
The Jewish cemetery is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Bohemia. It was founded in around 1400 and was expanded several times over the following centuries. The gravedigger’s house with the taharah and shelter for the funeral carriage was built in the second half of the 19th century. Between 1936 and 1937, a modern ceremonial hall was built, including the taharah, or room where the deceased was washed and dressed before being put in the coffin, and the shelter for the funeral carriage. Over an area of 3,314 square meters, around 400 tombstones have been preserved since 1598 (the tombstone of Asher, the son of Jaak of Ivančice), including many valuable Baroque and Classicist tombstones.
Interesting: The ceremonial hall of the Jewish cemetery features the funeral carriage of the funeral brotherhood from the second half of the 19th century and which was completely restored in 2015-2018. It is one of three Jewish burial wagons preserved in Bohemia; the others are in Brandýs nad Labem and Heřmanův Městec.