OTHER NAMES/SPELLINGS: Mahrisch-Aussee or Aussee 

LOCATION: 
                     Usov is a small town in Moravia, Sumperk district, Czech Republic.  Its coordinates are: 49.05 longitude and 21.55 latitude.  Usov is 185 km ESE of Prague, 75 km N of Brno, and 18 km S of the district town of Sumperk. 

HISTORY: 
                     The earliest records available indicate that there were at least 7 Jews living in Usov already in 1564 and a document of that year gives the names of three of them: David, Jakub and Markus. Although small in number, they were apparently important enough to the economy to cause Maximillian II to change the day of the town’s weekly market from Saturday to Wednesday in 1571.
                     A document from 1600 shows that out of 60 houses in the town, Jews inhabited 9.  By 1609, the community had grown sufficiently to warrant its first resident Rabbi. However, in 1643, military actions carried out by the Swedish army caused the death of many Jews living there as well as the destruction of many of the 19 houses they by then occupied. Under the protection of the Prince of Lichtensetin, the last quarter of the 17th century was a period of peace for the Jews living in Usov and the Jewish population grew from only around 10 Jewish families in 1657 to 110 families by the early 1700s.
                     The year of 1721 was, alas, a fateful year for the Jews of Usov. On September 30 of that year, a priest, named Samuel Gelinek from Dubitzko, came into the synagogue during services on the eve of Yom Kippur.  He caused a big commotion and when some of the congregants tried to calm him down, he hit them with a stick, fell down, and accused them of injuring him.  A lengthy legal battle followed with the result that in 1722 an order was handed down requiring the demolition of the synagogue and the punishment of 4 Jews (although the Jews were permitted to hold some services in private houses). Anti-Semitic attacks by the clergy continued however and tension remained high -- exploding in 1737, when the Jews wanted to have a procession to inaugurate a new Torah scroll.  The clergy felt offended by what they saw as an imitation of Catholic processions and demanded a prohibition of Jewish prayers even in private houses. But, the officials eventually supported the right of Jews to have such services.
                     Ten years later, in 1747, another conflict erupted.  When the treasurer of the Jewish community was accused of theft and city officials went to arrest him, they discovered approximately 30 Jews participating in a prayer services, which was much greater than the 10 allowed. A priest by the name of Prunner levied a new complaint against the Jewish community and it was not until 1751 when officials finally determined that the Jews could not be prohibited from praying together. Although Prunner continued his attempts to have prayer services prohibited, he was unsuccessful and the following years witnessed a growth of the Jewish population and their economic contributions in the town.  In 1753, the Jews were allowed to set aside a 3-room place for prayer and finally, in 1780, permission was granted to erect a synagogue on the same site where the demolished one had stood. 
                     Prior to 1890, Usov had existed as an independent congregation. But due to declining population, it was joined with the nearby town of Schonberg/Sumperk in that year. Until WWII, it was the seat of the Jewish religious congregation for the whole district (which included, in addition, the Jewish communities in Romerstadt/Rymarov, Neustadt/Unicov, Sumvald, Johnsdorf/Janusov, Hohenstadt/Zabreh, and Hannsdorf/Hanusovice). 
                     The highest Jewish population in Usov was probably 656 in 1830 but this number dropped to 150 in 1890, 101 in 1900 and to 20 in 1930.  As far as is known, only one man survived the Nazi occupation. 
                      Usov’s Jewish quarter, established in 1589, was located on a hill, in what was then the NW part of the town.  Over the years, the number of houses there grew: 9 in 1600, 19 in 1667, 28 in 1753, 45 two story houses by the middle of the 1800s.  Many of these houses have been preserved.
 

GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES: 
                     Although many of the archival records from Northern Moravia were destroyed during WWII, some records from Usov can be found in the Jewish Museum in Prague and in the District Archives in Janovice near Rymarov. For example, the author of this GemeindeView has, through the work of a paid researcher, obtained from documents at those 2 locations information about her Lowy ancestors and a considerable number of (related?) individuals with the Lowy surname living in Usov in the later 1700s and 1800s. The types of records from which this information was gathered included: birth, marriage, death, tax, burial and property records.  It is hoped that this section on Genealogical Resources will be expanded at a future time with details about what archival records are available. 

NOTABLE RESIDENTS AND DESCENDANTS: 
                     Rabbi Mortiz Duschak, known for his many historical works, officiated in Usov before 1856. Vlastimil Artur Polak, the German-Jewish poet and journalist, was born in Usov in 1914 (he died in 1990 in Olomouc).  Albert Lowy from Usov went to England and became active in Jewish causes. As Secretary of the Anglo-Jewish Association in the latter half of the 1800s, he was among those arguing for Jewish nationalism, unlike many others in Czechoslovakia at that time who favored assimilation. 

SYNAGOGUES: 
                     The Jews of Usov lost their first Synagogue in the Thirty Years’ War.  Sometime before 1689, a second synagogue was built but it was demolished in 1722 (see above under History for description of that episode).  In the early 1780s, a third synagogue was built at the same site where the second had stood, in the center of the Jewish quarter. Services were held there up until 1938.  In that year, the Nazis burnt the interior furnishings and important archives. After the war the building was renovated for use by the Czech Brethren’s Protestant Church. 

CEMETERIES: 
                     There are no traces of an old cemetery believed to have existed already in the 15th century that was destroyed by the Swedish army in 1643.  Another cemetery was established (probably around 1645) on the NW boundary of the Jewish quarter.  Enlarged in the first half of the 1800s, it was used for burials until WWII.  Although much of this cemetery was wrecked when the Nazi’s used it for a shooting range, there are still over 500 gravestones there (the earliest dating from 1745). Many of the tombstones are notable examples of Baroque and Classicist styles. The cemetery is a designated landmark and restoration work has resulted in clearing of vegetation and fixing of the continuous masonry wall.  The site is today used only for the Jewish cemetery. There appears to be only slight threat to the cemetery in terms of security, vegetation, vandalism, and new or future development.

HUGO GOLD: 
                     Sections on Usov can be found in 2 works by Hugo Gold: Die Juden und Judengeneinden Mahrens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1929) [The Jews and Jewish Communities of Moravia, Past and Present] and Gedenkbuch der Untergegangenen Judengemeinden Mahrens (1974) [Memorial Book of the Lost Jewish Communities of Moravia].  The section on Usov found in the latter is essentially a condensed version of the Usov section found in the former. 
                      In addition to describing the history of the town, Gold also includes names of individuals found in various documents from Usov.  Below is a (chronological) listing of those names, followed by the year(s) and occupation or other information associated with that name as presented by Gold. 
                      As most of the names presented by Gold come from documents prior to 1787, when Jews in the Austrian Empire were required to adopt surnames, most of them appear in the "X  ben Y" form. 

SOURCES: 
--Ehl, Peter, Arno Parik and Jiri Fiedler, Old Bohemian and Moravian Jewish Cemeteries,(Prague, Paseka: 1991)
--Encyclopedia Judaica (Berlin, 1929) 
--Fiedler, Jiri. Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia. (Prague, Sefer: 1991)
--Gold, Hugo. Die Juden und Judengemeinden Mahrens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. (Brunn, Judischer Buch und Kunstverlag: 1929)
--Gold, Hugo. Gedenkbuch der Untergegandgenen Judengemeinden Mahrens. (Tel Aviv, Alamenu: 1974)
--Gruber, Samuel and Phyllis Myers, Survey of Historic Jewish Monuments in the Czech Republic. (New York, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad: 1994)
--Jewish Encyclopedia
--Kestenberg-Gladstein, Ruth. “The Jews Between Czechs and Germans in the Historic Lands, 1848-1918.” in The Jews of Czechoslovakia, Vol I. (Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society of America: 1968)
--Mokotoff, Gary and Sallyann Amdur Sack, Where Once We Walked, A guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. (Teaneck, NJ, Avotaynu: 1991)

SUBMITTER:  Anne Feder Lee, 7207 Kuahono St., Honolulu, HI 96825 USA.  E-mail: 103004.2157@compuserve.com.