Jewish Infrastructure in Laa an der Thaya



No religious community can survive without a certain degree of religious infrastructure. Important elements are:
1) a synagogue
2) a rabbi and cantor
3) religious education
4) a butcher who kills the animals that the meat is kosher
5) a cemetery

The synagogue



Click this link to read an article about the synagogue on the website. You can also read about it in a book by Dr. Genee from 1992 or learn about its only remaining artifact.


Rabbi, cantor, religion teacher and butcher



All these functions were united in the small community in one man. Rabbi Fischhof was the last rabbi who lived in Laa. Later there were rabbis coming from other places fort he services and religious education. Some of the Jews from Laa, with whom I was in contact through letters, still remembered their religious education quite well after all these years. I want to quote them here.

"Religious instruction was given to us on Sunday mornings in the local elementary school. We were of school age, when we received religious instruction. "
(Letter from Hilda White, 27. 10. 1992)

"Mr. Fischhof gave us Hebrew lessons and taught about the Old Testament."
(Letter from Kurt Maneles, 25. 11. 1993)

"My religious education at school began in the first class of highschool. It was required by the Austrian law and was probably paid by the school. I was the only Jew in my class and therefore it was a one-to-one lesson."
(Letter from Felix Yokel, 8. 11. 1993)

"There were boys and girls in Mr. Fischhof’s class.
These were: Erika Maneles, Heini Blau, Elizabeth, my cousin, who lived with us for 3 years, and me.
Only when Mr. Gelbhard came from Mistelbach – I was 10 years old - I was happy to receive religious instruction. Think we went to a classroom at school. It can’t have been in the synagogue because there was a blackboard with chalk on which we drew pictures of Mr. Gelbhard to make fun of him. Sometimes we painted him with 2 heads and sometimes with a huge excrescence on the hand, which he actually had."
"I was taught Hebrew and also the importance of the Bible and holidays 2 times a week. "
(Letters from Karola Zucker, 27. 10. 1992, 6. 1. 1993)

Concerning the observance of dietary laws , it seems that the First World War brought about a big change. People were glad to have food, kosher or not was often not as important as before. I would like to quote some former Jewish citizens of Laa on this issue, to give you an impression of the situation.

"The religious teacher also was the butcher fort he animals the obervant Jews ate. There is a special ritual and he had to investigate whether the cattle was healthy.
My mother stopped obeying the dietary laws during the 1st World War, that she did not control if the meat was slaughtered kosher or not. She always said, she was glad to get meat, whether it was kosher or not. But milk and meat were not mixed. At Passover we used extra dishes and did not eat bread, only Mazzot. "
(Letter from Hilda White, 23. 4. 1993)

"My parents were very religious and kept a kosher household. Holidays were also kept strictly! Only in the 1st World War (from 1914 to 1918) it was almost impossible to keep kosher, but the tradition has continued. "
(Letter from Joseph Kolb, nephew of Moritz drill from Laa, 23. 4. 1993)

"Before the war we kept a kosher household. Whether the meat was slaughtered kosher, I do not know. The food regulations were adhered to and for Passover, there were extra dishes. Over the years, the rules were interpreted in a more relaxed way. My father, however, did not eat pork. My daughter separates milky and meaty food and does not cook pork. I'm hardly cooking pig in the last few years (also because of cholesterol and calories), but I mix milky and meaty foods. On Passover we stick to the food regulations, but use our normal dishes. "
(Letter from Kitty Drill, 5. 4. 1993)

"The dietary laws were not kept in my family. I believe that the Hauser family did not keep the rules since Josef Hauser, but that they were kept in the Jokel family. It is significant that many "emancipated" Jews did not keep up the dietary laws. That does not mean, however, an alienation from Judaism in a cultural sense. "
(Letter from Felix Yokel, 8. 11. 1993)


The Cemetery



A separate Jewish cemetery is important because a Jewish grave must remain for all times in order to ensure the resurrection of buried. In the Christian faith this is not absolutely necessary, tombs fall back to the community, if one does not pay for them. Therfore, Jewish communities throughout the world have their own cemeteries. Nowadays the cemeteries also serve as a monument to the Jewish communities of Lower Ausria.

Most Jews from Laaer were buried on the cemetery in the town of Mistelbach. I have published an article about the Jewish cementary of Mistelbach in the journal "David" in 1998.

Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that once there was a Jewish cemetery in Laa, too. Leopold Moses was the last person to write essays about the Jewish communities of Lower Austria prior to their destruction. Leopold Moses was an accurate chronicler and wouldn’t have incorporated unlikely rumors into his work. He mentioned Laa briefly when writing:

"Also in Laa a. d. Thaya some Hebrew gravestones were found, which were not present when I arrived ...“
(Dr. Leopold Moses, the Jews in Lower Austria - With special consideration of the XVII. Century, publisher: Dr. Heinrich Glanz, Vienna 1935, p. 114)

The old corridor name "On the Jews pasture" for a plot of land near the gymnasium at a cemetery might indicate.