History

Brno is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic, and was the capital of Moravia until the mid-20th century. It is also the second largest city in the Czech Republic, with a population of approximately 400,000. Its larger metropolitan area boasts a population of approximately 730,000. Brno is home to the Czech judiciary and ten universities.

The region’s history reaches back into prehistoric times, with impacts from Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic settlers. In Brno, Jewish history extends all the way back to the thirteenth century. The first mention of Jews in Brno may be found in a medieval  charter issued by King Přemyslid Otakar II. In accordance with common practice in the Holy Roman Empire,  he declared Jews to be the servants of the Royal Chamber. The charter granted autonomy in law and religion to Jews, in exchange for the payment of special taxes. Scholars estimate the Jewish population of 14th-century Brno to have been approximately 1,000. Unfortunately, this community was  extinguished in the 15th century due to a series of Jewish expulsions. Jews regained some privileges in the early modern period, due to their role as valuable traders during the Thirty Years War. Jews slowly returned to Brno. At the beginning of the 19th century there were a couple hundred Jewish inhabitants. By the end of that century approximately 7,800 Jews called Brno home. After the majority of restrictions on Jews were lifted in 1852, a Jewish cemetery was established, and later expanded. As the community continued to grow, an Orthodox prayer room was established, which later became a Polish synagogue. Brno’s Jewish population reached 8,238 members by 1900, leading to the establishment of new synagogues. The violence and aftermath of the Great War (World War I) swelled the Jewish community in Brno to roughly 12,000, thanks to the influx of refugees from Eastern Europe. 

The vibrant Jewish community in Brno heavily influenced the textile industry during the nineteenth century. The community played a major role in the city’s railway connections and beer production. In the early 20th century, Brno was viewed as the center for Jewish nationalist politics and culture, featuring a wide array of Zionist and diaspora-nationalist movements. Well-known individuals like Max Hickl, a distinguished publicist, and Roman Jakubson, a renowned linguist, both contributed greatly to the intellectual and cultural advancement of the city.

Czechoslovakia was first established as an independent state in 1918, after the conclusion of the Great War, cleaving most of its territory from the former Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. In 1938, the (future) Allied Western European Countries capitulated to Hitler. With the signing of the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland, a mountainous border region between Germany and the Czech lands, became a part of Nazi Germany. Germany subsequently seized the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, establishing a Protectorate over Bohemia and Moravia, and allowing for the emergence of Slovakia as a clerico-fascist client state. While anti-Jewish legislation first appeared in the Second Republic (September 30, 1938 – March 15, 1939), the formation of the Protectorate meant the immediate application of all Nazi-German anti-Jewish laws. 

Following the Nazi invasion, congregations were gradually closed and their synagogues left empty. By October 1941, approximately 26,000 Jews had emigrated. The remaining Jewish population was deported to concentration camps, primarily Theresienstadt/Terezín. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered some 80% of them. Mass deportations to Terezin began in January 1942 and continued into the next year. This  included the mass deportation of the Jewish community of Brno, with the first group of one-thousand Jews being transported to the Minsk ghetto. Ultimately, the Nazis and their Czech subordinates deported 10,062 Jews from Brno, of which they murdered 9,361. Only 698 survived (roughly 7%) achieving the near destruction of a once-flourishing population in Brno.

Following World War II, the Jewish community of Brno began to show signs of revival, despite the obstacles posed by postwar rebuilding. A Holocaust memorial was erected in the Jewish cemetery, and the Orthodox synagogue was restored. Rabbi Richard Feder (1875-1970), whose work with Jewish youngsters sustained the Jewish community for decades after the war, also played a crucial role in the preservation of Jewish life in Brno. As of 2026, Rabbi Menaše Kliment leads the Brno community with hopes for a brighter future. It is estimated that there are currently 300 Jews in greater Brno.

Saving The Holocaust Torah Scrolls & The Memorial Scrolls Trust

In 1942 members of Prague’s Jewish community devised a plan to preserve the material heritage of Bohemian and Moravian Jewry. They persuaded the Nazi Protectorate to collect over 100,000 ritual and heritage items in Prague’s (shuttered) Jewish Museum. Among the treasures were 1,800 Torah scrolls, which were moved and stored to a synagogue-cum-warehouse in the Michle district of Prague. The Jewish museum workers hoped that these treasures would be protected and might one day be returned to their original homes. The Nazis eventually deported all of the Museum staff to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and then to Auschwitz. Only one survived. [The Story of the Czech Scrolls, Memorial Scrolls Trust.] Thanks to the bravery and commitment of the museum’s Jewish staff, the 1,800 torah scrolls survived the war, after which they remained property of the Jewish museum—with the exception of about 200 scrolls which were distributed to the country’s newly reestablished Jewish communities. In 1950, the Czechoslovakia’s government nationalized the “State Jewish Museum and all of its holdings.”

In 1964, the Westminster Synagogue in London acquired 1,564 of the remaining Torah scrolls from the State Jewish Museum in Prague for $30,000, thanks to the intercession of art dealer Eric Estorick. The Westminster Synagogue founded the Memorial Scrolls Trust (“MST”) to administer the scrolls. It soon began distributing the Torah scrolls to Jewish communities around the world on a permanent-loan basis. There are currently over one-thousand scrolls in the United States, including one at the White House. Temple Beth Tikvah was fortunate to receive a Torah from Brno (or surrounding area). The documentation by the Jewish Museum in Prague did not indicate exactly which religious institution this scroll was taken from. It is likely that the Nazi’s did not keep that documentation. It is also possible that the scroll was from a surrounding area to the Brno Jewish community and labeled with other artifacts as taken from Brno. Regardless, our scroll is a powerful reminder of Brno’s Jewish history and the revival of Jewish life in that city after the Holocaust. It testifies to Jewish resilience and our enduring covenant.

Temple Beth Tikvah’s Scroll No. 991

On June 29, 1972, Rabbi Israel S. Dresner sent a formal request to the Memorial Scrolls Trust for a Holocaust Torah. TBT members Adam and Tonia Spiro, who had lost family members in the Holocaust, inspired his request. They waited a long four years until Religious Committee VP Gerald Becker submitted another request, supported once again by Rabbi Dresner and Holocaust-survivor Eric Mayer. The wait continued. Astonishingly, Temple Beth Tikvah refrained from reaching out again until 1984, when Mr. Mayer sent a personal letter to MST, expressing his profound desire to acquire a scroll in memory of his family who had been tragically murdered in the Holocaust.

Mr. Mayer, a frequent traveler to Europe, found himself planning a trip to London. With incredible generosity, he offered to retrieve the scroll personally. The scroll safely crossed the Temple’s threshold on May 18, 1984, courtesy of Mr. Mayer’s dedication. Today, Scroll No. 991 from the Brno area in the Czech Republic resides in a place of honor in our sanctuary, protected by beautifully designed, glass-covered case dedicated to Eric Mayer’s family who were lost in the Holocaust. The display reminds us of the unforgettable history of the Czech Holocaust scrolls, which were saved from destruction. Temple Beth Tikvah commits to preserving this memory and legacy.

On November 3, 2024, Temple Beth Tikvah, in partnership with the Rabbi Israel S. Dresner Center for Collaborative Programing and Learning, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Ramapo College, and the Memorial Scrolls Trust, organized a gathering of 18 MST scrolls from synagogues and Jewish communities in the New Jersey and lower New York area. The event was hosted at Temple Beth Tikvah to mark the 60th anniversary of the Memorial Scroll Trust’s acquisition of the 1,564 scrolls from the Czech lands. 
Shortly after that memorable November day, a few members of Temple Beth Tikvah agreed to form a committee to raise money to have Scroll No. 991 repaired and made kosher. They additionally established a subcommittee to research Brno’s Jewish history and create a revised website for the education of future generations. 

In summer 2025, Sofer Rabbi Kevin Hale was commissioned to repair the scroll. During a ceremony at Temple Beth Tikvah on September 13, 2025, before celebrating Selichot, Sofer Rabbi Hale completed the last seven letters of the repair, surrounded by the congregation, rendering Torah Scroll No. 991 kosher for the first time in more than eight decades. On October 2, 2025, during the Yom Kippur Mincha Service, congregants read from Torah Scroll No. 991. The congregation intends to use the Scroll periodically for special services and events.

The congregants who contributed to the cost of koshering the Torah were: Arthur Barchenko, Terry Weigel Barchenko, Mitchell Borger, Mark Grossbard, Richard Hyne and Linda Rampil.

Brno Before and Between the Great War & World War II — With Special Attention to its Reform Synagogue

Prior to the late 1840’s, life for a Jewish family living in or near Brno was not easy. Jews in Moravia and Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, faced severe discrimination in education, business, and family life. This included mandatory residence in a ghetto. The main discriminatory measures against the Jews were abolished after the revolution of 1848-49. The Law of Free Movement in 1849 allowed Jews to leave the ghettos and settle anywhere in the country. This change was instrumental in breaking down the physical and cultural divides between the Jewish and Christian communities. In 1867, the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was formed. As part of that combined entity, a new constitution was promulgated that guaranteed equal civil rights for Jews, enabling the Jewish community to participate fully in society. 

Jews in Prague took advantage of their emancipation by constructing a new synagogue, the magnificent Prague Temple, built in the Orientalist, “Moorish” style. The community consecrated their new house of prayer in 1868. (After the Second World War, they began referring to the temple as the Spanish Synagogue, a consequence of shifting their primary language of formal and social communication from German to Czech.)
Decades later, in 1906, the Prague Jewish Community established the first synagogue outside of the former ghetto’s footprint. They named it the “Jubilee Synagogue,” in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of Emperor Franz-Joseph, who had emancipated them. It is also commonly referred to as the Jerusalem Synagogue, due to its location on Jerusalem street and its Moorish style. 

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community in Brno grew. After emancipation, many Jewish families left the smaller and more rural Jewish settlements that had been typical of Bohemian and (to a somewhat lesser extent) Moravian Jewry. They migrated to the region’s larger towns and cities. Brno, as the capital of Moravia, saw an increase of its Jewish population. Prior to the 1850’s, only small Jewish prayer rooms existed in Brno and the surrounding region. In the 1850’s, a Jewish-religious association was founded in Brno. In accordance with tradition, it first established a cemetery and then a new house of prayer, which took the name, the Great Synagogue. The Jewish community elected its first permanent Rabbi in 1860. Over the next forty years, the Brno community continued to grow. Its members established schools, organized social services, and founded other Jewish associations for various purposes and to advance different Jewish politics, cultures, and initiatives. 

Growth continued within the Brno Jewish community after the turn of the nineteenth century into the twentieth. Such growth included the establishment of the Jewish Academic Society, Veritas, and a branch of the internationally recognized sports clubs, Maccabee – named after the Jewish heroes of the Hanukkah story. In 1920, the Jewish School Association of Moravia Association was created. By 1938, its enrollment had reached 244 students, with a faculty of 19. Between the wars, the only Jewish secondary school in the Brno was the Jewish Reform Grammar School, which was the only Jewish secondary school in the Czech lands.

Brno Synagogues in the Late 19th Century through Second World War

As noted, shortly after emancipation, the Jews of Brno erected the city’s first synagogue. They consecrated the Great Synagogue in 1855. At the time, the public considered the construction “grandiose” and “daringly modern.” Indeed, it was the first building in Brno to be wired for electric lighting. According to historical records, “The building, on a regular ground plan with a distinctive arched gable, decorated with Moses’ Ten Commandments on the top, was expanded and rebuilt several times in the 19th century.” [Brnenshe Historicke Stezky] It served a Reform congregation. On March 16, 1939, shortly after Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia, the Nazis and Czech fascists set fire to and destroyed this cherished and historic synagogue. German SS troops even prevented Jewish congregants from extinguishing the flames. Ultimately, the building burnt to the ground. Reports indicate that is was burnt down as a “gift” for Adolf Hitler, shortly before he visited Brno. Shortly thereafter, the German Protectorate forced the local Jewish community to remove the ruins. 
After the war, Brno’s city leadership pledged to build a memorial to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust, on the site of the Great Synagogue. Today, the site where the Great Synagogue stood (corner of Spalena and Prizova Streets) is marked by a memorial, often with flowers and candles placed during commemorations, such as the 80th anniversary of its burning in 2019. 

Archaeological excavation was due to begin in March 2026 on the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue, as part of a series of initiatives commemorating the Synagogue. “The aim is to uncover the preserved foundations of the synagogue and to gain new knowledge about its form and extinction,” Michal Přichytal, director of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage Care in Brno, which will conduct the excavation, said on the South Moravian Region web site. https://www.jmk.cz/content/31446

Any material discovered, he added, will be exhibited. https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2026/01/26/czech-republic-brno/

In 1883, the Minyan Association, a collective of Jews from “Polish” Galicia, founded a separate prayer room in Brno. This building, modest inside and out, was called the Polish Shul (synagogue; literally, “school”). The prayer room could hold seventy-two male congregants on the ground floor and thirty-eight women in the gallery. Sometime in the mid-1920s, the community ceased using the Polish Shul for religious purposes. The building was then converted for commercial purposes. Its structure remains in use today as a store for wholesale goods.

Through the conclusion of the 19th Century and the start of the 20th Century, Brno’s Jewish population increased notably. This necessitated the building of yet another synagogue. This New Synagogue was constructed in 1905-06 in neo-Romanesque style. Featuring two turrets, it was consecrated in 1906. The Synagogue’s seating could accommodate 324 men, along with 250 women in its galleries. After the German occupation, the Nazi’s closed the Synagogue. During the war, Allied bombs badly damaged the structure. Thereafter, the structure was used as a warehouse. Ultimately, the structure was demolished during 1985-86. Certain architectural ornaments from the original structure were transferred to the Brno City Museum.

The Agudas Achim Synagogue – The Last Remaining Synagogue in Brno

The Agudas Achim Synagogue is the only synagogue in Brno to have survived both World War II and the Communist period (1948-1989). Today, it is the only operating synagogue in the territories of Moravia and Silesia and serves as the spiritual center of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brno. The two-story rectangular building, unadorned save for a large, industrial-looking grid window, masks its function when viewed from the street. Its external architecture reflects the twentieth-century “functionalist” style, and the interior is minimalist and stunning. The building has a powerful and inspiring history.

Beginning in 1929, several orthodox associations under the umbrella of Agudas Achim (Union of Brethren) began a public fundraising campaign for the synagogue’s construction. The commission solicited noted Jewish architect Otto Eisler for the design and to the Eisler family’s building firm for the construction. They completed the synagogue 1936. It operated during Nazi occupation through the end of 1941. In 1942, however, it was converted to a warehouse. The community’s furniture, Torahs, Torah covers, and chandeliers were stolen and never recovered. After the war’s end, Jewish Holocaust survivors, originally from the Brno area, returned and set about restoring the synagogue. Furniture and sacred objects from parts unknown were procured (likely from the collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague) and the synagogue was reconsecrated in late 1945. 

Despite efforts to maintain the building during the Communist era, it fell into a state of disrepair and ultimately required a major restoration. Fundraising for this effort began in 2013. A professional designer, Petr Bures, was hired to restore the building to its original condition where possible. Using period photographs, Bures commissioned copies of the original chandeliers and wooden benches, and ordered the restoration of the synagogue’s original interior painting scheme: white walls and light blue ceiling. Available funding facilitated the purchase of seven new Torah covers created by an American company, Penn & Fletsher, based on designs by artist, activist, author, filmmaker and physician Mark Podwal. Only a few synagogues in the world have Torah covers designed by Podwal. A new Torah was written by scribe Moshe Flumenbaum of Israel, and with its arrival at the synagogue on January 17, 2016, the restoration was completed. 

The Agudas Achim Synagogue is in constant use today as the sacred center of Brno’s Jewish community. The interior is of traditional design, and notable for its high ceiling and metal chandeliers. The Aron Kodesh is located on the east wall and is surrounded by light-colored marble casing. Just above it, on the wall, are inscriptions—one in Czech that reads, “From the sun’s rising in the east to its setting in the west—may the name of the Lord be praised.” A second, Hebrew inscription reads, “I keep seeing the Lord God before me.” In the center of the main hall is a raised bimah, located in front of rows of wooden benches with seating for 146 men. An additional fourteen chairs are lined against the east wall, on either side of the Aron Kodesh, for the rabbi, cantor, and dignitaries. An upstairs gallery spanning the west, north, and south walls offers seating for 102 women. It is well worth a visit for those who may find themselves in Brno. The Synagogue’s address is Skorepka 247/13 (Trnita).

The current Rabbi of Brno is Menaše Klíment. The community holds regular services and participates in municipal events, including celebrations of Jewish culture. The Brno Jewish community also salvaged a collection of Jewish books collected from the Terezín Ghetto after the Second World War. They are digitizing the volumes and attempting to return them to their families of origin based upon their unique inscriptions.

Notable Jews from Brno 

The Jewish community of Brno produced many families and individuals who made significant contributions to both their local communities and the world. For years up until the second World War, Jews from Brno made their marks in a variety of fields, including physics, business & industry, music & acting, architecture, literature, and so much more.  Below, in alphabetical order, is a sampling of notable Jews from Brno… 

H. G. Adler (Hans Günther Adler) (1910–1988)

• Field: Literature & Holocaust History
  
• Significance: Novelist, poet, and Holocaust survivor. His work Theresienstadt 1941–1945: The Face of a Coerced Community is a landmark in Holocaust studies.
  
• Brno Connection: Though born in Prague, he was raised and educated in Brno, tied to its Jewish intellectual milieu.
• H. G. Adler was a writer, poet, and Holocaust survivor whose work stands as one of the earliest and most detailed accounts of life in Nazi concentration camps. Born in Prague and educated in Brno, Adler’s intellectual formation was deeply tied to the city’s Jewish cultural milieu. Deported to Theresienstadt and later Auschwitz, he lost most of his family in the Holocaust. After the war, he devoted his life to documenting the Nazi system and exploring the human capacity for suffering and resilience. His masterpiece, Theresienstadt 1941–1945, remains a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography.
  

Otto Eisenschiml (1880–1963)

• Field: Chemistry & History
• Significance: Industrial chemist and later a historian, best known for works on the American Civil War
• Brno Connection: Born in Brno before emigrating to the U.S.
• Otto Eisenschiml was born in Brno, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to a Jewish family before emigrating to the United States. Trained as a chemist, he became an influential industrial scientist, developing several important chemical processes. Later in life, Eisenschiml turned to historical writing, authoring provocative works on the American Civil War. His best-known book, Why Was Lincoln Murdered? (1937), challenged conventional interpretations of Lincoln’s assassination. Eisenschiml’s career reflected both scientific rigor and a willingness to question accepted historical narratives.
  

Otto Eisler ( 6/1/1893 – 7/27/1868)

• Field: Architecture
• Significance: Lived in Brno, was an architect and survivor of Auschwitz. Built Agudas Achim Synagogue at 13 Skorepka St, Brno in 1934, the only surviving synagogue in Brno and Synagogue Uhersky Brod 1946, Brno Zoo, and house for two brothers, at Neumannova 10, Brno, 1930–1931 (built for himself and Mořic Eisler).
• Brno Connection: Eisler lived and worked in Brno and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Brno.
• Eisler was educated at the Deutsche Technische Hochschule Brünn over the course of ten years, with a likely interruption for military service during World War I. During his studies, he worked at studios in Vienna. Upon graduation, he worked in the architectural practices of Heinrich Tessenow and Walter Gropius before founding his own firm. He also took part in managing his family’s business, including his brothers’ (Artur, Hugo, Leo, and Moriz) construction company. He is noted for his contributions to the International style in architecture.

Kurt Gödel (1906–1978)

• Field: Mathematics & Logic
• Significance: Revolutionized mathematics and philosophy with his Incompleteness Theorems. Considered one of the greatest logicians in history.
• Brno Connection: Born and raised in Brno in a Jewish family.

Kurt Gödel was born in Brno to a well-educated Jewish family and became one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. His Incompleteness Theorems transformed mathematics by proving that no logical system can be both complete and consistent. Gödel studied in Vienna, where he became part of the famed Vienna Circle of philosophers and mathematicians. Forced to leave Europe due to rising antisemitism, he emigrated to the United States and joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Gödel’s work continues to influence mathematics, computer science, and philosophy to this day.  He died in Princeton, NJ.

Hugo Haas (2/19/1901-12/1/1968)

• Field: Film Actor, Director and Writer
• Significance: He appeared in more than 60 films from 1926 to 1962 and directed 20 films from 1933 to 1962.
• Brno Connection: Haas was born in Brno. He began acting at the National Theater in Brno. He is also buried in Brno.
• Following the 1938 Munich Agreement and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in early 1939, Hugo Haas was dismissed from the National Theater due to his Jewish origin. In April he and his wife, Maria von Bibikoff fled via Paris and Spain and then from the port of Lisbon to the port of New York City in October–November 1940. Their son Ivan was taken in by his brother Pavel. Hugo Haas’ father Lipmann (Zikmund) Haas and brother Pavel died at Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. By the mid-1940s, Haas had become a character actor in American films. In 1951, he launched a successful if unacclaimed career as a film director in Hollywood with a string of B movie melodramas. In the late 1950s, Haas returned to Europe. After a brief stay in Italy, he settled in Vienna in 1961, where he made occasional appearances on television. Except for a brief visit during the centennial celebrations for the National Theater in Prague in 1963, he never returned to his homeland but was buried there, in Brno.

Max Hickl (9/29/1897-11/24/1924)

• Field:  Zionism and Publishing

• Significance: Max Hickl joined Theodor Herzl’s Zionist movement and participated in the Second Zionist Congress in 1898 as a representative of the Zionist Merchants’ Union. In 1903, Hickl co-founded the Austrian Poale Zion, “Workers of Zion” – an important Zionist – socialist movement in Europe, Palestine, and North and South America since 1901. 

• Brno Connection:  Hickl established the “Jewish Book and Art Publishing House Max Hickl” in Brno. Hickl was actively involved in Jewish life in Brno. He married Aurelie Reich in 1904; they had two children. 

• Max Hickl was the son of Jonas Hickl and Marie Ekstein; he had two siblings. He came from a poor Jewish family and received no formal education, acquiring his knowledge through self-study. 

Roman Jakubson (10/23/1896 – 7/18/1982)

• Field:  Languages
• Significance:  In 1926, he co-founded the Prague Linguistics Circle.
• Brno Connection:  In 1933, he received a professorship at the University of Brno. 
• Roman Jakobson was born in Moscow, the eldest of three sons of an industrial Jewish. He studied Slavic languages ​​in his hometown of Moscow and soon joined the Moscow linguistic circle, which is associated with Russian Formalism, a school that, among other things, produced the first theory of the then-new medium of film.

In 1920, Jakobson came to Prague as an employee of the Soviet legation, but soon left this post to return to scholarship. In 1939, he fled Czechoslovakia to escape the German invasion, first to Denmark and then Norway, and later to Sweden (Uppsala, Stockholm). In 1941, he accepted a professorship at the École Libre des Hautes Études, a French exile university in New York. In 1943, he received a professorship at Columbia University. In 1949, he was appointed to Harvard University. In 1950, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1957, he was the first Harvard professor to also teach at the neighboring Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He became professor emeritus in 1967 and held visiting professorships at the Collège de France and at Yale, Princeton, Brown, Brandeis, Leuven, and New York Universities until 1974. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him a foreign member in 1960. In 1974, he was elected a corresponding member of the British Academy . In 1980, he received the international Antonio Feltrinelli Prize.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (5/29/1897 –  11/29/1957)

• Field: Music Composition
• Significance: A child prodigy, Korngold became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and composer of classical music, along with music for Hollywood films, and the first composer of international stature to write Hollywood scores.
• Brno Connection: Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born to a Jewish family in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (present-day Brno, Czech Republic).

When he was 11, his ballet Der Schneemann (The Snowman) became a sensation in Vienna; his Second Piano Sonata, which he wrote at age 13, was played throughout Europe by Artur Schnabel. His one-act operas Violanta and Der Ring des Polykrates were premiered in Munich in 1916, conducted by Bruno Walter. At 23, his opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) premiered in Hamburg and Cologne. In 1921 he conducted the Hamburg Opera. During the 1920s he re-orchestrated, re-arranged and nearly re-composed several operettas by Johann Strauss II. By 1931 he was a professor of music at the Vienna State Academy. At the request of motion picture director Max Reinhardt, and due to the rise of the Nazi regime, Korngold moved to Hollywood in 1934 to write music for films. His first was Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935). He subsequently wrote scores for such films as Captain Blood (1935), which helped boost the career of its starring newcomer, Errol Flynn. His score for Anthony Adverse (1936) won an Oscar; two years later he won another Oscar for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

Alfred Low-Beer (May 16,1872 – April 10, 1939)

• Field: Industry
• Significance:  Operated several factories, mainly textile. One of which was used to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust by Oskar Schindler.
• Brno Connection: The family significantly contributed to the industrial development of Moravia. They gradually built an industrial concern specializing in the production of woolen fabrics, thus providing a large number of jobs for people, thanks to which unemployment in the area was significantly reduced. They even had official and worker houses built for their employees, and then a kindergarten for their children. 

Alfred Löw-Beer married at the age of 29 in Vienna. He married Marianne Wiedmann. He had three children with her, one of whom was Grete Tugendhat, to whom he gave part of his land in Brno-Černé Pole as a dowry after her second marriage to textile industrialist Fritz Tugendhat in 1929. On this land, Grete and her husband, with the great financial help of her father, built the famous Villa Tugendhat, designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.

Herbert Thomas Mandl (1926–2007)

• Field: Physics & Holocaust Testimony
• Significance: Physicist and survivor of the Holocaust. Later became an advocate for Holocaust memory and education.
• Brno Connection: Deported from Brno during WWII, his survival and later career illustrate the trajectory of many of Brno’s Jewish youth.

Herbert Thomas Mandl was born into a Jewish family in Brno and came of age during the dark years of the Nazi occupation. As a teenager, he was deported to concentration camps but miraculously survived the Holocaust. After the war, Mandl became a physicist and later an advocate for Holocaust education and remembrance. His scientific career in postwar Europe and the U.S. reflected a commitment to intellectual rebuilding after devastation. Mandl’s life embodied both the trauma and resilience of Brno’s surviving Jewish generation.

Georg Placzek (9/26/1905-10/9/1955) 

• Field: Physicist
• Significance: Participated in the Manhattan Project 
• Brno Connection:  Born in Brno, Georg Placzek’s father was the Moravian textile industrialist Alfred Placzek (1870–1942), son of the Moravian provincial rabbi Baruch Placzek. His mother was Marianne Placzek (1882–1944), née Pollack, from the Brno industrialist family of Löw-Beer.
• Placzek’s work in the field of Raman spectroscopy is classic and still widely cited. He also created significant works in the fields of neutron physics and mathematical physics. Together with Frisch, he co-authored the direct experimental proof of nuclear fission.  Together with Bohr and others, he participated in the discovery of the role of the uranium isotope U235, with serious consequences for the development of the first atomic bomb and nuclear reactor.

Alfred Stiassni (1883–1961)

• Field: Industry & Human Rights
• Significance: In 1928, Alfred built the renowned “Villa Stiassny,” recently restored, at Brno, Czech. Prominent textile family in Brno.
• Brno Connection: When Alfred and his wife Hermine moved to Brno, he wanted to integrate into the local community. She became a member of several charities, including the League for Human Rights. 

His wife, Hermine nee Weinmann, came from a family of North Bohemian coal enterprises and the family of Alfred Stiassny was devoted mainly to the textile industry.

Greta Tugendhat (1903–1970)

• Field: Cultural Patronage
• Significance: Co-patron of Villa Tugendhat, member of the influential Löw-Beer textile family. Symbol of Jewish contribution to modern culture.
• Brno Connection: One of the city’s most prominent Jewish residents pre-WWII.

Greta Tugendhat, born into the wealthy Jewish Löw-Beer family, was one of the most culturally influential women in Brno’s interwar society. With her husband Fritz, she envisioned a home that embodied modern ideals of openness and light, resulting in the creation of Villa Tugendhat. The home became a hallmark of international modernism and a gathering place for Brno’s intellectual community. Forced to flee during the Nazi occupation, Greta’s life was permanently altered by the Holocaust’s destruction of Central European Jewish life. Today, her name is inseparable from the architectural and cultural heritage of Brno. *See picture with Fritz below.

Fritz Tugendhat (1895–1958)

• Field: Industry & Cultural Patronage
• Significance: Textile industrialist and patron of modern architecture. Along with his wife, commissioned the iconic Villa Tugendhat (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe).
• Brno Connection: Major figure in Brno’s industrial and cultural life until Nazi persecution forced his family into exile.

Fritz Tugendhat was a prominent Jewish textile industrialist in Brno and a member of the influential Tugendhat family. Alongside his wife Greta, he commissioned Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to design the modernist masterpiece Villa Tugendhat, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The villa became a symbol of avant-garde architecture and Brno’s interwar prosperity. During the Nazi occupation, the Tugendhats were forced to flee their home and lost most of their property. Fritz lived out his later years in exile, representing both the creative success and tragic displacement of Brno’s Jewish elite.