The Jews of Kojetin

 Jews Street, 1992

 

My name is Avraham Steiner and I live in Jerusalem Israel. Since 1990 I have been researching the history of the Jews of Kojetin.

 At first my research was of a personal family genealogical nature.  My great grandfather Zigmund Steiner (1821 - 1908), was born  in Kojetin,  but moved to Bratislava where he founded an antiquarian book store, which became very well known, and indeed is still being conducted today by my aunt . 

His father, Herman Steiner [1788-1832] was born and lived all his life in Kojetin.

This family research has been most fruitful culminating in locating the family graves which my family has had repaired.  Led by my father, who was born in and survived the holocaust in Bratislava , we family experienced a very emotional visit to Kojetin in 1992.

 While working on my specific private genealogical  research ,  I became more and more interested in the wider history of Kojetin's Jews as a whole. I have thus managed to collect a variety of documents and photos about Kojetin , including the photos of Judaica Objects which originated in Kojetin and are now held in the Prague Jewish Museum. 

In addition, with the help of local friends in Kojetin , I have collected over 70 photos of the cemetery and I am currently working on  creating a database for the cemetery .

In recent years, there has been a growing interest by
Congregations and individuals, worldwide, that are concerned to preserve the memory of this Community.

Five Torah scrolls from Kojetin that survived the decades of communist rule were brought to England from where they were distributed to the following Jewish communities :

A. Maidenhead Synagogue, UK
B. Temple Menorah Keneseth Chai, Philadelphia, USA
C. Temple Bat Yam , Fort Lauderdale ,FLORIDA , USA
D. Congregation Beth Am , Buffalo Grove, IL, USA
E. Inner West Chavurah, Sydney, AUSTRALIA

The Maidenhead Synagogue held a Memorial ceremony in ]Kojetin, 1992, while other congregations found other ways to demonstrate their connection with Kojetin.

In November 2001 an excited meeting took place in Sydney , when the Inner West Chavurah, Sydney hosted Mrs. Katherine Fest , a Holocaust survivor who told the congregation about her memories from pre-war Kojetin, and her grandson, David Lewin,  read from the Kojetin Torah, just as his ancestors had done in the past .
In addition , Mr. Ben-Zion and Mrs. Rivka Dorfman of the Synagogue Art Research, dedicated a chapter in their book : "Synagogues without Jews" to the community of Kojetin , 

 Many of these congregations and individuals  are now involved in the a plan to create a small Museum in Kojetin which will include many photos and documents that were collected in the recent years as well as Judaica objects from the local schul.

This site is dedicated to the Memory of Kojetin's Jews .

If you have any comments or information about Kojetin Please send it to me at : avi6@zahav.net.il

The History of the Jews in Kojetin, By Arthur Steiner

 
Map of Kojetin (1700) 

Visit to Kojetin , 2001  (by  Karel Pick)  

 

The Torah scrolls from Kojetin

During WW2 , The Nazis decided to save all of the Jewish artifacts of the people they were systematically murdering in order to create a museum of a 'dead race'. Included in this collection were Torah scrolls from Kojetin; Four Torah scrolls from Kojetin survived the decades of communist rule and made their way to England where they, along with other surviving Torah scrolls, have been distributed to Jewish communities around the world.

                                                                           

 

 

 Compiled by Avraham Steiner