JUNG-BUNZLAU:

By: Gotthard Deutsch,

Town in northeastern Bohemia. Its Jewish community, one of the oldest in the province, was formerly one of the largest in Bohemia; it is first mentioned, under the name of , in documents dated 1546. The communal records begin in 1562. A synagogue, modeled after the Meisel Synagogue at Prague, was built in the eighteenth century. An old cemetery contains the grave of Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg, who died at Jung-Bunzlau in 1632.

The first rabbi of whom there is record was Samuel b. Joseph of Lublin, author of "Leḥem Rab" (published in 1609 with an approbation by Löw b. Bezaleel, chief rabbi of Prague). He was followed by Abraham Samuel b. Isaac Bacharach. Succeeding rabbis were: Ḥayyim Feibel, son-in-law of Isaiah Horowitz, and the compiler of the variants to Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch; Eliezer Lipmann, son of Wolf Graetz (1679); Moses Isaac Spira (until about 1712; d. 1749), father-in-law of Jonathan Eybeschütz; Moses Brandeis ha-Levi, a descendant of Löw b. Bezaleel; his son Bezaleel, who, like his father, was district rabbi of Bunzlau (died June 4, 1767, in early manhood, his work "Ẓedah Baruk," Prague, 1786, being published posthumously); Eliezer Bondy, district rabbi of Bechin and Bunzlau (d. 1804); Ezekiel Glogau ("Schlesinger"; d. 1821), who was called by Napoleon I. to the Sanhedrin of Paris, and thereby became involved in political difficulties; author of "Mar'eh Yeḥezḳel" (Prague, 1822); Isaac Spitz, called in 1824 (d. May 6, 1842), son-in-law of Eleazar Fleckeles and grandfather of the poet Moritz Hartmann; and District Rabbi Isaac Elbogen (d. 1883).

With the death of the last-named the title of district rabbi ceased, and the succeeding incumbents—Alexander Kisch, at present (1904) rabbi of the Meisel Synagogue in Prague; Moritz Grünwald (d. 1895 as chief rabbi of Bulgaria); and M. Klotz, who held the office until 1901—have borne the title of rabbi.

In 1903 there were in Jung-Bunzlau 135 Jewish families in a total population of 13,479.

D. A. Kr.