Еврейская религиозная община (г. Грац)

Nazi-Looted Jewish Archives in Moscow. A guide to Jewish Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive, ed. by D. E. Fishman, M. Kupovetsky, V. Kuzelenkov, Scranton - London 2010. The collection's contents are catalogued in two inventories. The inventories are arranged by document type. The collection features documents of the Jewish Religious Community of Graz, the community's committee for the social security of Jewish émigrés, the Graz chapter of Hashomer Hatzair, and other Jewish organizations of Graz; community circulars for 1933; minutes of community meetings for 1922-38; correspondence with the Vienna taxation and revenue board, Jewish charitable organizations, community members, and lawyers regarding the election of board members and officers of the community; documents on the founding of the committee for the social security of Jewish émigrés, on the provision of material aid to Jewish émigrés and community members in need, on the payment of taxes and membership dues, and on taking possession of real estate and financial assets bequeathed by community members; community financial statements and balance sheets, cashbooks, budget projections, and logs of dues-paying members; a card file and lists of members of the community and of the central committee for social security; community council voter lists; questionnaires for individuals joining the committee for social security; an article by community secretary L. Lemberger on the history of Jewish religious communities in Austria; a report by community secretary L. Lemberger with proposals on amending certain articles of the community charter; catalogues of books in the library of Rabbi S. Müsam; and informational bulletins of the community for 1936-37. The collection also has documents of the central committee for the social security of Jewish émigrés for 1930, as well as of the Central Association of Jewish Communities in Austria for 1937; and reports from the Jewish communities in Augsburg and from various Jewish educational institutions, including reports on their academic programs. Jews began settling in Graz no later than the late thirteenth to early fourteenth centuries, living in a particular quarter of the city. In 1496, the Jews were expelled from Graz and forbidden to live there, except temporarily, until 1861. In 1865, a community prayer house was opened in Graz, and in 1892, a synagogue. The Jewish religious community of Graz was established in 1869. The community numbered 250 members in that year; 1,971 in 1910; and 2,500 on the eve of the March 1938 Anschluss. During 1908-14, it published the monthly Grazer Israelitischer Gemeindebote, and during 1926-34, the bimonthly Bulletin of the Graz Jewish Community. The president of the community in the 1930s was R. Sonnewald. The synagogue was destroyed during Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938). By the middle of 1939, virtually the entire Jewish population of Graz had emigrated. Microfilms are held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.