Jewish Cemetery in Moravské Budějovice
We do not know exactly when the Jews settled in Moravské Budějovice, but we know that they lived here in the second half of the 14th Century. For a long time, the deceased Jews had been buried in the nearby cemeteries in Třebíč, Jemnice and the Police. Later, their own cemetery was founded, which however ceased to exist in the 18th century. In 1908, the town provided the land and a new cemetery was established. The first funeral took place on May 11, 1909, the last burial in 1942. The site for the Jewish cemetery was determined by the town council about 2 km southwest of the town centre in the fields along the road to Vranín on the plot in the ´Na Vejhonu´ field track also called In the Great Oak Shrubs, where formerly there used to be a grove named Dubina at manorial Velký (Large) Pond - now house no. 795 Husova Street. The donated land of 1507 m2 had not been booked until 1914.
The ceremonial hall is a simple passable rectangular structure with a flat hip roof with a tin cover, made of brick and plastered, with two wooden, stylish front doors. It consists of two rooms: a hall - on the roof of which there are remnants of painting with the symbolism of the six-pointed star. A smaller secondary mortuary with chimney for heating water to wash the deceased. On the southern outer wall, a metal box with the motif of the six-star star if fixed. Between the ground-floor buildings of the administrator´s house (built later in 1928) and the ceremonial hall, the visitor passes through the entrance door to a flat cemetery of rectangular shape. Its area is delimited by a fencing wall with pillars, about 2 m high. The middle, the main and the two side alleays separate the two double lines of graves. All 49 modern post-emancipation tombstones direct the inscriptions towards the alley. The shapes are usually rectangular, decoration modest, symbolism exceptional, inscriptions mainly in Czech but also in German. Material usually light and dark granite. Several tombstones were damaged by the vandals. There is often a porcelain photo of the deceased. There are also Jews from nearby municipalities e.g. Jaroměřice n. Rok., Hostim, Blížkovice. The cemetery is the property of the Jewish Community of Brno and is maintained within modest possibilities. At present, the cemetery is the only reminder of the Jewish community in Moravské Budějovice. The Jewish synagogue established in 1910 was demolished and instead, in 1977, a bus station building was built. The only reminder of the demolished synagogue is the memorial plaque, which was unveiled on September 14, 2006. Source: Publications To the Memory of the Jews in Moravské Budějovice - issued by the Municipality in Moravské Budějovice