Welcome to Bratislava! Once known as Pressburg this city was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that ruled Central Europe for many years. Many important non-Jews lived there including the Austro-Hungarian Queen Maria Theresa. Famous musicians like Beethoven and Mozart gave concerts there. It had many palaces and big buildings. But as we’ll see Jews remember Pressburg for other reasons.

No Jews Allowed!

The first Jews who came to Pressburg may have come there after the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash. It wasn’t easy for Jews to live in European cities then. Every so often, when the non-Jewish leaders decided they hated the local Jews, they’d throw them out of the city and the Jews would have to leave and start their lives over somewhere else.

In 1526, the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost a war with the Ottoman Empire (now known as Turkey) and the non-Jews were so angry, they threw the Jews of Hungary out. Jews didn’t return for almost 200 years.

The Creation of Czechoslovakia

After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated and ceased to exist. People in Europe didn’t want to be ruled by big empires anymore, so the rulers of Europe created smaller countries, and Pressburg now became one of the most important cities in a new country called Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia treated its Jews well, especially as its president, Thomas Masaryk, liked Jews very much. President Masaryk once traveled to Yerushalayim to meet with Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, who had learned in the Pressburg Yeshivah as a young man.

World War II

In May 1939, the Nazis took over parts of Czechoslovakia. Some Czech Jews were sent to concentration camps. But Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandel bribed the Nazis with $50,000 and the expulsions stopped for two years, until 1944. By then, some Jews had escaped, but many didn’t and were killed later in the war.

The Pressburg Yeshivah

Rav Moshe had one of the biggest yeshivos in Europe. The Pressburg Yeshivah eventually grew to over 400 students, many of who became the rabbanim of cities in Hungary, Austria, and as far away as Eretz Yisrael. The Chasam Sofer was very careful to only accept students who not only knew how to learn Torah, but also had yiras Shamayim. Once, he decided not to accept a certain very smart boy into the yeshivah. The other rebbeim didn’t understand why. He told them, “I looked out of the window and saw him come into the yeshivah. While he was walking he stepped all over some of the lulavim left on the ground after Succos. If he doesn’t care about stepping on the lulavim, he probably doesn’t have yiras Shamayim and I don’t want him in the yeshivah.”

The Spirit of Pressburg

While there aren’t many Jews left in Pressburg, its spirit lives on. Most Jews with family from Hungary and Czechoslovakia had great-grandfathers who learned under rabbanim and roshei yeshivah who learned in Pressburg. The Pressburg Yeshivah now is in Yerushalayim and the seforim of the Chasam Sofer are learned by all of Klal Yisrael. There are many people named Moshe named after the Chasam Sofer, including the Chasam Sofer’s great-great-great-great-great grandson, Moshe Goldberg, who is my son.

Vive la France!

One of the people who took control of Pressburg was the Emperor Napoleon. Napoleon became the emperor of France in 1804, after the French overthrew their king, Louis XVI, in 1789. Napoleon’s “Grand Army” overran much of Europe. Napoleon was very curious about Jews and tried to figure out how to make them like the rest of the non-Jewish Europeans. He invited a group of rabbis to get together and called them “the Great Sanhedrin.” But the Chasam Sofer and others were not going to let the Jews forget who they were. The Chasam Sofer taught his students that all of the new tactics being used to make the Jews become like everyone else were forbidden.

Did you know? The Emperor of Austria Hungary was called Franz Josef. He was very nice to the Jews so they nicknamed him Ephraim Yossele.

The Chasam Sofer

One of the greatest Jews of the past 200 years was Rav Moshe Schreiber (Sofer), the Rav of Pressburg. He was known by the the title of the most famous sefer he wrote called Chasam Sofer, which stands for chiddushei Torah Moshe Sofer. Rav Moshe’s childhood rebbi was a great man named Rav Nosson Adler who saw the great potential of little Moshe and poured all of his energy into making little Moshe the best he could be.

(Originally featured in Junior, Issue 636)