The story
The first written mention of Ivančice is from 1212. In 1288, it became a royal town of King Wenceslaus II. In 1304, the town was burned down by the Cumans. In 1424–1435, the town was occupied by the Hussites. Ivančice ceased to be a royal town in 1486, when it was acquired by the Pernštejn family and later by the Lords of Lipá.
In the 16th century, Ivančice became the centre of Moravian education thanks to the Unity of the Brethren. The town prospered until the Thirty Years' War, when it was looted by the troops of Gabriel Bethlen and later occupied by the Swedish army. The war was followed by a plague epidemic and many houses remained desolate. However, the town slowly managed to recover.
Jewish community
A Jewish ghetto was established maybe already in the 13th century, and was one of the oldest and most important in Moravia. The first written mention of the community is from 1454, when the refugees from Brno came here. The community was placed outside the town proper. Later it was moved inside the town walls but administered as an independent municipality, with its own Jewish mayor.
The reign of King Ferdinand I in the early 16th century placed economic restrictions on the Jews of Ivančice. The Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War reduced the number of Protestants living in Ivančice, and at the same time, the Jewish community grew thanks to the arrival of refugees from Bohemia. This growth resulted in an edict issued in 1650 forbidding any Jews to inhabit Moravia who had not resided there before 1618. A formal Jewish community was established during the 17th century.
The Jewish population was at its peak in 1835, when there lived 877 Jews. In the first half of the 19th century, the community formed around 25% of the town's population. After the revolution in 1848, Jews gained full civil rights. Between 1849 and 1919, there was a self-governing Jewish political community in Ivančice. After the proclamation of an independent Czechoslovakia and the end of World War I, it was merged with the Christian rest of the town, however, the community continued its activities. The community disappeared as a result of the Holocaust during World War II.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ivančice, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5