regional rabbi between 1553 and 1573. Cardinal Franz von Dietrichstein, son of Adam von Dietrichstein, was a special protector of the Jews, whose taxes were necessary to finance the Thirty Years' War.
In the first half of the 18th century the congregation in Mikulov totalled over 600 families, being the largest Jewish settlement in Moravia. The census of 1754 decreed by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria ascertained that there were some 620 families established in Mikulov, i.e. the Jewish population of about 3,000 comprised half of the town‘s inhabitants. It is obvious that only a small number of the Mikulov Jews could make their living in the town as artisans; the rest had to become merchants. The congregation suffered severely during the Silesian wars (1740–1742, 1744–1745 and 1756–1763), when they had to furnish the monarchy with their share in the super taxes exacted by the government of Maria Theresa from the Jews of Moravia.
Quite a number of Mikulov Jews continued to earn their livelihood in Vienna, where they were permitted to stay for some time on special passports. The freedom of residence, which was conceded to the Jews in Austria in 1848, reduced the number of resident Jews in Mikulov to less than one-third of the population which it contained at the time of its highest development. In 1904, there were 749 Jewish residents in the city, out of a total population of 8,192.In 1938 the city population totaled about 8,000 inhabitants. Out of these, 472 were Jewish. The Jewish settlement in Mikulov ceased to exist during World War II
