The Moskovits and Neumann families lived in the Szobrancz district (Szobranci jaras) of Ung megye (Ung County) in what is now the eastern part of the Slovak Republic, just west of the Ukraine border.

My paternal grandfather Viktor Neumann was born in Szobrancz in 1868. My father Elemer and his brothers Miksa and Lajos were all born in Kereszt, now Kristy, a small place about 6 kilometers south of Szobrancz. The 1877 gazetteer reports that there were 376 residents in Kereszt at that time including 74 Jews, 63 Roman Catholics, 35 Greek Catholics, and 204 members of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Kereszt means cross in Hungarian.

Kereszt was too small to have its own shul so the Jewish residents worshipped in Szobrancz, the main town in the district, Szobrancz, now Sobrance, Slovakia, was about 15 kilometers (just over 2 miles) west of Ungvar (now Uzhorod, Ukr.), the county seat.  Szobrancz was a post stop and place to change horses on the road between Ungvar, the county seat to the east, and Nagymihaly, in Zemplen megye to the west. By the late 19th century it was also well known for its thermal springs and spa, which are mentioned in the 1911 Baedeker Guide to Austria-Hungary.   Landed nobility including Buttler, Szemere, Viczmandy, and Feket all owned estates in the area.

Jews may have settled in Szobrancz as early as the late 17th century. The first reference to Jewish residents appears in the May 15, 1739 Jewish Conscription of Ung County which recorded only one Jewish family. The head of household was Marko Joseffovics (Marko the son of Josef), a distiller of whisky (palinka, slivovitz or vodka). By July 1746 there were two Jewish families-- Marko Joseffovics and Hersko Abrahamovics (Hersko the son of Abraham). The Chevra Kadisha or burial society was founded in about 1780, a time when the Jewish population of northeastern Hungary began to grow due to migrations from Galicia. The synagogue, which was still standing in 1929, was built in about 1800.

By 1828 Szobrancz had 106 Jewish residents. A geography book published in 1851 reported that there were 119 Jews living in Szobrancz in 1840 along with 241 Greek Catholics and 172 Roman Catholics. (Fenyes Elek, Magyarorszah geographiai szotara. Vol. I-IV). By 1880, when the Moskovits and Neumann families were living in Szobrancz, the Jewish population had increased to 349, about a third of the total population, and the town had become seat of the regional rabbinate with 34 surrounding settlements and a total Jewish population of 2,091 under its jurisdiction. Other communities in the district with large Jewish populations included Poruba (127), Felso Ribnyicze (120), and Prikopa (115). At the end of the 19th century about half of the large land-owners and leaseholders in the Szobrancz district were Jews including Aron Herskovics, Samuel Jozepovits, Mosko Grunvald, Hermann Propper, Jozef Moskovits, Lipot Rosenbuth, Abraham Roth, Salamon Herskovics, Fulop Akkermann, Henrik Weisz, Mihaly Guttman, Jakab Juszkovits, Izsak Lipkovits, Ignacz Vider, Mihaly Vidder, Emanuel Schwarcz and my great-grandfather Miksa Neumann.

Juda Eisenstadter, David Eisenstadter, Herman Weisz and Simon Friedmann (died in 1925) were the first rabbis of Szobrancz. Rabbi Moshe Simcha Friedman, a descendant of the Teitelbaum family who served from 1891 to 1940, was one of the best known. The parnasim were Eisik Lebovits landowner, Elias Moskovits forest owner, and tradesmen Wolf Moskovits and Simon M. Friedmann.

Peter Ujvary's Magyar Zsido Lexikon reports that in 1929 Szobrancz had a Talmud Torah with two teachers. Jewish public figures included bank directors Armin Herschkovits and Lipot M. Rosenfeld, both of whom were active in the Ung County Jewish party. Mayer Schwab owned a brick factory.

By 1929 there were 52 villages in the Szobrancz district. Szobrancz, with 270 Jewish residents in 65 households had the largest population. The 54 community tax payers included 2 wholesalers, 1 in agriculture, 1 teacher, 18 retailers, 2 lawyers, 4 public servants, 4 workers, 1 manufacturer, 1 engineer, 3 living from capital and 10 others. The leaders of the Jewish community were Lazar Lebovits, president; Hermann Wiesner vice-president; Ignac Weinberger Sr., Samuel Salamon, and Ignac Weinberger Jr. parnasim; and Mor Fried dayan (associate rabbi).

Stewart Greenfield, whose grandfather Ignatz Grunfeld owned a small drygoods store in Szobrancz, recalls a visit to his grandparents during the summer of 1936 when he was 4 1/2 years old.

My grandfather had a small shop, with metal shutters to protect against burglars. I would guess he had about forty bolts of woolen and cotton cloth on his shelves. I also remember a grocer who sold foods mostly out of barrels. A bakery had one thing that made an impression on me, a flat cake the size of a small pizza, with sugar crystals sprinkled across the top. There was one modern store in town, a Bata shoe store.

We lived in a wooden house well back from the street, with a well in the front yard, and a fenced vegetable garden. The house was heated by a parlor stove, and a large earthenware kitchen coal stove. The outhouse was equipped with newspaper. My aunt and her husband (Berkowitz?) lived next door. The synagogue was reached by crossing small concrete foot bridge over a small stream. It had a central bima, and a latticework enclosed balcony for women.

The streets were cobbled. A number of cows were brought through the streets every day on their way to the fields. Electric power was available for several hours each evening, apparently from a local generator. A regional jail had just been completed. The prisoners were to sleep on straw covered pallets. The peasant houses had earthen floors. Gypsies camped at the edge of town, in ramshackle wagons, and lived in appalling conditions. They ate meat that was left out, and was covered with flies. My grandmother befriended the gypsies. I remember her gathering mushrooms with them, then festooning the kitchen with the mushrooms on strings to dry them.

The spa must have been several miles out of town. I remember some round roofed structures covering springs. The water was highly mineralized, and smelled and tasted awful. My grandfather held me up to pluck a plum from a tree, and the sweet lusciousness of it remain with me to this day. There were private tiled rooms for hot baths.

The only names of other families I remember were Greenwald, Lang, and Weiss, all of whom settled in the US. My impression was that the life in the town was very simple, but not oppressive. People could indulge in simple pleasures, band concerts, some delectable food, periodic trips to the city, and they took joy in religious observances.