Research Catalog

Title

The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia : a historical reader / edited by Wilma Abeles Iggers ; translations by Wilma Abeles Iggers, Káča Poláčková-Henley, Kathrine Talbot.

Publication

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Iggers, Wilma

Description

412 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

• While much has been written about East European and German Jewry, relatively little attention has been given to the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia, although they played an important role in the industrial, economic, and cultural life of central Europe. This book examines the social and cultural history of the Jewish community in Czechoslovakia from the Age of Enlightenment to the middle of the twentieth century. From family histories, newspaper and magazine articles, wills, and letters, Wilma Iggers has culled descriptions of life, customs, and local color; portrayals of important individuals and families; stories of individuals depicting the transition of a culture and a people from the Middle Ages to modern times; an examination of complaints about the deterioration of the religious communities and of religious instruction; and the history of anti-Semitism. Practically all reports reflect the difficult struggle for survival as Jews.^
• The texts also address special legislation regarding the Jews, industrialization and urbanization, changes in religious and familial structures, growing involvement in the culture and politics of the worldly communities, cultural assimilation, changes in stereotypes about the Jews, and the effects of political forces from outside. The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia begins with the expulsion of the Jews from Prague by Empress Maria Theresa in 1744, an event which caused a shock that remained in the Jewish consciousness for a long time. The book concludes with texts from the middle of the twentieth century dealing with the most recent generation of Bohemian and Moravian Jews. Despite fluctuations and radical breaks, the time span from 1744 to 1952 constitutes a single unit that encompasses striking cultural and economic developments as well as anti-Semitism and cynicism unmatched even in the Middle Ages.^
• With their strong emotional ties to the land of their birth, Bohemian and Moravian Jews are closer to the Central and West Europeans than to the Jews from Eastern Europe. Although Jews are often criticized for adapting themselves easily to other countries - meaning that they have no real roots - their strong emotional ties to their countries of origin are clearly expressed in a number of documents included in this book.

Uniform Title

Juden in Böhmen und Mähren. English.

Subject

• Jews > Czechoslovakia > Sources
• Czechoslovakia > Sources

Genre/Form

• History
• Sources

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-389) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• I. From the Expulsion of the Jews by Maria Theresa to the Dissolution of the Ghettos (1744-1848) -- The Solemn Procession of Prague Jews in the Year 1741 -- The Expulsion of the Jews by Maria Theresa -- An Eyewitness Account -- Petition of 28 December 1744 Presented to the Governors by the Inspectors of the Prague Jewish Community -- Letters on the Expulsion of the Jews from Prague -- The Childhood and Youth of a Man of the Enlightenment -- A Successful Jew -- An Anti-Luxury Law of the Prague Jews a Hundred Years Ago -- The Moravian Toleration Edict -- A Jew Apprentices His Son to a Christian -- Application by Joseph Brok for Permission to Erect a Wedding Canopy -- Memories of the Family Laws -- Jaikev and Resel -- A Jewish Ball -- An Official Replies to a Community -- The Jewish Flea Market -- The Enlightenment of the Bohemian Jews -- Reform -- Address at the Cradle of an Eight-Day-Old Child -- I Cannot Expect Emancipation until the Day of the Last Judgment -- The Jewish Quarter of Prague -- How the Prague Jews Live -- Cousin Nathan's Adventure -- Some Amusing Episodes from The Jewish Gil Blas -- The Village Jews -- The Bohemian Village Jews -- The Town Jew and the Country Jew -- The Death of the Tavern Keeper's Wife -- Religion and Education -- The Rabbi -- The Bachur or Talmud Student -- A Picture of the Life and Customs of a Jewish Family -- The Cheder -- A Purim Play and Stories -- Ahasverus -- Two Legends of Rabbi Low -- Called to the Grave -- The Moving Books
• The Unblessed Child -- The Last Seder -- The Grandfather's Admonitions -- The Companion -- An Expulsion Thwarted -- A Renegade -- Intellectuals and Their Relationship with the Czechs and Germans -- To Vaclav Bolemir Nebesky -- A Jewish Poet Rejected by a Spokesman for the Czechs -- The Revolution of 1848 -- Till the Vltava Flows up to Hradcany Castle -- Alfred Meissner Talks about His Friend Moritz Hartmann -- Hartmann's Impressions of the Prague Revolution of 1848 -- A Pamphlet from Prague -- Two High School Friends in the Country, One Christian and One Jew -- A Jew's Attitude toward the "Nationality Fraud" -- A Rabbi in 1848, the Year of the Revolution -- A Letter from Amalie Taubels to Samuel Holdheim -- Amalie Taubels to Her Sister -- Amalie Taubels to Her Brother-in-Law -- Off to America -- II. The Age of Liberal Optimism and Religious Indifference (1849-1873) -- A Teacher's Salary -- The Transition from the Jewish Quarter to Integration -- Between Fear and Hope -- Jewish Liberalism -- A Jew Moves to Louny -- The Former Jewish Quarter after the Dissolution of the Ghetto -- Reaction to Setbacks -- In Those Days -- A Man of '48 -- Country Jews' Occupations -- A Jewish Junk Dealer -- When Did the Middle Ages End? -- The Rise from Small Merchant to Owner of a Sugar Refinery -- Anti-Semitism -- Rural Anti-Semitism -- Prague 1863 -- A Czech Poet -- Itzik the Jew, or the Scourge of Brumovice -- Our Mister Fixl -- A New Generation, or Between Yesterday and Tomorrow
• Josef Popper-Lynkeus -- Early Years in Prague -- Experiences of a Young Academic -- From the Discussions and Decisions of the Meeting of Notables of the Jews in Bohemia -- III. Diversity and Disquiet in the Modern World (1874-1918) -- Self-Perceptions: Germans, then Jews -- Recalling the Ascent to the German Patrician Class -- Bohemian Country Jews -- The Jewish Bourgeoisie of Prague and the Nationality Dispute -- Czechs of Jewish Origin -- In a Jewish School with Czech as a Mother Tongue -- The Disgrace, or Posthumously Dishonored -- The Prague Jews between Two Nations -- Zionism -- Brod's Road to Zionism -- The New Jew -- The Credo of a Just Community -- The Arab Question -- Looking Back at Prague Zionism after Sixty Years -- Judaism -- My Brother Jiri -- Alfred Miroslav Havel-Ornstein Talks about His Grandfather Adolf -- Autobiography of Adolf Ornstein -- Journey into the Past -- The Jewish Bourgeoisie in Prague -- Remnants of Religious Customs -- The Son of a Religious Household -- Passover at the Lowositz Family -- Jewish High School Students -- Memories of the Prague Literary World -- Letter to His Father -- From Franz Kafka's Diary -- 25 February 1918 -- The Misrach -- Intellectual Women -- Advertisement for a Marriage Partner -- Guesswork about Kafka's Identity -- Anti-Semitism in a Prague High School -- Boycott -- Growing Anti-Semitism -- The Hilsner Trial -- Demonstrations against the Jews in Dolni Kralovice -- News Item about the Anezka Hruza Murder -- Broken Windows
• Today It Is Unbearable in Prague -- Before the Demolition of Josefov -- Kafka's Conversations with Janouch -- Sidelights -- Smalltown Types -- Letter to a Newspaper from a Jewish Village Schoolmaster -- How Should These Stories Be Read? -- How People Meet in the Ampezzo Valley -- Anti-Semitism: Assimilation Is Not the Solution -- IV. The Jews in the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938) -- The Masaryk Years -- The Overthrow -- Holesov -- An Embarrassing Saint -- Three Encounters -- Masaryk on the Czech Jews -- Gertrude Urzidil Remembers -- After a Discussion of Karl Kraus's Anti-Semitism -- Urgent Chapters -- The Secret of Jewish Energy -- To the Roots -- The Country Jews -- Vetrny-Jenikov -- The Cemetery -- From the History of the Jews of Kutna Hora and Surrounding Districts -- The Village of Pavlov -- The Empty Nest -- For Eternity -- V. From Hitler to Stalin (1938-1952) -- In the Shadow of National Socialism -- Recollections of My Last Years in Office in Teplice Sanov -- Ten Immigration Permits -- Prohibitions -- "Deliver Those Who Are Being Taken Away to Death..." -- Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors -- Because of a Measly String of Pearls -- Witness of Her Time: The Trial -- From a Newscast. Instead of a Postscript -- Messiah.

ISBN

081432228X

LCCN

^^^92037151^

OCLC

• 26929396
• SCSB-10451486

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library