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Židé v Českých zemích Juden der böhmischen Länder (יהדות בוהמיה (צ'כיה בעמישע יידן | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Total population | |
| 2,349[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Czech,German,Yiddish,Hebrew,Judeo-Czech | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism,Frankism, Jewish Brotherhoods | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Jews,Ashkenazi Jews,Slovak Jews,Austrian Jews,German Jews,Hungarian Jews,Ukrainian Jews |
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1921 | 35,699 | — |
| 1930 | 37,093 | +3.9% |
| 1991 | 218 | −99.4% |
| 2011 | 521 | +139.0% |
| 2021 | 2,349 | +350.9% |
| Source:[2][3][4] | ||
Thehistory of the Jews in theCzech lands, historically theLands of the Bohemian Crown, including the modernCzech Republic (i.e.Bohemia,Moravia, and the southeast orCzech Silesia), goes back at least 1100 years. There is evidence that Jews have lived in Moravia and Bohemia since as early as the 10th century.[5] Jewish communities flourished here specifically in the 13th, 16th, 17th centuries, and again in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Local Jews were mostly murdered in theHolocaust, or exiled at various points. As of 2021, there were only about 3000 Jews officially registered in the Czech Republic, albeit the actual number is probably as much as ten times higher.[6]
Jews are believed to have settled inPrague as early as the 10th century. The 16th century was a "golden age" forJewry in Prague. the city was called the "Mother ofIsrael"[7] or "Jerusalem uponVltava". One of the famous Jewish scholars of the time wasJudah Loew ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal, who served as a leadingrabbi in Prague for most of his life. He is buried at theOld Jewish Cemetery inJosefov, and his grave, with its tombstone intact, can still be visited. According to a popular legend, the body ofGolem (created by the Maharal) lies in the attic of theOld New Synagogue where thegenizah of Prague's community is kept.[8] In 1708, Jews accounted for one-quarter of Prague's population.[9]Both religiously and demographically, Prague' Jewry has always had strong ties to the Jewish communities ofRegensburg,Venice,Vienna,Cracow, as well asThe Holy Land.
As part of inter-warCzechoslovakia, and before that theAustro-Hungarian Empire, the Jews had a long association with this part of Europe.[10] Throughout the last thousand years, over 600 Jewish communities have emerged in the Kingdom of Bohemia (including Moravia).[11] According to the 1930 census, Czechoslovakia (includingSubcarpathian Ruthenia) had a Jewish population of 356,830.[12]
During the 1890s, most Jews were German-speaking and considered themselves Germans.[13][14][15] By the 1930s, German-speaking Jews had been numerically overtaken by Czech-speaking Jews;[16] Zionism also made inroads among the Jews of the periphery (Moravia and the Sudetenland).[17] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thousands of Jews came to Prague from small villages and towns in Bohemia, leading to theurbanization of Bohemian Jewish society.[18] Of the 10 million inhabitants of pre-1938 Bohemia and Moravia, Jews composed only about 1% (117,551). Most Jews lived in large cities such as Prague (35,403 Jews, who made up 4.2% of the population),Brno (11,103, 4.2%),Ostrava (6,865, 5.5%),Teplice (3,213, 11%))[19] andPilsen (2,773, 2%)[20].[21]
Antisemitism in the Czech lands was less prevalent than elsewhere, and was strongly opposed by the national founder and first president,Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937),[22][23] while secularism among both Jews and non-Jews facilitated integration.[24] Nevertheless, there had been anti-Jewish rioting during the birth of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 and 1920.[25] Following a steep decline in religious observance in the 19th century, most Bohemian Jews were ambivalent to religion,[26] although this was less true in Moravia.[27] The Jews of Bohemia had the highest rate ofintermarriage in Europe:[28] 43.8% married out of the faith, compared to 30% in Moravia.[13]
In contrast toSlovak Jews, who were mostly deported by theFirst Slovak Republic directly toAuschwitz,Treblinka, and other extermination camps, most Czech Jews were initially deported by the German occupiers with the help of local CzechNazi collaborators toTheresienstadt concentration camp and only later killed. However, some Czech Jewish children were rescued byKindertransport and escaped to theUnited Kingdom and other Allied countries. Some were reunited with their families after the war, while many lost parents and relatives to the concentration camps.[citation needed]
It is estimated that of the 118,310 Jews living in theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia upon theGerman invasion in 1939, 26,000 emigrated legally and illegally; 80,000 were murdered by the Nazis; and 10,000 survived the concentration camps.[29]
Prague has the most vibrant Jewish community in the entire country. Several synagogues operate on a regular daily basis (including the famousOld-New Synagogue, the oldest active synagogue of the world, and the two late 19th century emancipation synagogues, theSpanish Synagogue and theJerusalem Synagogue, both active púlaces of worhsip); there are three kindergartens, a Jewish day school, two retirement homes, five kosher restaurants, twomikvot, and a kosher hotel. Three different Jewish magazines are issued every month, and the Prague Jewish community officially has about 1,500 members, but the real number of Jews in the city is estimated to be much higher, between 7,000 and 15,000. Due to years of persecution by both theNazis and the subsequentStalinist regime ofKlement Gottwald, however, most people do not feel comfortable being registered as such. In addition, the Czech Republic is one of the most secularized and atheistic countries in Europe.[30]
There are ten smaller Jewish communities around the country (seven inBohemia, two inMoravia and two inSilesia. The largest one being in Prague, where close to 90% of all Czech Jews live. The umbrella organisation for Jewish communities and organisations in the country is the Federation of Jewish Communities (Federace židovských obcí, FŽO). Services are regularly held inPrague,Brno,Olomouc,Plzeň,Teplice,Liberec,Karlovy Vary,Děčín andKrnov and irregularly in some other cities, for exampleOstrava,Úštěk,Ústí orMikulov.
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