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CHAPTER 2 Historical Context: The Case of Jews in Bohemia This chapter offers an outline of the key historical facts of the existence of the Jewish community in Bohemia from its earliest history to the present day. Although a historical account of Jews in Bohemia is not the main aim of this book, it plays an important role in it. Knowledge of the historical, legal, and social context of any population, and the Jewish one in particular , is key to understanding the timing and progression of its changes. Moreover, without historical knowledge we could hardly search for causes of population changes, nor would we be able to discuss what made the Jewish population special and avant-garde. Jews were a self-reproducing community but not a self-sufficient one. Actually, as we will see, their existence was extremely dependent on the political, religious, and economic situation within the host gentile society and the relationship that that society wanted to maintain with the Jews. Inevitably this chapter passes too quickly over some periods and some topics and neglects some aspects of Jewish history in Bohemia. Those readers with further interest in particular aspects of the history of Jews in Bohemia should refer to the works of historians; here I mention just a sample of them: Franková (2006), Putík (2002), and Iggers (1992) for an overview of the history of Jews in Bohemia; McCagg (1992) for the history of Habsburg Jews; Miller (2011) for the history of Jews in Moravia; Kestenberg-Gladstein (1969b) for the period of the Enlightenment; Kieval (2000, 1990, 1988) and Kestenberg-Gladstein (1968) for the nineteenth century; Mendelsohn (1987), McCagg (1990), and Čapková (2012) for the period between the two world wars; and Rothkirchen (2005) for the Shoah. Many relevant articles can be also found in the journal Judaica Bohemiae. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive history of the Jews in Bohemia published in English that covers all the historical periods. However, there is such a 16 Demographic Avant-Garde book in Czech (Pěkný 1993 and 2001, second edition) and it served as the main source of the contents of this chapter. A Brief History of Jewish Settlement in Bohemia to 1867 A written source documents the presence of Jewish merchants in Prague from as early as the tenth century, and to this same century historians date the start of Jewish settlement in the Bohemian lands (Kieval 2000). Most Jewish merchants took up residence in major settlements along longdistance trade routes in the area. In the Middle Ages, these included places like Olomouc (Olmütz), Brno (Brünn), Znojmo (Znaim), the Central Elbe region, and Prague. Over time Jews began to work largely in domestic trade, money lending, and as peddlers of artisanal goods. Until the early thirteenth century they were looked upon as foreigners or guests in the land (as were German settlers after the eleventh century), and this allowed them to travel and trade freely and to choose where they wished to live. Until the end of the eleventh century there were almost no legal strictures on Jews. It was only with the start of the Crusades that their position in Europe, including Bohemia, began to deteriorate leading to the widespread slaughter of Jews across Europe in what were the biggest antiSemitic attacks on Jewry to that date in Christian history. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Christian culture was strongly influenced by antiSemitic ideas and these survived into the twentieth century or even to the twenty-first century. Jews were collectively blamed for the death of Jesus and were repeatedly accused of defiling Christian symbols, molesting Christian girls, and attacking children. The situation worsened significantly after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, which ordered strict segregation of Jews from the rest of the population. Interaction between Christians and Jews was henceforward strictly limited and carnal relations between members of the two faiths were an offence deemed punishable by death. Jews could only live in enclosed Jewish streets or quarters and there were strict restrictions determining where they could go outside these ghettos. Since Jews were the “slaves and prisoners of the Roman Empire,” they were not allowed to employ Christians, own land, or work in agriculture. Given that until the end of the fifteenth century Christians were forbidden to lend money at interest, one service that Jews were allowed to provide to Christians. Jews were not allowed to sell goods or practice a trade, and when they were it was permitted only within the...

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