Abstract: While the scholarly interest in Judaic themes goes back to the Middle Ages, the field took a long time to become established as a full-fledged and institutionally recognized discipline. Before the 19th century, the interest in Jewish religion and culture was marred by theological bias, Christian Hebraism being rather an off-shoot of Christian apologetics, betraying polemical and missionary goals. In the 19th century, many European universities accepted Jewish students, but did not allow them to achieve university positions. The interest of non-Jewish scholars was still restricted to linguistic and theological issues and flourished as Old Testament Studies or, manifesting a feeling of cultural superiority, under the heading of the German “Orientalistik”. A number of brilliant Jewish scholars worked in the field that later became known as Jewish Studies. Although many of these scholars were well-connected in the academic community, none of them could flourish outside of the Jewish religious institutions of higher learning, mostly rabbinic seminaries. Not surprisingly, the study of Judaic themes was often self-contained and with little contextualization within the research of general cultural history. However, in the 1920s and 1930s important progress toward institutional recognition of Jewish Studies occurred with the establishment of the first chairs in the USA and with the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. However important these steps may have been, on their own they could not solve the surviving problem of isolation, as the case of Harry Austryn Wolfson in particular shows only too tellingly. It was only after WWII and especially since the 1970s that the academic institutions throughout the Euro-American world started to recognize the importance of various “minority-focused” disciplines including Jewish Studies. Thus the true emergence of Jewish Studies occurred during the period when the iron curtain separated the Czech lands from the intellectual and academic trends of the time. Only since the 1990s has the free study of Judaic subjects been possible, so institutional development started with a considerable delay of half a century. Several Czech universities established new institutional platforms for the study of Jewish culture, e.g. the Kurt and Ursula Institute of Jewish Studies at the Palacký University in Olomouc and the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. The papers and documents published in the present volume are the work of the members of this institution and of other authors who have participated in its different activities. The volume manifests the interdisciplinary aspect of Jewish Studies, which is the direct outcome of the diversity of Jewish-related topics. Yet the Jewish aspect is the natural unifying focus of all contributions and of the discipline of Jewish Studies as well.

Abstract: This text considers the options for the relatively new field of Israel Studies, which over the last few decades has sought its institutional base and definitive form. The number of interpretations and approaches that have emerged within this field of research among Israeli scholars in particular bears witness by all accounts to the maturity of Israeli civil society, which also allows very critical voices to be raised without fear. This attitude is also apparent in innovative attempts to comprehend the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in direct attempts to resolve it through contemporary knowledge of social and cultural studies. This article also focuses on the specific potential of Israel Studies in the Czech Republic within the context of domestic activities and foreign collaboration at the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies.

Abstract: This article deals with the stereotypes of Jews in Czech novels. Little attention has previously been paid to the images of Jews in Czech literature. One of the reasons was the marginalization of Jewish topics during the communist regime. On the other hand, the study of anti-Jewish stereotypes in literature was not frequent in other countries either. The situation began to change some decades ago, within the context of discussions on post-colonialism and gender-studies. This brought about a new reading and interpretation of some authors and works of the literary canon. The economic and civil status of Jews in the Czech lands changed as a result of reforms during the 19th century. Jews achieved equality with other ethnic groups. At the end of the 19th century, most of them accepted Czechness. But at the same time, Czech political nationalism was radicalized. The Czech politicians combated German nationalism with anti-semitic rhetoric with economic competition in the background. Anti-Semitism peaked around the time of the trial of Leopold Hilsner who was accused of a ritual murder, and later in the anti-Jewish attacks at the end of the First World War. This examination of Jewish stereotypes in literary works is not meant to discuss these concrete historical events. They have been documented in specific literary techniques such as narrative strategies, representations of characters, configurations of style and metaphors (for example, comparing the figures of Jews with animals). Here the novels of Czech authors Václav Kosmák (1843–1898), Antal Stašek (1843–1931), Alois and Vilém Mrštík (1861–1925; 1863–1912), Josef Holeček (1853–1929), Jindřich Šimon Baar (1869–1925), and Božena Benešová (1873–1936) will be the focus. Resistance against the Jews can be labelled as religious (Jew versus Catholic; V. Kosmák, J. Š. Baar), nationalist (Jew versus Czech; V. Kosmák, J. Holeček), anti-capitalist (Jew versus working man; A. and V. Mrštík, A. Stašek), moralistic (Jew versus moral man; all authors, mainly B. Benešová). Some stereotypes of Jews include their physiognomy (big nose, lips turned down, ugliness), language (mutilation of Czech, preference for German and Yiddish), deceit and depravity (immoral enrichment at the expense of other), lust and sexual depravity (on the one hand, a Jew as a seducer of young girls, on the other hand, spoiled young Jewish girls). The image of the Jewish conspiracy to rule the world (A. Stašek) rarely appears. It is usually reserved for more inferior literature. All of these stereotypes are partly related to the older anti-Judaism, which begat the racial anti-Semitism of the 20th century.

Abstract: Franz Werfel (1890–1945) is one of the most prominent Prague German authors not only for his outstanding lyrical, prose and dramatic works but also because of his essayistic deliberations on the development of mankind’s morals in the 20th century. One of the cornerstones of a modern person’s correct development is also his or her attitude towards religion. A member of the Prague Jewish elite, he did not choose the usual intellectual approach. He strived for understanding and “reconciliation” of Judaism with Catholic Christianity which he admired greatly for the redemptory sacrifice of the great Jewish prophet Jesus Christ. He searched for the causes of the restless uprootedness of modern man and thought that he found the answer lay in the loss of moral certainties and faith in God. He explains modern man’s predicament in excellent essays Realismus und Innerlichkeit (Realism and Inwardness). By realism, he understands the attitudes of contemporary man; by inwardness, he means the overlap of said attitudes towards the metaphysical values that his period lacks. In Können wir ohne Gottesglauben leben? (Can we live without faith in God?) he asks himself a question whether the conviction of his contemporaries that the reality that surrounds us is a mere reflection of our sensual perception can hold water. This paper will try to display a complete picture of Werfel’s effort to set morality right, the research of which has never been given enough space.

Abstract: Jewish philosophy as a specific theoretical reflection of the Jewish historical and existential situation never separated from the religious experience of the Jewish people. Philosophy in general, originally a mode of thinking foreign to Judaism, due to the Diaspora existence became an issue that Judaism had to struggle and come to terms with. In this sense, Judaism never contributed anything radically original to the development of philosophical thought, its main achievement in this field being the application of philosophy to a traditional religious world view. Since the Enlightenment there have been attempts among philosophers of Jewish origin to emancipate themselves from their religious heritage and to think in a “purely” philosophical way, but the crisis of the rational and scientific ideal with its tragic connotations for the Jews proved to be a dead end for them. In modern Jewish philosophical thinking we can distinguish two convergent lines: On the one hand there are initially “universal” philosophers whom external pressure forced to return to their own religious tradition, on the other hand there are exceptional Talmudic and Hasidic figures that try to overcome the particularism of their own tradition and give it more universal meaning. A representative of the first kind is Hermann Cohen, while representatives of the second kind are Joseph Dov Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel. The works of all those (and other) Jewish philosophers bring clear evidence that philosophical speculation can not rest on rational grounds alone, but it has to seek support in the religious texts of their own Jewish tradition.

Abstract: Our text is an attempt to trace some signs of Jewish religiosity in the poetry of Aleksander Wat concentrating on mystic structures and emblems deep-rooted in Jewish religious, mystic tradition. We deal with the Jewish roots and circumstances of Wat?s poetic and it?s relationship with sacrum, with a kind of intertextual dialogue with many cultural symbols and concepts associated with Jewish mystique. Therefore we analyze e.g. Wat?s relation to language, the phenomenon of commentary or the dialogical quality of his poetry.

Abstract: The problem of the study of Jewish elites is that it is often ahistoric, oscillating between indiscriminate admiration and total refusal, which merely reflects the extremes of a traditionally unbalanced attitude of the society towards the Jews as well as towards nobility in general. Jewish nobility is part of the so-called new nobility of the 18th to20th centuries, although in legal terms it does not constitute any specific group within it. Like other families belonging to the new nobility, its members obtained their titles as a reward for their credit and contribution to the monarchy and public welfare and, but for a few rare exceptions, had no social or family ties to aristocratic or old-nobility families, despite the fact that it was precisely the new nobility who, since no later than the middle of the 19th century played a crucial role not only in the economy of the country, but also in its politics, army as well as its culture. Unlike aristocracy, this new social group, usually called „second society“, was open to all newcomers who had acquired a certain social status. The reason for nobilitation did not play any role in being a member of this elite: while some individuals were ennobled thanks to their entrepreneurial success which allowed them to give out large sums to charity, others earned their title due to exemplary performance of administrative or military service, and still others were nobilitated as a reward for their success in art and science. Whereas members of the latter group were nobility only through their titles and lifestyles, and through their family ties remained connected to the bourgeoisie, rich entrepreneurs and top state officials were often able to transform their considerable wealth in political and social capital.

Abstract: The study discusses history of the Jewish population and community in the town of Velké Meziříčí. It describes and analyses factors that influenced the destinies of the Jews living in the Moravian Margraviate, one of the lands of the Crown of Bohemia, in early modern times. This paper traces the development changes in the Jewish community in Velké Meziříčí starting from the time the first Jews settled in the town. Special attention is paid to basic features of the community, the ghetto and its functioning. The first mentions of Jews in Velké Meziříčí date back to 1518 as an entry in the Municipal Book confirms. However, the arrival and first settlements of Jews in Velké Meziříčí were first described in a book of newly received citizens in 1611. The Jewish community in Velké Meziríčí did not display cultural attributes of a specific religious subculture or an autonomous community until mid-17th century. The sharpest population growth occurred at the beginning of the 1650s, which is when the Jews from Velké Meziříčí formed a mid-sized community and they were the second largest Jewish community in the territory of today known as the Jihlava District after Třebíč. This is the reason why the historical part of this study focuses particularly on 17th–19th century, which is the period when the Jewish community flourished and it also merged with the town and together they formed an independent and unique political entity. This study aims to contribute to more profound understanding of a particular Jewish community in Moravia from cultural-historical and anthropological perspective.

Abstract: Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Nazi German occupied Europe were met with various degrees of understanding and openness in many countries around the world. Those who ended up in the Soviet Union – a country still paralyzed by the “Great Terror” of the late 1930s – or in territories occupied by the USSR under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, faced specific treatment. Many of the refugees who escaped the Nazi persecution were arrested by the Soviet authorities, accused of illegal entry or of espionage, and were enslaved in Gulag labor camps. After the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands in March 1939, followed by the outbreak of the Second World War in September of the same year, more and more Czechoslovak citizens were leaving their country for the Soviet Union. Thousands of Czechoslovak Jews were among them. Soon after crossing the border or after the arrival of the Soviet occupiers, they faced the same fate as other refugees – arrests and years of hard labor in the most remote areas of the USSR. The rescue for some of them came, paradoxically, after the German attack on the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership, compelled by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, allowed the establishment of a Czechoslovak military brigade within the Soviet army and granted amnesty to Czechoslovak citizens in the Gulag in 1942. Czech Jews were strongly represented in the unit, distinguished themselves in the battles on the Eastern Front, and helped to defeat Nazi Germany and its Allies. Many of those who survived the harsh conditions of the Gulag died in these battles. Based on interviews with the survivors and their families and on recently discovered archive materials, the present study describes the stories of several Czechoslovak Jews who sought refuge from the Nazis in the USSR.

Abstract: The present paper reflects the contemporary nature of antisemitism in the Czech Republic and in the countries of the European Union. By way of introduction the text presents the intended project with the working title “Being Jewish in the Czech Republic: Antisemitism and the Jewish identity in the 21st century“, a planned study of the perception and situational awareness of the potential antisemitic threat. Furthermore it introduces the main roots and means of dissemination of antisemitism in general. In conclusion, the paper considers prospective trends in the field under discussion.

Abstract: This article was written in order to address the ongoing debate on the terminology for the Nazi WWII atrocities by utilizing the possibilities of electronic archives and databases of historical books and press. I claim that if we want to contemplate (or even criticize) the appropriateness of the word “Holocaust” to describe the Nazi crimes, we have to first understand the historical context, in which this word was originally used. The main point about the etymology of “Holocaust”, as presented in this article, is that the Greek word “holokauston” was taken over to Latin and English with early Biblical translations, but as time went on and the old Catholic translations of the Bible were replaced by the King James Version, which dropped using the word “holocaust” for description of burnt offerings, the meaning of “holocaust” slowly broadened. In the 19th century, the meaning of “Holocaust” was understood not only as a “burnt sacrifice” but more often as “wholly burnt down”, or “wholly destroyed” without any religious connotations. In these meanings, the word “holocaust” was understood literally and it was commonly used to describe the horrors of war, forest fires, massacres and other large catastrophes. I document this very closely by particular quotations from the historical English-language newspapers. I claim that when the English-language media (including the Palestine Post in the Yishuv) used the word “holocaust” at the end of 1942 to describe the Nazi atrocities, they acted fully according to the discourse of their time. Moreover, the word “genocide” did not even exist at that time (it was coined a year later by Raphael Lemkin), so there was no other appropriate term. In the second part of the article, I use the Google Ngram Viewer and other tools to reflect on the birth of contemporary practice of writing the word “Holocaust” with a capital letter. The article also briefly explains the process by which the Hebrew word “Shoah” was brought into Western languages in the mid-1980s. I claim that to a great extent it was popularized by Claude Lanzmann?s famous documentary “Shoah”. Only since then can we see the discussions over whether it is better to write “Holocaust” or “Shoah”. In the end, I claim that to some extent the original religious, biblical meaning of the word “Holocaust”, long forgotten for most of the 20th century, is now being “rediscovered” in these polemics.

Abstract: This study aims to present the collection of Takkanot Candia in its double role, both as a unique historical source regarding principally the history of everyday life in the Jewish community of Crete in the Venetian period (13th–16th centuries) and as a work of literature which provides us with an insight into the communal politics and inner dynamics of life in a Mediterranean Jewish community in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Takkanot Candia is noteworthy as one of the best preserved specimens of the takkanotkahal genre, whose position in the complex of pre-Emancipation Jewish legal literature is rather specific. This is caused by its independence of the discourse of Halakhic literature, since takkanotkahal do not derive their authority from Jewish canonical texts, but rather from the authority of the communal leaders who issue them. The significance of Takkanot Candia as a work of literature, which was put together thanks to Renaissance-era redaction of the historian Elijah Capsali (ca 1485–ca 1550) consists mainly in the authentic picture it presents of the inner fabric of the Candia Jewish community and a self-reflection of Jewish communal elites on whose shoulders the responsibility for the community’s functioning rested. Study of this text could be a welcome contribution to a more complex understanding of Jewish self-government in the times of important social changes as the Middle Ages shifted towards the beginning of the Modern Era.

Abstract:
This study deals with the position of the Jewish community in Argentina (the largest in Latin America) and its fortunes, as well as anti-semitic trends in this country since the 19th century. Argentinian Jews, or Jewish Argentinians, are integrating into Argentinian life and society without giving up the Jewish elements in their personal or collective identity.

The author opens his study with an analysis of the image of Argentinian Jews in several films made by various producers over the last few years (El a?o que viene… en Argentina, Un abrazo partido, Like a Fish Out of Water). He then deals with the emergence and development of the Jewish Argentinian immigrant community from a historical and sociological perspective, as well as the image of the community in literary works. Jewish immigration to Argentina (inter alia) was the outcome of economic and social problems in Central and Eastern Europe on the one hand and the liberal immigration policy of the Argentinian government on the other. The author traces where these Jews came from, which waves they belonged to chronologically, which towns they settled in and where they were active; he also provides various details on the size of the Jewish minority in Argentina. Another set of questions hangs over Nazi emigration to Argentina (which helped to create the myth of the country as pro-Nazi and anti-semitic) and various manifestations of anti-semitism that emerged in Argentina. The study is concluded with a look at the genesis of the community of Argentinian Jews in Israel.

Abstract: Identities and their representation and expression in different social contexts became one of the key problems of social sciences and humanities in the late 20th century. Sociology – which is the approach taken in this paper – doesn’t understand identity as something given or fixed, but rather as a social construction created in the processes of interaction and negotiation. Emphasis is on the temporal mutability and fluidity of the identities, their social origin (membership in different social groups and identification with them), and the premise that an individual in contemporary society uses a variety of different identities in social interactions. First part of the paper presents the archive, which is the source of the data; the second part is a short overview of key theoretical aspects of sociological research on identities; and the final part is dealing with different ways of expressing a collective (Jewish) identity in biographical interviews from the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, interpreting it in the broad context of sociological reflections on personal and collective identity.

Abstract: Rabbi Aharon Epstein (1895 – died in the Holocaust) came to Prague from Romania via Carpathian Ukraine in 1930. He was one of the last from a long line of Orthodox scholars of Eastern European origin who were since mid-19th century invited to serve the small Orthodox segment of the Prague community and to help it survive. Rabbi Epstein pronounced his first Prague sermon on 1 Kislev 5691 (22 November 1931) in the Old New Synagogue and served as a member of the rabbinic court (Rabinatsassessor) and was responsible chiefly for supervision of the local Kosher butchers. The present study describes two publications that Rabbi Epstein published in Prague. Chronologically first is Epstein?s most extensive work, namely, collection of responsa Kapei Aharon (Aaron?s Palms, Ex 29:24 and Lv 8:27). The book was published in 1933 and was printed in Mukachevo (Munkácz) in Czechoslovak Carpathian Ukraine. It is marked as the first volume, however, the sequel never appeared. Many of the texts included in the collection are Prague-related and offer an interesting insight into the life of the Orthodox segment of the Prague Jewish community, refering to figures such as Salomon Hugo (Tswi) Lieben (one of the co-founders of the Jewish Museum in Prague), the future historian Otto (Gavriel) Muneles or to the study group Tiferet bachurim.
The second publication is a short commentary on the Book of Esther called Besime d?pirje (Besima de-purya), published in Prague in 1937 (typed and cyclostyled on a thicker pink paper). The book as an artefact is a telling manifestation of its author?s identification with Czechoslovak Republic. The selection of the genre – related to the miraculous redemption of Jews from a terrible peril, as narrated by the book of Esther – was certainly not arbitrary considering the historical context. Epstein writes toward the end of his text: “We, the Jews of Czechoslovakia (Yehudim bnei Medinat ha-Čechoslovakiyah), must thank God that he placed our share and destiny among educated and peaceloving people, to the land of mercy, built on the base of justice and law.”
The book contains also a Hebrew eulogy of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk († 14 September, 1937) authored by Rabbi Epstein. Some of the copies include an inserted sheet of paper (same type as the whole book) with a Czech translation of the same eulogy.