Czech, German or Jew: The Jewish Community of Prague during the Inter-war Period

Abstract

[From the Introduction, p.6] "The Jews were another substantial minority with problems in the new republic. Nancy Wingfield's extremely objective account of the Jewish community of Prague identifies four main groupings. Some wished to assimilate with the Czechs, and some with the Germans. Some were Zionists, and the middle-class Jews were orthodox in religion, drawing support from all quarters but willing to cooperate with the Zionists. The community was subjected to anti-Semitic violence in the first years after the war. Its tensions were heightened by internal discord which mirrored the national tensions of Prague society as a whole. National concerns often outweighed religious ones in Jewish politics as Czech Jews demanded the use of their language in preference to German within the community, and wanted Jewish children to attend state schools rather than separate Jewish ones. Nevertheless the German Jews remained stronger as a political force, defending their separate identity until fear of Hitler drove many of them to switch to Czech allegiance. Jewish nationality had meanwhile provided a haven for many of those Jews who had wished to remain neutral in the Czech-German conflict."