Jewish Religious Community of Ostrava

Collection description

Scope and content:: The fonds contains the statutes of the Jewish Religious Community of Ostrava (1919), minute meetings, extracts from the registers of Ostrava parish offices and a list of offences (1863–1942), Hazkara books, documents relating to the founding and development of the Jewish community (1792–1879), construction-related documents, a graves register (1878–1923), fragmentary records of the burial society (chevra kadisha) and a women's association, and a large collection of books/registers and files of a Jewish school. Entries in cash books and some of the school books/registers and files date from up to the early 1940s. The preserved instructions for worship are from 1940 and 1941.

Archival history:: The records were incorporated into the archives of the Jewish Museum in Prague during the Second World War as part of shipments of material from Jewish religious communities that had been disbanded.

Administrative/biographical history:: Individual Jewish families began to settle in Ostrava at the start of the 16th century. Jews were expelled from the town in 1531. Jews were not allowed to spend the night there before 1792. Individual families gradually settled in the town. A prayer association was established in 1860, becoming a religious community in 1876. By 1930 it was the third largest Jewish community in the country. The community was disbanded by the Nazis during the Second World War but subsequently resumed its activities.

Subject terms:: Architecture; Burial; Education; Education--Schools and universities; Financial matters; Hevrah kadisha; Jewish community; Jewish community records; Jewish daily life and religious practices

System of arrangement:: Materials in the fonds are arranged thematically as follows: books/registers and files of the Jewish community, books/registers and files of the local synagogue, books/registers and files of the burial society (chevra kadisha), books/registers and files of Jewish associations, books/registers and files of a Jewish school.

Finding aids:: Dolista K, Heřman J: Židovská náboženská obec Ostrava, Prozatímní inventární seznam, 1971, 11 s., ev. č. 103.

Links to finding aids:: http://c.jewishmuseum.cz/files/documents/archiv-sbirky-a-fondy/inventare/103ZNOOstrava-prozatimniinventarniseznam.pdf