Jewish Religious Community of Litomyšl

Collection description

Scope and content:: The fonds contains the statutes of the Jewish Religious Community of Litomyšl (after 1890), meeting minutes, election records, registry records, correspondence, financial records, files relating to the construction of the local synagogue, fragmentary documents of the burial society (chevra kadisha) and of a women's association. The fonds also contains minutes of meetings and various files that were kept until 1939-1940 and financial registers that end in 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:: The assumption of the existence of a Jewish religious community in Litomyšl in the 16th-17th centuries is based only on a few isolated references. It was probably in the latter half of the 17th century, at the latest, that Jews were expelled from the town. The presence of individual Jewish families is next documented in the latter half of the 18th century. A modern-day prayer association was established before 1860, later becoming a religious community. The community was disbanded by the Nazis during the Second World War and did not subsequently resume its activities.

Subject terms:: Architecture; Burial; Correspondence; Financial records; Hevrah kadisha; Jewish community; Jewish community records; Synagogues

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

Finding aids:: Dolista K, Heřman J: Židovská náboženská obec Litomyšl, Prozatímní inventární seznam, 2004, 3 s., ev. č. 79.

Links to finding aids:: http://c.jewishmuseum.cz/files/documents/archiv-sbirky-a-fondy/inventare/079ZNOLitomysl-prozatimniinventarniseznam.pdf