Metadata: Jewish Religious Community of Cheb
Collection
- Country:
- Czechia
- Holding institution:
- State District Archives Cheb
- Holding institution (official language):
- Státní okresní archiv Cheb
- Postal address:
- Františkánské nám. 14, Cheb, 350 11, Czech republic
- Phone number:
- 00420 354 422 556
- Email:
- soka-ch@soaplzen.cz
- Reference number:
- 341
- Title:
- Jewish Religious Community of Cheb
- Title (official language):
- Židovská náboženská obec Cheb
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Religious Community of Cheb
- Date(s):
- 1851/1938
- Language:
- English
- Czech
- French
- Hebrew
- Italian
- Latin
- Hungarian
- German
- Polish
- Romany
- Russian
- Slovak
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 10.31 linear metres
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The fonds contains materials concerning the Jewish religious community in Cheb. Books include a list of community members, a cemetery book, registers of children attending religious instruction, books covering registry matters and accounting books. The files give an extraordinarily broad picture of the activity of the community: documentation about the functioning and administration of the community, such as articles, election files and minutes from board and general meetings; files on individual functionaries; membership and registry documents; financial and property matters; and files concerning religious education and ritual and social and health care. The surviving correspondence with other Jewish religious communities and various Jewish associations is also significant. In addition, the fonds contains the files of the affiliated Jewish religious community Kynšperk nad Ohří.
- Archival history:
- The documents, in 58 boxes, were placed in the archive without a record of receipt. Some were evidently rescued in November 1938 by Dr Heribert Sturm, then director of the Cheb Archives, shortly before the synagogue was burnt down. During the arrangement of the fonds, the registers were given to the national archives in Prague (Jewish Registers HBMa, inv. 568-577, Cheb, registers of births, marriages and deaths, index).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Jewish presence in Cheb is documented from the start of the 14th century. After being expelled several times and falling victim to pogroms, Jews were officially permitted to settle in Cheb in 1848. In 1862 a Jewish religious association was founded, and due to the growth in the number of coreligionists, the Jewish religious community of Cheb, a reform community, was founded in 1872. In 1867 construction of a monumental synagogue began in Opitzstrasse (Sládkova Street) but was not completed. Instead the synagogue was built at the corner of Hradební and Obrněné brigády streets, opening in 1893. The community got its own cemetery in 1874. The synagogue was burnt down on Kristallnacht and the cemetery was gradually destroyed, although the latter was briefly restored after 1945. The community ceased to exist after a wave of emigration in 1948.
- Access points: locations:
- Cheb
- Kynšperk nad Ohří
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is divided into Books, Files and Other material. The books are structured internally into registration and accounting books. The files contain registry finding aids and files, also structured according to type of administrative task area.
- Finding aids:
- Mlsová-Chmelíková J.: Židovská náboženská obec Cheb, (1851) 1862–1938. Inventář, 2005, 89 s., ev. č. 1448.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Prague
- Author of the description:
- JMP Survey, 2015.
