A new issue of the journal Judaica Bohemiae (Vol. 57/2022, 1) came out at the end of June 2022. It starts with a study by Lucie Storchová (The Jewish War, God’s Wrath and ‘the Most Unfortunate People’: Representations of the Jews and Judaism in Late Sixteenth-Century Protestant Literature in the Bohemian Lands), which, on the basis of a large number of contemporary texts, discusses how Protestant scholars wrote about the First Jewish-Roman War and the destruction of Jerusalem, and shows how this story was updated in relation to Jews in the Bohemian lands after 1550. The next paper by Andrea Jelínková (The Publishing Practice and Reading Culture of Moravian Jews in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century) closely examines the products of the 18th-century Moravian Hebrew printing press and uncovers the hitherto unexplored relationship between publishing strategy and the reading abilities of Moravian Jews. Drawing on the example of the Jewish population in Kolín, Daniel Baránek’s study (Transformation of the Jewish Space in Kolín, 1848–1921) explores the phenomenon of the disappearance of the borders of the Jewish ghetto after the granting of equal rights to Jews in the middle of the 19th century, and analyzes the factors that influenced the demographic dynamics of Jewish society at the time.
In the Reports section, Michal Bušek provides information on the results of efforts by staff of the Library of the Jewish Museum in Prague in connection with searching for books that are missing from the pre-war Library of the Jewish Religious Community in Prague, and gives an overview of books from this library that have been found and successfully returned to the Jewish Museum in Prague during the last few years. Kajetán Holeček reports on the international conference ‘Migration Processes and the Mobility of European Jews at the Turn of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period’ (Migrationsprozesse und Mobilität der europäischen Juden am Übergang vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit), which was held in Prague in mid-October 2021 and was organized by the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The final section of the journal contains reviews of the following books: Robert Neumann, Bratislava – Pressburg, die Stadt und Mutter Israel’s. 1. Teil: Die Entwicklung der Judengemeinde bis zur Vertreibung der Juden aus Ungarn im Jahre 1526 nach der Schlacht bei Mohács (reviewed by Lenka Blechová), Stefan Litt (ed.), Jüdische Fürsprache: Quellen aus Gemeindeprotokollbüchern (pinkasim) des aschkenasischen Kulturraums 1586–1808 (reviewed by Kajetán Holeček) and Anna Hájková, The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt (reviewed by Tomáš Fedorovič).
STUDIES AND ARTICLES
Lucie Storchová: The Jewish War, God’s Wrath and ‘the Most Unfortunate People’: Representations of the Jews and Judaism in Late Sixteenth-Century Protestant Literature in the Bohemian Lands
Andrea Jelínková: The Publishing Practice and Reading Culture of Moravian Jews in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century
Daniel Baránek: Transformation of the Jewish Space in Kolín, 1848–1921
REPORTS
Michal Bušek: In Search of Books Missing from the Prague Jewish Community Library
Kajetán Holeček: International Conference in Prague: ‘Migration Processes and the Mobility of European Jews at the Turn of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period’
BOOK REVIEWS
Robert Neumann, Bratislava – Pressburg, die Stadt und Mutter Israel’s. 1. Teil: Die Entwicklung der Judengemeinde bis zur Vertreibung der Juden aus Ungarn im Jahre 1526 nach der Schlacht bei Mohács (Lenka Blechová)
Stefan Litt, ed., Jüdische Fürsprache: Quellen aus Gemeindeprotokollbüchern (pinkasim) des aschkenasischen Kulturraums 1586–1808 (Kajetán Holeček)
Anna Hájková, The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt (Tomáš Fedorovič)