Crossing the Ghetto Borders: The Transformation of Jewish Settlement Structures and the Acculturation Strategies of Jews
Author:
Daniel Baránek
Year of publication:
2023
Publisher:
Historický ústav
ISBN:
978-80-7286-413-3
The emancipation of Jews in the 19th century had far-reaching consequences for the Jewish settlement in the Bohemian lands. The gates of the ghettos opened, and Jews began to move freely from the closed quarters. In this book, the author examines, using demographic and cartographic tools, how the spatial structures of Jewish settlements changed in four cities – Boskovice, Hranice, Kolín, and Loštice – and what influenced this transformation.
Comparing the situation in these cities shows how the form of Jewish settlement was closely related to the integration of Jews into urban society or, conversely, to the reserved attitude of the majority society towards religiously and linguistically different population. The analysis of diverse types of social behavior and acculturation shows, among other things, that while spatial boundaries disappeared over the decades, mental boundaries had much greater persistence, as even the Jews themselves considered their maintenance essential for preserving their identity.
