Exploring traces of Jewish Olomouc

Citizens

In the 19th century, the Austro-Hungarian Empire became a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-confessional environment. Anti-Jewish laws were repealed, ghettos and settlement bans were abolished, and all sons, not just the eldest, could marry. Jews were given names similar to those of Christians, the same compulsory schooling and the same official regulations applied. Only a career in the civil service was easier for those who were baptized.

The Jewish community in Olomouc began to grow soon after the revolutionary year of 1848, with members of once-exiled families from Lipník, Prostějov and Úsov returning to the town. Olomouc was changing in other ways as well: city walls were demolished, moats were filled in and new streets were built; there was no longer any need for city forts. At the end of the century the Jewish religious community was legally established with the right to tax its members. In 1894, the Jewish community purchased from the city a plot of land behind the former walls, namely behind the Theresa Gate, in order to build a representative synagogue on it, a replacement for the temporary and no longer fully adequate prayer house.

Theresa Gate and the synagogue on a historical postcard. Openeye archive.


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