Due to its geographical location, Kosice has always been an important commercial centre. Traderoutes met here, they connected separate economic regions. As a result, merchant families from distant lands coloured the population of Kosice. Although the Peace Treaties of WWI disintegrated the region’s economy, it quickly recovered and started to prosper in the democratic Czechoslovakia.
Jewry participated in local trade prominently. One of its reasons was that from the Middle Ages Jews could not possess any land, therefore, they earned their living by engaging in trade and artisan work. Later, the Jews could also acquire land, but mostly they continued their professions and opened businesses in trade and in modern industry.