A History of Czechs and Jews: A Slavic Jerusalem

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Was Israel founded by Czechoslovakia? A History of Czechs and Jews examines this question and the resulting findings are complex. Czechoslovakia did provide critical, secret military sponsorship to Israel around 1948, but this alliance was short-lived and terminated with the Prague Trial of 1952. Israel's "Czech guns" were German as much as Czech, and the Soviet Union strongly encouraged Czechoslovakia's help for Israel. Most importantly however, the Czechoslovak-Israeli military cooperation was only part of a much larger picture. Since the mid-1800s, Czechs and Jews have been systematically comparing themselves to each other in literature, music, politics, diplomacy, media, and historiography. A shared perception of similar fates of two small nations trapped between East and West, in constant existential danger, helped forge a Czech-Jewish "national friendship" amid periods of estrangement. Yet, this Czech-Jewish national friendship, an idea that can be traced from Masaryk and Kafka via Weizman and Ben Gurion to Havel and Netanyahu, was more myth than reality. Relations were often mixed and highly dependent on larger historical developments affecting Central Europe and the Middle East. As the Czech Republic emerges as Israel's main EU ally, this book provides a timely analysis of this old-new alliance and is essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in History and Jewish Studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Preface Acknowledgments and dedications List of abbreviations 1. Theoretical introduction History and collective memory Transnational history German Romantic philosophy Making and writing history 2. Historical background: From Czech–German to Czech–Jewish national friendship, 1780–1918 Czech–German Bohemia Romantic forgeries The Young Bohemians The Czech–Jewish movement and Czech-speaking Jews Prague and Josefstadt Blood libels in the Bohemian lands Hilsner and Masaryk in memory "Masaryk and the Jews” Tegemania 3. The Balfour Declaration, Czechoslovakia’s independence, and the interwar period, 1917–38 Small nations Czechoslovakia as a model democracy? Hatikva and Vltava Czechs, Jews, Germans, Arabs Prague’s German literary circles Musa Dagh Czechoslovak Jews and Communism 4. From the partition of Czechoslovakia to the partition of British Palestine, 1938–48 The Munich Agreement in international memory War propaganda in London and New York Lidice in the Palestine Post Theresienstadt in memory The Topol'čany pogrom Transfers and transferences Body counts 5. Communist Czechoslovakia and Israel, 1948–89 Czechoslovakia, Israel, Egypt, and the Great Powers Czechoslovak–Israeli–Soviet relations Israel’s Czech–German guns Antisemitic show trials The Prague Trial and the defendants Israeli reactions Memories of the Prague Trial The Six-Day War, Prague Spring, and “Normalization” The Czechoslovak Jewish survivor community 6. The Velvet Revolution, the breakup of Czechoslovakia, and the Middle East conflict, 1989–2012 Remembering the Velvet Revolution The Jewish community in the Czech Republic Czech–Israeli relations Oslo polemics in the Middle East "Roots Tourism” Return of the Golem Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index