Revival of Czech Jewry Hoped for as Communist Power Monopoly Ends

The ancient Jewish quarter of Prague is alive with new hope for a revival of Czech Jewry now that the capital’s dwindling, 1,000-year-old Jewish community has been freed from the tight control of the Communist authorities.

In a rebellion sparked by the broader one that led to the end of the Communist Party’s monopoly of power, Czech Jews have ousted two state-salaried leaders whom they accused of autocratically aligning the Jewish community with the party.

“Without freedom and democracy it is not possible to have a fully Jewish life,” newly reinstalled community president Desider Galsky told Reuters during an interview in the 17th-Century Jewish town hall.

“This small community had no space. Everything we did was controlled and required permission. Now I am sure there can be a renaissance of Jewish life . . . From day to day more young people are coming here and joining us.”

Galsky was reinstated as president of the Council of Jewish Religious Communities in Bohemia and Moravia Dec. 3 at a stormy meeting attended by 200 members which forced Bohumil Heller to give up the position and removed Frantisek Kraus from his post of community secretary.

Apart from frequently denouncing Israel, Heller and Kraus--without consulting other Jews--had written several letters published in the party newspaper in which they supported security force violence to break up anti-government demonstrations. They also sponsored an international conference promoting the Soviet stance in arms control talks.

Heller and Kraus were installed in 1985 after the Ministry of Culture, responsible for religious affairs, ordered Galsky, 68, a retired publishing house editor, to be removed as community president, citing what it described as his undesirably close ties with the West.

There are now 6,000 registered Jews in Czechoslovakia, most of them in Prague. Two of the half dozen synagogues in the capital are still in regular use, but Prague--once one of Europe’s most important centers of Jewish learning--has only one rabbi.

Galsky said he will work to expand opportunities for Jewish education and cultural life, partly by inviting guest scholars from abroad. He also said he will promote awareness of the community among non-Jews.

Elections to a 25-member governing board are due in February, the first such free poll among the Jews since the 1948 Communist takeover.

Another priority is to restore community control of the State Jewish Museum, an unparalleled collection of books and ritual objects seized by the Nazis. It was handed over by the community to the government in the 1950s, a period marked by a series of show trials involving Jewish communists.

An exhibition of Judaic treasures from the collection toured the United States in 1983 but it has never been shown in Prague.

“We have a moral right and duty to know what they are doing with these things,” Galsky said of the state administrators.

Czech Jewry numbered some 340,000 before World War II. More than 40,000 survivors remained in 1948.

About 20,000 emigrated in the next two years and a second wave left after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion when “Zionists” were assigned partial blame for the “Prague Spring” liberalization movement.

A book propagating this theory won two official literary awards. However, a letter published in the Socialist Party newspaper in late December demanded that the author, Alexej Pludek, repudiate the work.

Earlier in 1989 a small group of younger Jews demanded improved opportunities for Hebrew language education and greater access to Jewish literature, which had been strictly limited under communist rule.

Young scholars have worked in secret to translate Talmudic and other Jewish texts into Czech, often harassed by state police who kept a close watch on all community activities and those of other religious denominations.

“Forty-five years after the end of the war, we are reaching a state when time could well complete what the Nazi genocide began--our Jewish life is in danger of extinction,” the group wrote in a letter challenging Heller and Kraus.

Galsky has pledged to meet the group’s demands and has begun scheduling community lectures, films, meetings and holiday celebrations without consulting state authorities, although this is still required by law.

“There will be no return to the old society,” he said. The community supports a proposal by the opposition movement Civic Forum to separate the state from involvement in religious affairs.

The World Jewish Congress and the Joint Distribution Committee, an American aid group, have offered increased financial support for the Czech Jewish community, Galsky said.

Leo Pavlat, 39, an orthodox Jew, said he believes Galsky’s return to the leadership will help restore the reputation of a community badly tarnished under Heller and Kraus.