Schwieriges Miteinander: der israelitische Kultusverein in Ungarisch-Hradisch (1866–1891)Difficult Coexictence: Israelitic Cultural Association in Uherské Hradiště (1866–1891)

Abstract

Different opinions are a natural part of each human community and this is the case of the Jewish community in Uherské Hradiště in the second half of the 19th century, too. The conflicts in this newly founded community were of many kinds: from opinion differences as for management of the Jewish religious community to a struggle to reform a synagogical liturgy and personal aversion of particular members of the community. By means of an analysis of several disputes the author shows that they escalated mainly at the moment when the chairman of the Jewish religious community took advantage of his power and did not hear the criticism. His opponents then turned to various institutions with their complaints as for violations of the society statutes. The authorities nevertheless would refuse to deal with these internal conflicts, that is why the critics would leave the society and then use their energy in founding a new Jewish institution of an educational or charity character. Leaving the Jewish religious society however did not mean leaving the whole Jewish community or founding an alternative Jewish community, but it stood for a decentralization of the community due to which the friction areas within it could have been weakened. When the conflicts inside the Uherské Hradiště Jewish society calmed down these alternative institutions could be then integrated into the Jewish religious society. The article helps then to differentiate some important internal mechanisms but also to find out what a character the discussions about the direction of local Judaism had.