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Internet Anti-Semitic Attacks on Czech Jews Rise

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Beautiful Prague, has a low rate of Anti-Semitism, although anti -Semitic internet attacks are on the rise in the Czech Republic.
Beautiful Prague, has a low rate of Anti-Semitism, although anti -Semitic internet attacks are on the rise in the Czech Republic.
A new study by Prague’s Jewish community released on Monday registered a significant increase of attacks against Jews on the Internet for the second straight year. The annual report on anti-Semitism said the number of Internet attacks, including texts, photos and videos, jumped to 156 in 2013 from 82 in 2012. The report said the pro-Israeli stance of the Czech government was among the reasons for the attacks.

Besides the Internet attacks, it said anti-Semitism in the Czech Republic remains at a relatively low level with one physical attack registered last year and three attacks on Jewish property. The anti-Semitic materials, the report said, include the incitement, support and justification for killing Jews, their demonization, denial of the Holocaust, and the de-legitimization of the state of Israel, among other things. The report concluded that the situation regarding anti-Semitism has been “quiet” in the Czech Republic compared with other European countries such as Hungary and France.

Also Monday, police said they broke up a Czech branch of an alleged Russia-based neo-Nazi organization known as Wotan Jugend. In a statement, spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova said the local branch was established by a 21-year-old foreigner of unspecified origin, and a total of five people are under investigation in the case. They face up to five years in prison if tried and convicted of racism.

This is the second straight year the attacks have risen, according to the report.

Jews in Bohemia, today’s Czech Republic, are predominantly Ashkenazic Jews, and the current Jewish population is only a fraction of the pre-WWII Czechoslovakia’s Jewish population.

There are ten small Jewish communities all around the country (seven in Bohemia and three in Moravia). The umbrella organisation for the Jewish communities in the country is the Federation of Jewish Communities (FŽO). Services have been held in Prague and some other cities.

As part of the original Czechoslovakia, and before that the Austro-Hungarian Empire the Jews had a long association with this part of Europe.Throughout the last thousand years there have emerged over 600 Jewish communities in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Most Slovak Jews were deported by the pro-Nazi Slovak Fascist government directly to Auschwitz, Treblinka, and other extermination camps, where they were murdered. Most Czech Jews were initially deported by the German occupiers with the help of local Czech Nazi collaborators to Terezin, known in German as Theresienstadt concentration camp and later killed. Jews are believed to have settled in Prague as early as the 10th century. The 16th century was a golden age for Jewry in Prague. One of the famous Jewish scholars of the time was Judah Loew ben Bezalel known as the Maharal, who served as a leading rabbiin Prague for most of his life. He is buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, and his grave with its tombstone intact, can still be visited. It is said that the body of Golem (created by Maharal) lies in the attic of the Old New Synagogue where the genizah of Prague’s community is kept.

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