CEFRES Team

Kajetán Holeček – Research & CV 

“Jews in Cheb (Eger) in the High and Late Middle Ages”

Contact : kajetan.holecek[@]cefres.cz

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

My dissertation examines the Jewish position in the urban space of Cheb (Eger), a town on the Czech-German border. Given that the Jewish community in this town is among the oldest and most populous in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, it could be seen as representative of other medieval Jewish communities. The local context thus serves as a valuable case study for understanding the role of Jewish residents in the environment of medieval towns. The primary objective of my research is to define the role of Jews in medieval urban society by analysing social interactions within the urban space in answering the question: How should we speak and think of the Jews in the urban space? 

By utilising the framework of the “spatial turn” in historical scholarship, my dissertation will examine how Jewish residents of Cheb (Eger) navigated and interacted with the physical and social spaces of the town, as well as how these interactions shaped social and economic relations. I intend to do it by analysing four topics: (1) Jewish Street, (2) Synagogue, (3) Credit Trade, and (4) Expulsions. Each of them focus on different aspects of Jewish interaction within the urban space. 

I do not intend to examine the Jewish–Christian relations as minority–majority relations; I see Cheb (Eger) as one space in which the individuals were living and interacting. The question is to what extent this interaction was shaped by individuals’ status in society. In my project, I will aim to explore what occurred under cover of apparent hierarchical, organised arrangement where the reality did not correspond so neatly with the prescribed emplacement). 

Through the “spatial turn” approach, my analysis of the Jewish experience in medieval urban society shifts the focus away from the Jewish community itself and towards the broader urban space and society since it is essential to avoid the pitfall of overemphasizing the role of Jews solely as minority within the majority population. Only by examining society as a whole can we grasp the multifaceted conditions of Jewish life within towns as both a desired and sometimes undesired part of the social fabric. 

CV 

Education 

  • since 2020 Jewish Studies (Ph.D.), Faculty of Arts, Charles University 
  • 2018 – 2021: History – Czech History in European Context (NMgr.), Faculty of Arts, Charles University 
  • 2017 – 2020: Hebrew Studies (NMgr.), Faculty of Arts, Charles University 
  • 2015 – 2018: History (Bc.), Faculty of Arts, Charles University 
  • 2014 – 2017: Hebrew Studies (Bc.), Faculty of Arts, Charles University 

Recent Academic Activities 

Participation in research projects: 

  • since 2024 Odpustkové seznamy pro jeruzalémskou pouť ve střední Evropě (14. – 16. století), [Indulgence lists for the Jerusalem pilgrimage in Central Europe (14th-16th centuries)], GAČR, 24-11115S; expert collaborator 
  • since 2020 Migrace a mobilita v pražské židovské obci na přechodu od středověku k ranému novověku, [Migration and mobility in Prague’s Jewish community during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period], Lumina Quaeruntur, Czech Academy of Science, LQ300151901; expert collaborator 
  • 2020 – 2022 Obchod – peníze – lichva. Pražští měšťané v ekonomickém prostoru Evropy (13.–15. století) [Trade – Money – Usury. The burghers of Prague in the Economic Space of Europe (13th –15th Century)], GAČR, 20-10897Y; expert collaborator 

Conference papers: 

  • 04/2024 Conference: “Beyond Large Communities: Small Jewish Settlements in the Middle Ages,” Klagenfurt (Austria); Paper: The Jewish Community in Teplice (Teplitz) at the End of the Middle Ages 
  • 11/2023 Conference: “Marktpraktiken und Konsum in der vormodernen Stadt,” Saarbrücken (Germany); Paper: Jewish Merchants in Bohemian and Polish Cities in the 16th Century: Similarities and Differences 
  • 7/2023 Conference: “12th EAJS Congress: Branching Out – Diversity of Jewish Studies,” Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Paper: The Books of Obligations and Jews in Eger (Cheb) 
  • 8/2022 Conference: “The 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies,” Jerusalem (Israel)Paper: The Jews of Prague and Poznan: A Study of Migration and Family Ties in the Sixteenth Century 
  • 6/2022 Conference: “Rural History 2021,” Uppsala (Sweden); Paper (with Tomáš Klír): Rural credit in late medieval Central Europe: The Cheb city state and the town of Znojmo 
  • 6/2022 Workshop: “‘Disruption’ and ‘Resilience’ in Ashkenazi Jewish History, 14th-16th cent.,” Trier (Germany); Paper: The Credit Trade and the Expulsion of the Jews from Eger (Cheb): Disruption or Continuity? 

Recent publications

  • Zwischen Prag und Posen: Einige Sondierungen in Streitigkeiten Prager und Posener Juden, in: Buňatová, Marie (ed.), Migrationsprozesse und Mobilität der europäischen Juden am Übergang vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, Kiel: Solivagus-Verlag, 2023 [in print] 
  • Václav IV.: Rex Iudæorum?, Husitský Tábor 28 (2023), s. 9–34. 
  • Židovské půjčky ve středověkém Znojmě, in: Musílek, Martin (ed.), Ceny – mzdy – peníze: Ekonomické myšlení ve středověkých a raně novověkých městech, Praha: Argo, 2023, s. 163–184. 
  • „Obec bez stanov je jako žena bez svatební smlouvy“: instituce a organizace venkovských židovských obcí v Čechách v 17. a 18. století, in: Sixtová, Olga – Sládek, Pavel (eds.), Pinkasim a správa židovských obcí v českých zemích raného novověku: struktura a funkce, Praha: Academia, 2023, s. 45–113. 
  • Bohemian Jews in Poznań after 1541: Merchants, Rabbis and Exiles, Judaica Bohemiæ LVII/2 (2022), pp. 5–30.