Jižní Čechy opravdová láska - Židovské památky v jižních Čechách ENG

There used to be several hundred Jewish communi- ties in Bohemia, each of which had a synagogue or at least a prayer house or room, and a Jewish cemetery. Several dozen such communities existed in South Bohemia as well, but today not a single one remains. Most of their members died during World War II in concentration and extermination camps, whereas many of those who survived emigrated after 1948 or 1968. The South Bohemian Region also falls under the jurisdiction of the Jewish community in Prague, which also manages all Jewish cemeteries and several other preserved South Bohemian Jewish heritage sites. Another problem was that in the second half of the 19th century, many Jews migrated from the villages to the cities. Many rural Jewish communities became extinct and many synagogues were abandoned, some were sold to private individuals and modified for other purposes, and others were purchased by Christian church organizations. Since the Velvet Revolution, some of these have been reconstructed and now serve as museums; in South Bohemia, for example, these are the synagogues in Bechyně, Český Krumlov, and Čkyně. Of the fifty South Bohemian Jewish cemeteries, the rarely preserved Jewish cemetery in Jindřichův Hradec deserves particular attention; it is one of the oldest preserved Jewish cemeteries in the Czech Republic.