Jewish Ostrava: Virtual Community and Digital Archive. The Ostrava Group in London and the Jewish Museum in Prague
Jewish Ostrava: Virtual Community and Digital Archive. The Ostrava Group in London and the Jewish Museum in Prague

Summary/Abstract: Before the Second World War, Moravská Ostrava (or Mährisch Ostrau in German) and its broader agglomeration was home to the third largest Jewish community in Bohemian Lands (after Prague and Brno/Brünn). Over the second half of the 19th century, Ostrava developed into a modern industrial metropolis driven by the steep upsurge of coal mining and its growing steel industry. As a new city, Ostrava exhibited extraordinary economic dynamism and vibrant cultural life, but also a large gap between the miners and workers on the one hand and the rich on the other. Moreover, it was an ethnically mixed city formed by immigration. People searching for employment or business opportunities poured in not only from Moravia, but in large numbers from Galicia, a region cast by poverty and large scale emigration – to America or any place offering a better chance of success, profit or at least modest salary. Ostrava, as an industrial centre hungry for manpower, offered it all.

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