Reorganization of Jewish Communities in Czechoslovakia Planned

Representatives of the Jewish communities of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia met recently in Prague to discuss formation of a new organization of the Jewish community, it is reported in the latest issue of Vestnik, official or gan of the Czech Jewish community, which arrived here today.

Under the proposed reorganization, a synagogue committee will take charge of all religious services, maintenance of Jewish houses of worship and cemeteries, and will be given an opportunity to carry on relief work. Jewish communities, “which, apart from purely religious functions, will also have administrative duties,” will be maintained hereafter only in the following nine cities: Prague, Brno, Karlsbad, Liberec, Pilson, Olomouc, Ostrava, Usti Nad Labem and Kyjov.

“Participants in the conference were aware of the fact that the wounds inflicted on the Jewish population had changed its organizational structure to the extent of making the reorganization unavoidable,” the paper says. “Such a reorganization must be in accordance with the reduced number of our co-religionists and the fundamental tasks of the Jewish communities.”