A new issue of the journal Judaica Bohemiae (Vol. 55/2020, 2) came out in December 2020. It starts with a study by Janusz Spyra (Grosse Politik in einer kleinen Gemeinde. Der Skandal um den Rabbiner Karl Blan aus Neu-Oderberg / Nový Bohumín) which, drawing on a wide range of archival sources with focus on the activities of the controversial Rabbi Karl Blan (1906–2001), illustrates the complexity of religious relations within Jewish communities in the Bohemian lands, the growing influence of Zionist supporters, and the politicization of public life on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. This is followed by a paper by Veronika Szeghy-Gayer (Jewish Representatives of the Hungarian Political Opposition in Interwar Slovakia: The Case of Prešov and Košice) which examines the Jewish elites in interwar Czechoslovakia who were involved in the Hungarian political opposition and who regarded Jews from Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia as members of the Hungarian minority.
The Documents section contains a paper by Václav Nečada and Daniel Polakovič (Copies of Inscriptions on Medieval Jewish Tombstones from Znojmo (Znaim) Made by the Moravian Historian Joseph Edmund Horky in 1819) which deals with the life and work of Joseph Edmund Horky (1795–1844) – a historian who, during a research trip in south-western Moravia, made copies of inscriptions on five medieval Jewish tombstones from Znojmo (Znaim), most of which are known to this day only thanks to his notes. The paper is accompanied by an edition of the Hebrew inscriptions from the above-mentioned tombstones.
In the Reports section, a paper by Michaela Sidenberg presents for the first time a set of photo albums from the collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague, which are of unique value for exploring the emancipation of the Jews in the Bohemian lands and their contribution to the cultural and social development of the region.
The final section of the journal contains reviews of the following books: Kateřina Čapková, Hillel J. Kieval et al., Zwischen Prag und Nikolsburg. Jüdisches Leben in den böhmischen Ländern (reviewed by Jiří Pešek), Marie Buňatová, Hedvábí, sklo a koření. Obchod mezi Prahou a Itálií (1500–1620) (reviewed by Antonín Kostlán), Pavel Sládek, Jehuda Leva ben Besal’el – Maharal. Obrana uzavřeného světa v židovském myšlení raného novověku (reviewed by Alexandr Putík) and Werner Bergmann, Tumulte, Excesse, Pogrome. Kollektive Gewalt gegen Juden in Europa 1789–1900 (reviewed by Mathias Berek).