| Summary: | Jewish Community and Religious Practice in Prague Synagogues from the mid-19th Century until the Shoah This historical ethnographic study examines the Prague Jewish community and its c. 30 synagogue congregations in the second half of the 19th century until the shoah through the prism of their musical-liturgical practices. This research constitutes an in-depth investigation of liturgical and religious phenomena and developments which have hitherto been neglected in research on Czech- German-Jewish history of Prague and in accounts of the music history of the Czech Lands. The central question is, which forms and meanings Jews gave to their praying and acting in Prague synagogues in that period. The study is based mainly on archival research and analysis of written sources like community and official records, periodicals and written music collections as well as material sources and oral history. Three main aspects cross through the entire study: the organization aspects, the actors and the practice frame. The focus of the first part of the study is based on the structural situation of the Prague Israelite (later Jewish) Community as the umbrella organization and the largely autonomous, and therefore religiously manifold, individual synagogue congregations. Furthermore, the tasks and roles of the actors of the...
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