The Czech Republic has quite a colorful Jewish history, as it is in many parts of Europe. This makes it a great destination for Jewish heritage tours. Sometimes they are the only way that you can truly discover the histories in some of their towns. 

Let us take for example the town of Františkovy Lázně and take a little kosher tour around it.

Františkovy Lázně is a city West of Prague, in the Karlsbad region, Cheb district. He is part of the so-called “Sudetenland“ area. The town and its spring waters were known since the 15th Century. The water from the springs was used not only by local residents but was sold all over Germany. 

In 1700, the sale of Franciscan water in Germany exceeded the volume of water coming from all German baths. The town was founded in 1793 by the Emperor Francis I as the first muddy spa in the world. The protection of mineral water resources and the whole of the spring structure has undergone a gradual development. In 1866 a decree established a protection zone around the area of the Solny Spring.

The community of Jews in this town existed only since the time of Jewish emancipation (late 18th Century). There is not much known about the people. The primary source being used by researchers is Hugo Gold's Geschichte der Juden böhmens, which was published in Czechoslovakia in 1934. 

We will tackle this in Part II of our lesson on Františkovy Lázně. But better yet, why not embark on a memorable kosher Europe tour and see the gems of European Jewish history for yourself?

Here are the other Part of the article:
Part II: The Jews of Františkovy Lázně

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