Třináct snů o svobodě - Osudy židovského Brna ve třech stoletích – Konečný Michal (2025)

Stories of significant Jewish figures associated with Brno.

It is possible to read in almost every book about the city that the shape and history of Brno have been shaped together for centuries by Germans, Czechs, and Jews. Almost everyone knows that Jewish entrepreneurs were at the height of Moravian Manchester's glory, the world knows the famous Tugendhat villa, and many at least suspect how tragically centuries of coexistence ended. However, the entire history of the thriving Jewish community in Brno is not very well known. The book Thirteen Dreams of Freedom attempts to partially rectify this debt. Through thirteen fates tied to the months of the Jewish calendar, one can glimpse into the lives of personalities who shaped the history of Jewish Brno from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century. Among them were the self-proclaimed Messiah Jakob Frank, the passionate lover of freedom Mojses Dobruschka, Rabbi Baruch Jakob Placzek, doctor Richard Werner, writer Ernst Weiss, comedian Fritz Grünbaum, activist Nora Lustigová, the notoriously infamous politician Otto Šling, and the post-war rabbi Richard Feder, renowned for his courage, wisdom, and kindness. Thanks to them, the city ranked alongside significant European centers of industry, culture, art, and science. The lives of these men and women who loved...