Jewish History
Institute of Contemporary History
Kateřina Čapková
In: Česká literatura, 3/2014, 455-462
Four contemporary Czech scholars, Ales Haman, Jiri Homolac, Jan Mares, and Jan Randak, have recently claimed that the pamphlet ‘Pro strach židovský’ (For fear of the Jew), by a leading Czech writer, Jan Neruda (1834–1891), should not be seen as antisemitic propaganda. The author of the present article takes issue with these four scholars’, and argues that they attempt to play down Neruda’s anti-Jewishness and they seek to explain it, indeed defend it, as understandable in the context of the growing political and economic ambitions of the Czech national movement.
