Speaker Profile: Vaclav Chvatal

ChvatalVaclav_photoVaclav Chvatal is with TAMUS Tachov Archives & Museum Society. He was born in the Czech Republic and has language skills in Czech (mother tongue), Finnish, Slovak, English, German, Russian and Hebrew (epitaphs).

His formal education includes:

  • University of Agriculture, Master degree in forestry (1990);
  • Alkio-opisto, University of Jyväskylä (Finland), studies of anthropology (2000-2001); and
  • Charles University in Prague, Master degree in philology (2003), 1st Doctoral degree (2004).

Since 2002 he has conducted cartographic, photographic and epigraphic documentation and research of Jewish cemeteries (including restoration of abandoned cemeteries, over 110 cemeteries documented). His publications include six books, over 80 other publications and lectures. He is author of the methodology of research of Jewish cemeteries. Vaclav was a guest speaker at the IAJGS conference in Salt Lake City in 2014.

website: http://tamus.tachov.org/

“How Jews Came to Finland” (Sun-127), 9-10:15 A.M.

This presentation outlines the reasons for Jewish migration from different parts of Russia to Finland, and it chronicles the origins of the Jewish communities in Finland. This research is based on the complete documentation of Jewish gravestones in Finland, completed in 2007-2010. Nicolai’s (the emperor of former Great Russia in 1830s) decision was to change Russia to one-language and one-religion (Christian-orthodox) country. All other ethnicities had been recognized as “undesirable”. They were forced to serve in the army and moved to the marginal parts of Russia – e. g. to Finland. So, in the end, Nicolai’s political edict determined who would be Finland’s Jews. The gravestone epitaphs yielded many interesting facts about the Jewish soldiers (e. g. the youngest was forced to serve at age of 8!), and about their places of origin (now mostly in Eastern Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia).

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Cemetery research, Immigration and migration over the ages, Jewish history and culture 

“Jewish Communities in Small Villages as a Result of Medieval Migration in Central Europe” (Tues-125), 9:00 – 10:15 A.M.

This presentation depicts establishment of and life in Jewish communities in small villages, established after migration in the 15th to 16th centuries. The main reasons for Jewish migration was often pogroms and expulsions from Czech and German cities, with subsequent loss of citizenship rights and the introduction of trade restrictions. After emigrating from their original living places, the Jews found new homes in small villages and in mountainous areas far away from important industrial centers. The new Jewish communities were established within a few miles of each other. There were no rural Jewish cemeteries nor communities in Bohemia before 1500. The most important first steps in the new home was the establishment of a cemetery and a synagogue.

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Cemetery research, Immigration and migration over the ages, Jewish history and culture