1728 – 1820

During this period both Bohemia and Moravia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and were governed by the Dukes of Hapsburg.

The Empress Maria Theresa passed a decree in December 1744 to expel all Jews from all of Bohemia within six months. After appeals and interventions by both Jews and some church leaders, the expulsion was just limited to the Jews who lived in Prague and they were allowed to move to small villages and towns across Bohemia.

By 1748, they were allowed to move back into Prague and eventually regained most of their rights and freedoms.

The Hapsburg rulers decided that the Jews were still becoming too numerous and introduced legislation, known as the Familianten,  designed to restrict the number of Jewish families allowed to live in Bohemia to exactly 8,541 by only permitting the oldest sons to marry and stay living within Bohemia, provided that an appropriate licence was granted from the local magistrate, all taxes have been paid and other required documents, such as school reports, trade certifications, etc were provided.

If a family wanted to arrange for further sons to get married within Bohemia, they had to either find a family with only daughters or find a family who couldn’t afford to pay the appropriate taxes and purchase their licence. In some situations, special allowances were made for those who worked only within the Jewish Community, such as Rabbis, Cantors or Schochtim (kosher butchers). 

A consequence of these rules were that official marriages could not take place until all the documents and licences were gathered, which could take several years. This led to some Jewish marriages under the Chuppah taking place quietly taking place in family homes, sometimes years before the ‘official’ wedding could take place.

A major war between Prussia and Austria takes place in Bohemia between 1755 and 1762.