Jakob was born in 1808 in Vlastislav in house no 23. His father Michal and mother, Theresa had come to love in this village after Michal completed his training as a kosher butcher. Their home would have stuck strictly to traditional Jewish laws and customs. Jakob’s training to become a kosher butcher would have started at an early age and his education provided mainly by his father would have concentrated on studying Talmudic texts, particularly those associated with the dietary laws.
It seems that it took many years for Jakob to complete his training and become established in his profession as he did not marry until he reached the age of 44 in 1852. On the 20th April he married Barbara Lewy aged 30, the daughter of Marcus Lewy in the village of Netluky, just east of Prague. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last long as Barbara died quite soon after the wedding, perhaps in childbirth.
In June 1857, Jakob marries again to Alzbeta Graff, she was 28 years old, while he was 49. Over the next 11 years they had eight children.
Every week Jakob would have toured the villages around Vlastislav and the larger village of Třebivlice carrying out the ritual slaughter and preparation of the chicken or goat that each family would want to be eating for their Shabbat dinner on Friday night. In exchange for his work he would be given other food produce or useful household goods, textiles or clothes. There was a small prayer room in the village and Jakob would have been one of the main service leaders.
In 1870, he died aged 62. We know that his son Max and his grandson Franta also died ‘young’ from coronary heart disease, so maybe its not an unreasonable assumption that Jakob died from a heart attack.
