Slovakia Jewish Records: Difference between revisions

Jewish Records refers to records about Jews (non-vital) and records of Jewish births, marriages, and deaths (vital). Non-vital Jewish records were created as Jewish communities kept account books, bought property, or had dealings with rulers and local governments. Records pertaining to Jews and Jewish congregation exist from the 1500s. Jews in Austria generally did not keep vital records unless required to do so by law. Jews did not receive legal recognition until the Edict of Toleration in 1781. Beginning in 1788, Jews were required to keep records of births, marriages and deaths in German under Catholic supervision. Because these records were required for conscription and taxation purposes, Jews often evaded registration and but most Jewish communities did not actually start keeping records until the practice was again codified into law in 1840. The laws requiring records of births, marriages and deaths were reemphasized several times during the early 1800s and the practice was well established the 1860s. Jewish congregations continued to maintain registers into the 1930s when persecutions became severe. Most Jewish congregations were destroyed in the Holocaust but the records were preserved in archives.