Demographic avant-garde: Jews in Bohemia between the enlightenment and the Soah

This book elucidates what made the Jews in Bohemia (the historic name for the western part of the Czech lands) forerunners of the demographic transition. It examines demographic data from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century, and looks for what made Bohemian Jews’ data distinct from the trends observed in the gentile community and among Jews elsewhere. The unique demographic behavior started when Jews were still living in segregated ghettos. From the 18th century onwards, Bohemian Jews developed patterns of decreasing mortality and fertility that were not observed among the gentile majority.