Persecution of Jews in Czechia

Crusaders
Jews were killed in Bohemia by Crusaders in the late 11th century and the mid-12th century during the First and Second Crusades. Many survivors were forcibly converted to Christianity.

Bohemian monarchs
Duke Bretislav II of Bohemia ordered for all property that belong to Jews to be confiscated in 1096. In 1124, Duke Vladislav I forbade Jews from owning Christian slaves. King Ottokar II of Bohemia issued regulations toward the Jews of Prague in 1254, which included that a Jew found with an unmarried Christian woman was to be killed, and a Jew found with a married Christian woman was to be impaled at the crossroads. After an accusation that Jews consumed Christian blood, King John sentenced several Jews to be killed at Prague in 1336 and had their synagogue torn down. Ottokar's regulations were confirmed by King Charles IV in 1356.

King Wenceslaus IV blamed the Jewish people being outside their ghetto on Holy Week for the massacre of thousands of Jews in Prague in 1389. He renewed Ottokar's regulations in 1393. Wenceslaus' successor, Sigismund I, expelled Jews from Cheb in 1430, and he exempted Bohemian Christians from paying any interest they owed to Jewish moneylenders. King Ladislaus the Posthumous (1440–1457), influenced by Franciscan John of Capistrano, expelled Jews from Brno, Olomouc, Uničov, and Znojmo.

In the early 16th century, King Vladislav II approved of the expulsion of Jews from Plzeň and České Budějovice, and King Ferdinand I expelled Jews from all of Bohemia in 1541. After the Jews were allowed back, the king decreed for Jews to wear a Jewish badge in 1551 and, in 1557, issued another decree ordering the expulsion of Jewish people. In 1630, King Ferdinand II ordered Jews to attend the conversionist sermons of the Jesuits.

King Charles II imposed extra taxes on Jews in Silesia in 1713, and in the 1720s, he restricted the number of Jews allowed in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, allowed only one son in a Jewish family to marry and begin a family, and segregated Jews into ghettos. In 1738, he expelled the Jews from Silesia. His successor, Queen Maria Theresa, ordered Jews to leave Prague in 1744. Later, in 1777, she wrote of Jews: “I know of no greater plague than this race, which on account of its deceit, usury and avarice is driving my subjects into beggary. Therefore as far as possible, the Jews are to be kept away and avoided.”

Ghettos
In 1262, a ghetto was established in Prague for the purpose of segregating Jews. King Charles II segregated Jews into ghettos in Bohemia and Moravia in 1727.

Blood libel
There were incidents of blood libels, which are false accusations against Jews of having killed Christians (usually children) for rituals, in Prague in 1305 and again in 1893, České Budějovice in 1505, Kroměříž in 1889, Benátky nad Jizerou in 1892, and Kolín and Holešov in 1893. In České Budějovice, Jews were murdered.

Host desecration accusations
Jews were murdered after accusations of host desecration in Jindřichův Hradec, Kouřim, and Třebíč in 1338, Prague in 1389, and Louny in 1541. After Prague's clergy spread accusations of host desecration and blasphemy against Jews in 1389, Christian mobs murdered Jews and forcibly baptized Jewish women and children. Jews were expelled after an accusation in Plzeň in 1504.

15th-16th-century expulsions
Albert V, Margrave of Moravia, expelled Jews from Jihlava in 1426, and King Sigismund I of Bohemia expelled Jews from Cheb in 1430. In the mid-15th century, Franciscan John of Capistrano's sermons incited the expulsion of Jewish people from Brno, Jihlava, Olomouc, Uničov, and Znojmo. Jews were also expelled from Most in 1453, Karlovy Vary in 1499, Plzeň in 1504, České Budějovice in the early 16th century, Uherské Hradiště in 1514, Ostrava in 1531, all of Bohemia twice in the mid-16th century, and Nový Jičín and Šternberk in 1562.