Abstract
On the example of the Jewish community in Nový Jičín, the author traces, how complicated and multilayered process was the Jewish emancipation. Civil emancipation of the Jews at the turn of the 50s and 60s of the 19th century was rather a prerequisite towards achieving the ideal of equality of Jewish and non-Jewish society.
The author therefore examines the attempts to "internal emancipation", a gradual process of transforming Jewish livelihoods and struggle for the emancipation of the Nový Jičín community with communities that had the status of the Jewish Religious Community. The author finally concludes that emancipation was definitely not a mere single legislative act, but a long-term process, unending quest for the ideal of equality, in which not only gentiles had to change their way of thinking, but also Jews themselves.