The Jewish Quarter

Eighty-five percent of  Czech Republic citizens identify themselves as atheists so it may seem uncharacteristic that one of the major tourist sections of Prague is Josefov, the Jewish Quarter.  The area has a dark history beginning with Jews being forced into the ghetto in the 10th century.  Over the next centuries, the noblemen who sat in the diet in Prague Castle made, and once in a while lifted,  rules forcing the Jews to convert or leave and limiting the professions they could enter.  Priests blamed the Jews for the Black Plague and sent congregants to kill residents of the ghetto and burn their homes.  

At the beginning of the 20th century, Jews were 4% of the population and integrated into much of the city’s activities.  Then came the 1930s.  The reason for why the area was spared is one of nightmares.  The Germans chose Josefov to become a “memorial to the annihilated race.”  While killing 78,000 Czech Jews, the Nazis collected ritual objects of Jewish history and worship and brought them to display in the synagogues in Prague.  The Germans did not fulfill their goal of annihilation but their successors, the Communists, were only slightly better in their treatment of Jews.  Today the country has about 10,000 Jews.

Our tour guide, a Holocaust and property rights major and not Jewish, was outstanding.  Her explanations provided historical facts mixed with occasional irony.  After her overview, we returned to visit the Jewish Museum (yes, there is a museum made of former synagogues), a synagogue and a cemetery.   

 
The Old-New Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue (both 13th century), and the Maisel Synagogue no longer offer religious services but instead display historical and religious items looted from Bavaria and Moravia. 

 

The Pinkas Synagogue has a painful display.  On the walls is the “Memorial of the 77,297,” the names of Czechoslovakians  exterminated by the Nazis.  Upstairs they had displays of art drawn by children in the show camp of Terezin (where the Nazis pretended the people in the camps led a comfortable life).

 

The exit from the synagogue leads to the small cemetery (Jews could not acquire more land) where so many Jews died during pogroms in the 15-18th centuries that graves were stacked twelve deep.  The stones are crowded and lean upon each other.

 
Within the quarter are monuments to famous residents, Franz Kafka, Max Broad, and Albert Einstein.  This statue is dedicated to Kafka.

A survivor who has relocated to Australia owns a home where 263 of her family members were arrested and slaughtered.  She survived as a worker in the camp but was sterilized.  She has refused to sell the building and wants it to remain as a deteriorating monument to what was done to the residents.

 The Starnova Syngogue, built in 1270, is the oldest continuously functioning synagogue in Czechslovakia.  It is of orthodox denomination.  A second synagogue outside the quarter is less strict in its observance.





 

We had a tasty lunch at King Solomon’s, a kosher restaurant, and for dinner enjoyed our only Asian meal of the trip.

 

On our last day of the trip, we braved the chill to enjoy the sites of this lovely city.  Charles Bridge is for pedestrians only.  Darkened religious statues tower over the souvenir vendors that line the bridge.  The walk was lovely but would have been even better on a sunny day.

Our last stop on this eastern European trip was at a museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts.  The small exhibit halls are filled with an eclectic collection of glassware, vintage clothing, clocks, inlaid furniture and more.  Displays mix works from the middle ages with those of the early 1900s, providing such odd combinations as a bench from the 1500s with a glass ball from 1922.

Steve and Rita turned in early to prepare for a too early morning flight while Jerry and Anna Lee found a very good Italian restaurant.

We all enjoyed a wonderful and educational trip and have many more stories to share if you are interested.