PRAGUE Jewish Quarter Guide

SPONSORED BY C HOSEN P EOPLE MINISTRIES PRAGUE Jewish Quarter Guide cover Table of Contents This is an interactive document: you can click hyperl...
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C HOSEN P EOPLE MINISTRIES

PRAGUE Jewish Quarter Guide

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Table of Contents This is an interactive document: you can click hyperlinks to go to the linked URL and some of the images are clickable too dashed yellow line.

History of Prague’s Jewish Quarter

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Pinkas Synagogue (Pinkasova Synagoga)

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Old Jewish Cemetery Starý Židovský Hřbitov

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Klausen Synagogue Klausová Synagoga

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Ceremonial Hall Obradni Sin

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Jewish Town Hall Židovská Radnice

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Old-New Synagogue Staranová Synagoga

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Maisel Synagogue

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Franz Kafka Statue

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Spanish Synagogue Španělská Synagoga

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Memorial of Nicholas Winton

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History of Prague’s Jewish Quarter:

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Jewish people have been living in Prague since as early as 970 A.D., but have walked a tough road to gain acceptance and safety. During the 1st Crusade in 1096 A.D. Jews in Prague first started to feel angry and violent opposition from Christian groups. In order to gain a safe foothold, as well, they were mainly banned from living anywhere else, so Prague’s Jewish population began to congregate in the Jewish Quarter or Ghetto. The Jewish Quarter served them well when one of the biggest mobs tried to wipe them out in 1389. During the 1389 assault an astonishing 1,500 Jews were murdered, but it would have been even worse if it wasn’t for the Jewish Quarter to fall back on. It was a rough time and the Jewish Quarter had its gates locked at night by the city and residents weren’t allowed to leave after dark. In the 1500’s the Quarter finally started to hit its Golden Age when Jewish Mayor Mordechai Maisel was elected Prague’s Minister of Finance. Maisel’s election not only helped to give the Jewish quarter a voice, but also helped them get much needed money for development. These developments included paving the Quarter’s streets to building numerous Synagogues and a Town Hall. The growth was huge as the Jewish population quickly became 25% of Prague’s residents and the largest numbers of Jews in any city in the World. These new arrivals were Jews expelled from Moravia, Germany, Austria and Spain. This Golden Age ended abruptly 200 years later when Austro-Hungarian Empress Maria Theresa expelled the Jews from Prague in 1745. When Empress Maria Theresa’s son Joseph II took over and he became the Holy Roman Emperor, you would think life would get even harder for Prague’s Jews, but the opposite happened. Joseph II led a large number of reforms throughout Christendom that helped to improve the lives of European Jews. They were allowed to come back to Prague’s Jewish Quarter and had the restrictions of their movements lifted. The Quarter was even able to shed its Ghetto status and became an official district of Prague. Because of these reforms the Jewish people in Prague started calling the Quarter Josefov in Emperor Joseph II’s honor. The darkest time in the Jewish Quarter came when the Nazis arrived in 1939. Within a year of the occupation most Jewish businesses were seized and public life became segregated. Jewish citizens were restricted to the Ghetto and thousands were deported. Most of the

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Guide deportations involved sending people to other Ghettos to split up families or directly to death camps. Of the over 100,000 Jewish that were “deported” from the area during the Holocaust, it is estimated that nearly 70,000 did not survive. In total over 250,000 Jewish who lived in Czech Lands before 1938 died during the war. Luckily through the hellish days, many Jewish artifacts were hidden from the Nazis and preserved for future generations. There were also several times where children were rescued through a British adoption ring, both of which we touch on below. Since being liberated in 1945, the Jewish community has slowly recovered to become a vibrant and delightful neighborhood to visit. Prague’s Jewish Quarter is the preserved complex of Jewish historical buildings in Europe.

Pinkas Synagogue (Pinkasova Synagoga) The small, house-like Pinkas Synagogue first opened as a private place of worship for the family of the wealthy Aron Horowitz in 1535. As Prague’s second oldest surviving Synagogue, it was named after Aron’s grandson Pinkas Horowitz and it has become a very powerful place to visit as a tourist. Most of the emotion from visiting Pinkas comes from the nearly 77,297 names inscribed on the walls of Jews from Bohemia and Moravia that were sent to die in concentration camps by the Nazis in WW2. The staggering number of nearly 80,000 names are followed by their birthday and last known day they were alive. Because the names are pretty much in alphabetical order by last name you can see that many families were all killed on the same day, likely by gas chamber. It is sad and emotional when the scale of all 77,297 names hit your eyes from every corner of the Synagogue’s interior, but it is an important reminder of the past. Making the experience even more powerful is the fact that the names are read out loud in between religious singing over the speakers. If you are wondering why the names on the ceiling are so much more faded than the walls it is because the ceilings are original and the walls had to be re-written in 1992 after being taken down during Soviet rule. Further restoration was done after a 2002 flood. http://tinyurl.com/jjjso9h

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Old Jewish Cemetery Starý Židovský Hřbitov With its oldest grave dating back to 1439 (Rabbi, poet and scholar Avigdor Karo), the Old Jewish Cemetery was the only place Prague’s Jews were allowed to bury their dead until Joseph II reforms started in 1787. When they were allowed to bury elsewhere the Cemetery quickly closed as it was bursting at the seams over capacity. In 350 years this small cemetery with 1,200 plots found itself with 12,000 headstones and up to an astonishing 100,000 estimated buried bodies. With no room in the Old Jewish Cemetery, residents continued to add new layers of dirt and in some places the graves are said to be 12 bodies deep. The constant addition of earth and headstones left the cemetery a gnarled collection of beautiful headstones shooting off in all directions. Because of its tangled headstones, the Old Jewish Cemetery is by far our favorite place in Prague to take photos.

http://tinyurl.com/hb7qnlu It is kind of strange to find a pre-WWII Jewish Cemetery still surviving in a country once occupied by the Nazis as they would often rip the headstone out to use them for shooting practice. Hitler liked Prague’s Jewish Cemetery and decided to leave it untouched, not out of endearment, but because he wanted it to serve as a reminder of the extinct race after he killed all of the Jews. Hitler really was a sick man, but in this case his twisted mind left the headstones for us to admire today. Among the most famous headstones are Avigdor Karo who has the oldest grave, (1439), Mordechai Maisel the Mayor of the Jewish Town help spur development (1601), and Rabbi Loew who is attached to the legend of the Golem (1609).

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Klausen Synagogue Klausová Synagoga Klausen Synagogue is rather small by today’s standards which is fitting seeing how the word Klaus actually means small in German. It was built in 1604 in honor of a visit to the Jewish Quarter by Emperor Maximilian II and was actually the 2nd largest Synagogue in the heart of the Jewish Quarter. Klausen has been reconstructed a couple of times over the years and today houses a great exhibition on Jewish customs and traditions. We found the exhibition here to be more enjoyable than the one at Ceremonial Hall as it focuses on Jewish festivals. The festivals are joined by other celebrations in Jewish life such as child births, male circumcisions, youth bar mitzvahs, and traditional weddings. http://tinyurl.com/zr7wjlb

Ceremonial Hall Obradni Sin While the exhibition inside Ceremonial Hall on Jewish customs and traditions isn’t overly thrilling, it is the building itself that will force it onto your mustsee list. Built in 1912, the picturesque Roman style Ceremonial Hall was made to house the Cemetery’s original Ceremonial Hall and mortuary. With an aged exterior and terracotta shingles, the new Ceremonial Hall reminds us of the beautiful ancient Orthodox Churches in old town Athens Greece. If you venture inside a series of paintings shows how Prague´s Burial Society took care of the sick and dying. http://tinyurl.com/zk778qh

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Jewish Town Hall Židovská Radnice The Jewish Town Hall (Židovská Radnice) was built by Mayor Maisel in 1586 as the start of a community revival. It is a fairly common looking building on the surface mainly because the Synagogues are much more important in Jewish life than a Town Hall. The most striking feature at the Town Hall are the 2 separate clocks stacked above one another. The higher one is a traditional clock with Roman numerals while the lower clock uses Hebrew numbers and spins backward to represent the Hebrew language being read from right to left. While the current Rococo added in the 1700’s may match the surrounding building built in the late 1800’s the clocks have survived the test of time. http://tinyurl.com/j2wbaq3

Old-New Synagogue Staranová Synagoga Welcome to the oldest Synagogue in Europe which was built in 1280. The Synagogue was at first called the New Synagogue and quickly became the center of the then tiny Jewish community. As the Jewish Quarter started its Golden Age in the late 1500’s other newer Synagogues were built and the name Old-New Synagogue stuck. The coolest folklore maybe in all of Prague is of Rabbi Yehudi Loew (1512-1609) and his Golem. Rabbi Loew wanted a way to stop blood attacks and mass killings of Jewish people, so he created a Golem creature out of clay and brought it to life with a magic stone. The Golem did its job but started to become unstable causing havoc around town so the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II asked the Rabbi to stop it and in exchange he would call for an end to the persecution of the Jews. The Rabbi agreed and the persecutions ended, but the Golem was stored in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue for safe keeping in case they ever need it again. This folklore is great fun and can be seen all around Prague in different forms from statues to paintings. http://tinyurl.com/z7qpvaz

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Maisel Synagogue In the late 1500’s wealthy resident Mordechai Maisel became Mayor of the Jewish community and later gained a lot of influence when he was appointed National Minister of Finance. Using this influence Maisel was able to invest in the neighborhood he represented and help revive it. His renovations spread to buildings such as the Town Hall in 1586 and even to many streets themselves which can still be seen today. These works helped the community grow into its golden age and also made Maisel a revered leader in the community. He even used his position to loan money to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II for his battles with the Turks which not only gained favor for the Nation, but also made Maisel one of the richest people in all of Prague. With his new found wealth Mayor Mordechai Maisel had a Synagogue built here in 1590 as a private place of worship for his family which still bears his name. They really wanted their synagogue to be immaculate so they filled it with a wealth of gold and silver which has been lost over time. Over the years Maisel Synagogue has been rebuilt twice due to fire, but Hitler left it untouched even though it is on the outer edge of the old Jewish Ghetto. Luckily Hitler was defeated and since 1995 the Synagogue has been part of Prague’s Jewish Museum celebrating the heritage of Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from the 900’s to 1800’s AD. The exhibit is carried over to the Spanish Synagogue, mentioned later, which covers the heritage from the late 1800’s-1945. http://tinyurl.com/hk2lb4s

Franz Kafka Statue The Statue was finished 80 years after his death in 2004 and depicts a smaller version of Kafka riding on the shoulders of a headless fullsized Kafka in a suit which was inspired by Franz’s early short story “Description of a Struggle”. The location was chosen not only because of its location to Kafka’s house (27 Dusni Street) but also for the location sitting right between a Catholic Church and a Jewish Synagogue. Many of the characters in Kafka’s short stories lived life under overpowering bureaucracies with a feeling of helplessness just like he had early in his life in Prague. These types of characters were easy for people to identify with changing the landscape of early 20th Century writing and leading to the term Kafkaesque for characters like this. http://tinyurl.com/jh5bnyr

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Spanish Synagogue Španělská Synagoga Because the Islamic Moors controlled most of Spain from 700-1400 AD the builders of this Synagogue decided to call it the Spanish Synagogue due to its Moorish style. The Synagogue was built in 1868, but the site is the oldest site of prayer in the Jewish Quarter with prior Synagogues dating back to 1142. We love the Muslim style architecture and it reminds us of some of the great Synagogues in Budapest. Today the Spanish Synagogue is part of Prague’s Jewish Museum celebrating the heritage of Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from the late 1800s to 1945 AD. The exhibit is carried over to the Maisel Synagogue which covers the heritage from the late 900’s-1800’s AD. http://tinyurl.com/z7st858

Memorial of Nicholas Winton NOTE THAT THIS MEMORIAL IS NOT IN THE JEWISH QUARTER Nicolas Winton is one of the most famous people to help the Jewish population in Prague. In 1979 Nicolas’ wife Greta found a box in her attic with lists of Jewish children from Prague and letters from their parents, but had no idea why they were there. It turns out that 41 years earlier her husband, then a 30 year old clerk in the London Stock Exchange, saved the lives of 699 Jewish children and Greta never even knew about it. Nicholas had visited Prague in 1938 and became concerned about the increasing amount of Jewish refugees and the oncoming march of Hitler’s army toward the Czech capital.

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Guide Through his connections in the British government, Nicholas arranged trains to help children of Prague escape before the Nazis got there and even found them foreign foster homes. In order to find enough foster parents, Britain agreed to pay British families a whopping 50 Pounds to take a child in. Winton set up shop secretly in the Hotel Evropa and Jewish parents quickly showed up to get their kids on the list to save them. Nicholas managed to get 8 trains out of Prague with 699 children before the Nazis showed up. When the 9th train left on September 3rd, it was intercepted and all 250 children were killed ending Winton’s efforts on what was also the same day Britain entered WW2. In the end the 699 kids that Winton saved sparked the Kindertransport Movement which saved an additional 10,000 children in Europe. After decades without recognition sculptor Flor Kent added a statue of Nicholas Winton seeing two kids off with a suitcase as a memorial in 2009 symbolically at Prague’s train station where the kids departed from. At the other end of the line in Liverpool Street Station in London, Kent installed another statue entitled “Für Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial” which was unveiled in 2003. He won many awards, was knighted by the queen in 2003 and was spoken about highly by many politicians and rabbis. He was born Nicholas Wertheimer, of German Jewish parents who changed their name to assimilate better. His family became believers and were baptized. He died at the age of 106 in July 1 2015. http://tinyurl.com/z6kdk2o

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