Prague Journal

Saturday, February 12, 2005.

It’s been raining for two days—I was severely tempted to purchase an umbrella this afternoon—so the snow and ice are melted. I decided to go to services at the Jubilee Synagogue, despite the fact that I can’t follow any of the Hebrew. In the winter, Saturday services are held in the upstairs chapel just off the women’s balcony, since the large sanctuary is unheated. There were 15 men and 5 women today – mostly regular attendees. Following the traditional wine and challah blessings in the anteroom after the service, we were served a real Kiddush lunch, which consisted of wonderful strudel and a vat of cholent. Cholent is a bean-vegetable-grain soup, made with rice or barley or kasha and often with meat, that is kept on a low flame throughout the Sabbath (from Friday afternoon until sundown Saturday) so that orthodox Jews had plenty to eat during their observance of the Sabbath, when fires could not be kindled. Some contend that every slow-cooking dish made with beans derives from this Jewish technique. There is no doubt that, in Hungary, it evolved into “shalet,” one of the national dishes, while the Pilgrims, after spending time with Sephardic Jews in Holland, adopted it prior to sailing to the New World. The substitutions they later had to make for some ingredients resulted in Boston baked beans. One website attributed the origin of cholent to the pre-Inquisition Sephardic kitchen. From there, it probably “traveled” to Alsace, where it is believed to have been called “chault-lent,” Old French for hot and slow. When it was then brought to Germany and Eastern Europe, it took on the basic composition which characterizes it today. It is still traditionally served on Shabbat by Jews all over the world.
There’s an old joke about the Jewish guy who says: Goldberg comes to shul to talk to God... I come to shul to talk to Goldberg! Well, I really went to the synagogue this morning to talk to Eunice. After the service and lunch we went to her flat for tea. Eunice used to have a big house in Prague, but after her husband died she moved into a small apartment. She has amazing artwork from her husband and his family – paintings on the walls, figurines on tables and cabinets – and lots of antique radios and gramophones!
This evening I went to hear the Frames, an Irish contemporary/rock band, who are on a European and North American tour. The venue was Divadlo Archa, a modern concert-hall/theater not far from Republic Square. The theater was first opened in June1994, after two years of reconstruction of a building that had been owned by the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank. There are two halls which can be transformed into multi-functional spaces. The small theater seats up to 100; the larger one can seat up to 400 but for concerts such as this, it holds as many as 1000 standing visitors. Both theaters can be connected via a system of shifting walls, to serve various productions from opera or drama to dance or even multimedia performances. The foyer and the theatre club (bar/café) are used as exhibition spaces as well. The concert tonight was in the big hall, with no seats so it was standing room only, literally to the rafters. The music was excellent and many in the crowd were obviously familiar with most of the songs, and enthusiastically sang along. I was tempted by buy one of their CDs, though I can only play it on my computer here.

posted by JWinn @ 11:32 PM