Prague Journal

Thursday, March 10, 2005.

Sarah, one of our favorite Fulbright students, offered to give us a tour of the Jewish museums. With her sister and brother who are visiting Prague on their spring break, she had an entourage of five to guide through the six main sites. These buildings were returned to the Jewish Community in Prague in 1994, but the Jewish Museum was founded in 1906 by historian Dr. Hugo Lieben and the head of the Prague Jewish Community, Dr. Augustin Stein. The original aim was to preserve valuable artifacts from Prague synagogues that were liquidated during the reconstruction of the Jewish Town at the beginning of the 20th century. The Museum was closed to the public in 1939 after the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, but the Nazis brought artifacts from all the liquidated Jewish communities and synagogues to this site in 1942. The widespread conjecture is that the Nazis were building a museum to what they expected would be an extinct people.
We started our tour at the Pinkas Synagogue, Sarah’s favorite, which originally opened in 1960, but closed from 1968 until 1990. This is the synagogue that has the names of nearly 80,000 Czech Jews who perished in the holocaust inscribed on the walls, including that of Madeline Albright’s family, the Korbels. The upper section of the synagogue is a gallery with an exhibition of children’s drawings from Terezin in 1942-1944. Of the over 10,000 children who passed through Terezin, 242 survived. The Jewish cemetery is adjacent to the Pinkas synagogue. Here lie the remains of Rabbi Lowe, who is associated with the legend of the Golem, as well as of Mordechai Maisel, the major of the Jewish Town, who died in 1601. The cemetery contains almost 12,000 tombstones, although the number of people buried there is much greater, with several burial layers superimposed one on top of the other. The small Klausen Synagogue (which literally means “small building”) was the largest synagogue in the ghetto at one time, and served as Prague’s Burial Society. It now houses a permanent exhibition of pictures and artifacts showing customs connected with birth, circumcision, b’nai mitzvah, wedding, divorce, and the Jewish household.
The Altneu Shul, or “Old-New” Synagogue, was built in the middle of the 13th century. It was originally called the “New” or “Large” synagogue to distinguish it from the older shul, on the site of which now stands the Spanish Synagogue where we attend services on Friday evenings. When other synagogues were built in the 16th century, it became known as the “Old-New” (or provisional, depending on what writings you believe) synagogue. It was designed by a Christian architect, since Jews were not allowed to pursue architecture as a profession at that time. The main hall is the only existing medieval type hall of its kind, represented originally by the Romanesque synagogue in Worms (12th century) and the early Gothic synagogue in Regensburg. The hall is vaulted by six five-part vault compartments supported by two octagonal pillars. At this, the oldest continually-functioning synagogues in central Europe, orthodox services are held every morning and on Shabbat evenings.
We went into the Spanish Synagogue, which Matt had not seen before, since the reconstruction was not finished when we were here in 1997-1998. It opened the year we left, on the 130th anniversary of its founding. This synagogue is on the site of the oldest Prague Jewish house of prayer, the “Old School.” and is known for its Moorish style, which attracted Jews from all over Europe when it was built. We went upstairs to the exhibit area, near the organ pipes, which houses religious artifacts and an exhibition of the “History of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from Emancipation to the Present.”
Our last stop was the Maisal Synagogue, which was built in 1590-1592 by Mayor Mordechai Maisal as his private house of prayer. Now it houses an exhibition of the “History of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from the establishment of Jewish settlements up the period of emancipation,” a cross-sectional survey of the history of the Jews in the Czech Lands from the 10th century to the end of the 18th century.
After our 4-hour tour, Rick and Matt decided that they needed some down time, so we went home for a break before meeting Charlotte and Bruce at Palac Flora for a movie and dinner. We saw “Ray,” the biographical film about Ray Charles, which was every bit as good as its billing. Dinner was at the Orange Moon, a Thai restaurant in the glitzy new Palac Flora mall.

posted by JWinn @ 10:19 PM