Day 4 The Jewish Quarter of Prague

Day 4
This morning was our opportunity to tour the Jewish Quarter of Prague known as Josefov. This area near the river is relatively small, containing a number of synagogues and the old and famous Jewish cemetery. Most of the synagogues are now used as museums exhibiting only part of the magnificent Judaica collection known as The Precious Legacy, which according to our guide, Luba, is the largest Judaica collection outside of Israel. The separate synagogues are really part of one collective museum and even with the numerous exhibits you can see only a part of the extensive collection. Judaica pieces are stored in various places around the area, rotating into exhibits, as well as a travelling Precious Legacy exhibit which has been to the US in years past and may be return in a few years.
We began our tour next to the cemetery in the Ceremonial Hall which housed the Chevre Kadisha, the burial society. Before entering, Luba pointed out a balcony, jutting out from this building, from which rabbis who were cohanim (priests) were able to conduct funerals since they are not supposed to be in contact with corpses or graves based on the rules of ritual purity for priests. The exhibit highlighted items associated with death and funerals. There were exquisite tzedaka boxes which were carried at all funerals to collect funds to support the survivors. We viewed a series of paintings by an anonymous artist depicting many scenes from the sickbed to the burial. These representations give us the most accurate view of what actually took place at the time. There was a magnificent ceramic pitcher used for the purification of the body and its silver cover with a representation of men carrying a casket. We learned that because of the low lying area of the cemetery near the river and the high water level, caskets, which were not common throughout Jewish European communities centuries ago, were permissible here.
From the Ceremonial Hall we proceeded immediately next door to the Klaus Synagogue which serves only as a museum. Here Luba related the stories of the preservation of the Judaica and Torahs. She mentioned there is no hard factual evidence to the usual explanation that the Nazis saved these items to open a museum in memory of an extinct culture.
From there it was a short walk down a street lined with open stalls of souvenirs, some Jewish, some not, on to the famous Old-New Synagogue, the Alt Neu Schul. It is the oldest synagogue in use remaining in all of Eastern Europe. Built in 1270 it is only predated by the synagogue in Toledo which has not functioned as a synagogue since the 15th century. We heard two reasons for its unusual name. The first was that there was an original building without a women’s section. When they constructed the women’s section they now had an old and a new part. The second more colorful explanation was that they had used stones from the Temple in Jerusalem to build it on condition (in Hebrew al t’nai) that they will be returned when the Temple is rebuilt. The Hebrew al t’nai sounds like alt neu.
This synagogue is still functioning and Luba pointed out that her father had a permanent seat there. It is most famous for Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal, from the 16th to the start of the 17th century. He was a scholar of Kabbalah and mysticism and according to legend created the Golem a “Frankenstein-like” monster out of the clay to protect the Jewish community of Prague. He wrote the Hebrew letters alef-mem-tav, emet which means truth, on the Golem to give him life. By erasing the alef you are left with the word meyt, which means death and takes away the Golem’s life. There is even another embellishment to the legend, namely, that the Golem is living in the attic of the synagogue but none of us caught even the slightest glimpse of him.
Our next stop was at the truly lovely Spanish Synagogue. It is not named for any Sehardic presence but rather because it is built in an 18th-19th century Moorish style. This style is the same as Central Synagogue in New York City and The Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati. Today the Spanish Synagogue is used by Beit Praha, a second local Reform group made up mostly of ex-pats. Also, on many evenings concerts are performed here.
Outside and immediately to the left of the synagogue we stood by an unusual statue in honor of Franz Kafka. It is a man with only a concave oval for a head and a smaller man sitting on the larger man’s shoulders. They say it is a man looking at himself. It is also said that Kafka lived in this area among many places because he often didn’t pay his rent and thus moved often. Later in the day Joe and Elise Wojciechowski joined Janusz, our tour leader, Jan and myself at the Kafka café for cup of coffee. In this café, next to the Kafka Book Shop there are many pictures of the Jewish district in former times. At the end of the 19th century many of the old, crowded and simple buildings were replaced with much more elegant structures. Today the Jewish Quarter is one of the upscale neighborhoods, with fancy Parizka (Paris) Street for upscale shopping. One might wonder about how life in the Jewish Quarter could have once been considered a ghetto.
Next we walked to the Maisel Synagogue. This synagogue was built by Maisel a wealthy financier, for his own family. Now it is only a museum with historical information about the community. A more fascinating object in the collection is a yellow hat that Jews were required to wear when they ventured out of the Jewish quarter into the rest of the city.
The final synagogue on our tour was the Pinkas Synagogue. It is now a memorial to Czech Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. The names of those who perished are written on the walls in alphabetical order by family. In the background one hears a 24 hour reading of all the names interspersed with the chanting of el malei rachamim memorial prayer. Seeking and finding a family member’s name among the list is poignant experience, as evidenced with our group alone. Anita Langen found a name that could very well have been her grandmother, of blessed memory. Her discovery provided a touching moment for all of us, to be thus connected to a close relation.
From the memorial, we entered the cemetery, now unused for 200 years. Given its small area adjacent to Pinkas Synagogue the approximately 12,000 buried there were often stacked up to 12 bodies. Today crowds circle the graves in a “tourist walk” to see the upright gravestones packed together. There are few monuments that stand out such as the small sarcophagus for Maisel, of synagogue note. Among the graves is the Maharal, Rabbi Judah Loew of Golem fame.
Our formal tour with Luba ended here. Our group dispersed for lunch, more street-walking and sight-seeing and rest. We ended up going to a different section of the city. We visited the Jerusalem synagogue, another stunning example of Moorish architecture. It was built as the Jewish population spread out around the city. From there we went to the Mucha Museum. Alphonse Mucha was the artist who designed posters for the actress Sarah Bernhardt, among others. His works and style are quite familiar but it was wonderful to see more of his art and learn about him in a detailed documentary at the museum.
Dinner for a few of us in a restaurant by the Charles Bridge – polished Czech fare. By way of a vicarious taste, one very delicious first course featured a round of baked goat cheese on a honey walnut bread accompanied by heated fresh figs and a slightly sweet frisee salad. We opted out of dessert at the restaurant since a party of what seemed like 100 noisy men sat adjacent to us. The din abated only when their meal courses were served.