As mentioned in our last post, we learned a lot about the history of Prague during our visit. We were familiar with certain “big” events from our studies and general knowledge of “current events,” including the defenestration of Prague in 1618, the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, and the Velvet Revolution in 1993. But it was tremendously interesting to dig into the details at the various sites we visited. One element we focused on was the Jewish history of Prague. One of the reasons we went to Prague when we did was the opportunity to see our friends Jeff and Lauren (one of my oldest friends) and join them for one day in their tour of Eastern Europe and Israel. We spent the day with their group, giving us the benefit of both a local Czech Jewish guide and an Israeli guide.
Our day started at the Prague castle, where we saw the actual window from which the famous defenestration took place. (Bob W., my and Lauren's former AP European History teacher would have been proud.) We also visited the St. Vitus Cathedral, which sits in the center of the castle complex. The stained glass was stunning:
Yes, that is two men urinating in a pool shaped like the Czech Republic outside of the Franz Kafka museum in the Mala Strana neighborhood. Kafka was a Bohemian Jew (born in Prague when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and is now recognized as one of Prague's most famous residents. But, during his lifetime Kafka published little, and actually worked as a lawyer for an insurance company (of all things) before dying of tuberculosis at age 40 in 1924.
The artist of the above statue, David Černý, also created the Franz Kafka metamorphosizing head statue, which has become a huge Prague tourist attraction:
After lunch we started our tour of the old Jewish Quarter. You can visit 7 well-preserved, beautiful, old synagogue buildings within central Prague. It is wonderful to see so many beautiful synagogues, but the reason they still exist is disturbing. The Nazis found Prague to be a lovely city and wanted to maintain its charm and history, and this included its synagogues. Apparently, Hitler wanted many of these buildings and their contents to become a museum to an extinct race – the Jewish community he intended to eradicate.
There were more than 40,000 Jews in Czechoslovakia when WWII started. Most of them fell victim to the Nazi Final Solution. Now less than 4,500 Jews remain in the Czech Republic. Sadly, that means that these synagogues no longer function as places of worship. Rather they are museums and memorials of a nearly-vanished community. While Hitler did not succeed, it almost seems like he did. Here are some photos of the ceiling of the Spanish synagogue, the Jewish ceremonial hall, and the Jerusalem synagogue (inside and out):
However, there is at least one old Synagogue in Prague that continues to operate. The Old-New Synagogue, which was completed in 1270, is Europe's oldest active synagogue. The nearby Old Jewish Cemetery contains graves dating from the mid-15th century through the late 18th century and contains the graves of many famous Jewish residents of Prague. This amazing site shows that the Jewish presence in Prague is both longstanding and important.
The Jerusalem synagogue included an exhibit regarding Jewish life in Czechoslovakia after WWII. Unfortunately, things did not improve for the Jews who survived and returned after the war. Instead, persecution and prejudice continued to pervade daily life under Communist rule, which prevented the Jewish community from flourishing and expanding. Our Jewish guide commented, “there’s no antisemitism in the Czech Republic,” based on the scarcity of Jews. But does the absence of an abundant Jewish population really mean there is no antisemitism? Based on the news in Europe, we don’t think so.
It was wonderful to spend time with Jeff and Lauren and their group. Going all the way to Prague to see dear friends and learn so much was worth it.
We’ve finally concluded telling you about our “summer” travels and visits. We returned to San Sebastian in mid-October and look forward to catching you up on our lives here in our next posts.
Hasta luego,
Shana & Jeff
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