Before my first visit to Prague earlier this year, I had heard a lot about the beauty of the town. Everyone falls in love with Prague. Both banks of the Vltava River are quite picturesque and enjoyable to explore. However, not only until I had begun to research my visit there that I learned about its Jewish Quarter. So, on my first day in Prague, I set out to find it so I could learn more about what happened to the Jewish inhabitants of the city in World War II and pay respect to their memory as I did so…
As one may expect, the Jewish Quarter is in the heart of Old Town Prague on the eastern banks of the river, just south of where it makes an almost 90 degree easterly turn.
History preserved in Prague
The quarter’s history stems from when Jews living in the area were ‘asked’ to move to this area as a way to concentrate them into one quarter. Over the decades and centuries, more Jews arrived and moved into the quarter.
What is fascinating is that the district has survived (for the most part) all these centuries. From what I read, Adolf Hitler on purpose did not destroy the district to serve as a museum to what he thought would be a forgotten people. Wrong. But, because it was not destroyed, the streets and buildings remain in helping the world remember the vast tragedy inflicted upon Jews across Europe.
The general area of the Jewish Quarter constitutes the Jewish Museum in Prague. In other words, the museum is not a building with art or artifacts in it. The Jewish Museum in Prague is all the synagogues, other structures, the cemetery, and contents and exhibits. Worth spending half a day or more to see it all.
Here are some of the places you may want to visit and spend time in during your visit to the Jewish Museum in Prague.
The Old-New Synagogue
The Old-New Synagogue (Staronová Synagoga) is Europe’s oldest active synagogue. It is located across the Jewish Museum and the High Synagogue. Built in the 13th century, it was known as the New Synagogue. Later, many other synagogues were built and perhaps that led to its being called “Old-New”. Entrance is not included in the Jewish Museum entrance though many other places are.
The Klausen Synagogue and Ceremonial Hall
The Klausen Synagogue (Klausová Synagoga), Prague’s largest, sits right by the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague. It was reconstructed in Baroque style around the 1880s on the site of other historic Jewish buildings. Its Ceremonial Hall‘s walls abut the cemetery itself. Both are included in the Jewish Museum entrance and are definitely worthy of visiting. The synagogue has many interesting displays of important artifacts that are definitely worth walking slowly for.
Visitor looking at a Torah on display 
The main space as seen from the gallery 
Many beautiful artifacts on display
The Ceremonial Hall is quite small and no longer serves its original purpose to honor the deceased; it just houses small exhibits. It is in Romanesque style and was built in the early 20th century to replace an older building.
The Maisel Synagogue
While I did not visit this synagogue, it sounds like an important one to visit. It dates from the 16th century and it is named from the businessman who helped get it built. During WW II, it stored important items of Jewish property. It required a good bit of renovations over the last few decades to be able to keep it open to the public for different exhibits.
Old Jewish Cemetery
The Old Jewish Cemetery, with thousands of tombs, is one of the most poignant spots in the Jewish Museum. It is not that the people buried there died in during the Nazi regime; most date from between the 15th and 18th century. It is simply, to me, how crowded in all these tombs are combined with the tilting tombstones and the encroached space containing them. And that all this survived WW II and Communism. Almost mind-boggling.
The crowded tombs though are not just about how many tombs were fit in a given area. There are in some places up to 12 layers of tombs. That is, as the place filled up, new layers of soil were added so more people could be buried there. Tombstones were moved up as original tombs were buried even further down. Hence why the tombstones are so close together: that means there are multiple tombs in a given vertical dimension. Truly mind-boggling…
The Spanish Synagogue
This ornate synagogue feels different than the others. Its entrance feels “industrial” for someone used to entering places of worship through a front door. But, once you enter the sanctuary (if that’s a proper term for a Jewish synagogue), you forget about that. Its walls are of dark colors with golden patterns decorating them.
Right outside is the statue of Kafka – an interesting tiny sideshow in such a somber area of town.
The Pinkas Synagogue
The Pinkas Synagogue (Pinkasova synagoga) is one of the most moving of all of the sites I visited by a good bit. We approached the ticket office not yet fully knowing what to expect. As we proceeded indoors, we saw the walls inscribed with the names of all the no-longer nameless victims of the brutality of Nazism. Several rooms’ worth of walls inscribed so they are etched in history in a more proper way… It was moving to walk through this modest synagogue to serve witness to the lives so brutally extinguished. Equally moving was seeing the room with drawings made by children in the camps and then to walk outside and read the panels that detail the story of Terezin, a concentration camp north of Prague. Terrible but important history to spend time reading/understanding…
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Traveling is a rewarding experience mainly to all the marvelous sights one gets to enjoy. But, sometimes, it is not about that at all. It is about the somber lessons history holds about the things we should never forget…
