The Jewish Quarter

Cindy generously arranged for our little group to take a tour of Prague's famous Jewish Quarter. We were scheduled to meet our guide in the Old Town Square, or Staré Město. We decided to walk there from Leah and Mike's hotel, which proved to be a really good idea. Mike had expressed an interest in seeing the David Cerny statue of Freud hanging from a window. We weren't sure how we were going to find it, so we just marched ahead in the direction of the Old City. Sure enough, we looked up and there it was!

Not far from the statue, we saw another Czech symbol, The Good Soldier Švejk (Schweik).

There were a few other images which caught our notice.

This bas relief reminded me of the Genesis story about the 12 Israelite spies who brought back a giant bunch of grapes.

This one seemed a little risque.

We walked on and found ourselves in a square filled with Christmas exhibits.

Leah fed the pony while Mike got a snack for breakfast.

At the risk of being deemed redundant, there are so many wonderful things to see in this city.

This horse reminded me of Chagall.

Carp anyone?


We saw a number of fountains surrounded by cages.

I loved the murals on building facades.

The bas relief above the door is the crest for the city of Prague, featuring the White Lion with two intertwined tails.

Here's another version of the Prague city crest, just next door.

One of the great attractions of the old city is the Astronomical Clock.


These figures are the Chronicler and the Angel.

The clock dates back to the 15th century, but has suffered damages and undergone numerous repairs. The latest attack occurred in 1945 when the Nazis damaged the clock and some of the figures burned.

The figure in the upper left represents vanity who looks at his reflection in the mirror. The figure on his right represents a miser (stereotypically identified by some as a Jew) who shakes a bag of gold.

These figures represent an astronomer and a philosopher.

These animated figures represent Death who rings his bell, and a Turk/Piper, representing pleasure and entertainment, who shakes his head.

At the top in the center is a rooster which crows after the twelve apostles offer their blessings.

There's a human trumpeter in the window at the center top who heralds the noon hour.

Our guide told us to meet him by the clock. We were pretty sure that he wasn't this guy in the "ermine" trimmed red robe:

We found him at last and he established his authority right off the bat. One of the other guides moved in on his territory and our guide put him in his place.

Our guide was named Jerzy, but told us to call him "George". "George" has a Ph.D. in History and did his dissertation research in Texas.

"George" told us that initially, the Jews of Prague lived on the flood plain on the opposite side of the river. They were later restricted to the flood plain on the eastern side. The ghetto had been walled, but gradually, as they acquired greater wealth, they expanded beyond the walls. Their wealth attracted the favor of Emperor Josef.

Over time, the quarter increased elevation, but that didn't make it immune from flooding during the so-called 500 year flood of 2002.

Our first stop was the Maisel Synagogue.

Mordechai Maisel was the richest Jew in Prague and reportedly loaned money to the Emperor. Maisel used his money to improve conditions in the ghetto, building a poor house and paving the streets. He built this synagogue at the end of the 16th century for his own private use. The synagogue burned at the end of the 17th century, but was rebuilt. Today it serves as a museum with exhibits of Jewish artifacts the Nazis had intended as a display of a "vanished" people. As was true of many of the places we visited, photos were prohibited inside the building.

We visited the Pinkas Synagogue which is a memorial to the Czech Jews who perished during the Holocaust. The names of the almost 80,000 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia who perished were hand-painted on the walls. Included in this list were Madeline Albright's grandfathers. Gold paint represented the names of the towns where they lived. Red paint was used to paint in the name of each person who died in the Holocaust

. The 2002 flood damaged some of the walls requiring repair and repainting.

We walked through the Jewish Cemetery, built at the end of the 15th century, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe.

The gravestones are all catywumpus.

We learned the dead are buried in layers 10-12 deep. There are an estimated 100,000 buried in this cemetery, and the last burial took place before the end of the 18th century.

The gravestones themselves tell a big story. Those stones featuring a star of David (aka Magen David/Shield of David) represented the name David. Stones featuring a goose represented the family name Gans (which means goose).

Similarly, the fish, represents the family name of Fischer or Fischel.

The bird, represents the family name of Vogel. Two hands forming the priestly blessing represented the family name of Cohen.

One grave invited derision. A man who was the "Bernie Madoff" of his time decided he could put his wife's face on the stone, in spite of the Jewish prohibition against depictions of the human form (the reasoning is that as man is made in the image of God, and Jews are not permitted to depict the image of God, such representations are an affront). This man reasoned his wife was not a man, so he could get away with it.

We saw a synagogue of the Chevra Kadisha--the society of Jewish men who tended to the bodies of the departed and who prepared them for burial.

We visited the High Synagogue with its displays of artifacts representing the major Jewish holidays, with Shabbat taking pride of place in the center. Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur are followed by Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Tisha B'Av, Passover and Shavuot.

We saw the Alte Neue Shul from the outside, but it cost an additional 200 Czech Karuna each to enter on top of the cost of the tour, so we looked at it from the outside. It was Friday, and by the time we would have finished the tour, it would have been a bit too close to Shabbat for comfort, so we kept moving.

The Alte Neue Shul is the supposed home of the mythical Golem.

This is a rendering of the Golem in paving stones. More on Prague paving stones later.

The view below indicates the door where the Golem was housed when not called upon to aid the Jews. We had seen Rabbi Low's, the Golem's creator, gravestone in the cemetery. Two of my favorite novels use the story of the Golem as a major theme (Snow in August and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay).

The chief Rabbi of Prague has his headquarters across the street from the Alte Neue Shul.

This building features a clock tower with Hebrew characters; it runs counter-clockwise.

There were some other, eclectic and beautiful buildings in the quarter.

Our final stop on the stop was the beautiful Spanish Synagogue. Again, no photos were allowed. The interior is gorgeous. It was built as a replacement for the old school. It served as a site for Reform worship, even though women were restricted to the second floor of the building. The interior features gorgeous arches, a magical ceiling of stars against a blue background. The second floor featured cultural displays of Jewish writers, composers, poets and musicians. There was also a display of silver Jewish artifacts, including rimonim, yads, Torah breastplates, etc.

We said goodbye to "George", and then headed for a spot of lunch at the Solomon Restaurant.

With all of this publicity, I anticipated a good meal. The prices were rather dear, but it was open and accessible so we went in and took our seats. Looking over the menu, I chose Matzah Ball Soup. My thinking was--this has to be good at a kosher restaurant. Wrong. All I got was the broth--no matzah balls! And the price was exorbitant--the equivalent of about $10 U.S. Still, Leah and Mike liked their meals.

Note the writing to the left of Leah's head. That line of writing represents the level of the 2002 flood. After lunch, we parted company with Leah and Mike :(. They wanted to have a "young person's evening" for their last night--something Cindy and I were not inclined to do.

Cindy and I wandered around the city for the rest of the afternoon.

This is a representation of Prague Native Son, Franz Kafka.

We left the Jewish Quarter and moved back in to the Old City.

This is the famous religious martyr Jan Hus Monument in the Old City Square.

Given the less than satisfying lunch, Cindy and I were ready for a snack. We found a nice restaurant which lent itself to a nice afternoon buck-you-uppo.