No Matter What, There is no Escape from Jewish History

NURIT GREENGER

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The lion’s share of anti-Semitism in the world is the BDS, pro-Arab, Nazi-Leftism and Moslem extremism.

Following my recent visit to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, I state herein that in general, the Jewish nation has a very sad history. It is no good to be homelandless, it is not good to be in the mercy of a host country, which results in the constant readiness to move, whether because there is a danger to one’s life from persecution and Pogroms, economics decline, or one was simply told to leave, expelled from land one considered to be his/her home for any period of time.

The writer at the Klausen Synagogue-Ark in Old Town Prague

Jewish history is imbedded deep in the cobblestone streets of Europe; it is in the remnants of once Jewish Ghettos, synagogues, some still standing proud less their worshippers, old, rather delipidated cemeteries, and/or city Jewish quarter, one has to imagine its boundaries and life inside its walls.

No matter what, there is no escape from ancient Jewish history whether it is in the Land of Israel, from where vibrant Jewish life was missing for 2000 years, now restored with exalting energy, or from about every corner in the world.

In Europe, where atrocities against Jews – libels, Pogroms, persecution and Nazi Final Solution Holocaust – were invented and carried out with vengeance, ancient Jewish history could be revealed under most of European cobblestone streets. And in Prague, Czech Republic, Jewish history, of approximately 1000 years, stands fierce in front of the untold numbers of visitors who, each year, visit the Jewish Quarter, Josefov.

Jewish Prague, Czech Republic

In the once was Jewish Quarter, Josefov, its today’s streets are filled with trendy stores and many tourists, you need to imagine the life once happened there. The six synagogues, out of the thirty that once stood proudly there, and the piles of broken and/or tilted dark headstones, some depict clear Hebrew inscription, evidencing that underneath them Jews were buried, all tell an incredible story of Jewish life in Bohemia and beyond.

Once Jewish Quarter Prague, Czech Republic

In the 10th century, Jews began to settle in the region of Prague. History tells us that the first Jewish settlements, which later disappeared without a trace, were in the Prague’s Lesser Side, at Újezd, and below Vyšehrad. In the 1st half of the 12th century Jews settled and built a synagogue around today’s Dušní Street. During the first half of the 13th century, the Jewish population in the Prague region spread to the area of today’s Old-New Synagogue, or Altneuschul, situated in Josefov, Prague, considered to be Europe’s oldest, today active synagogue, and is the oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin-nave design. This synagogue was the land mark that established the Jewish Town – the ghetto.

Corner in the now what was the Jewish-quarter-Josefov street in Prague, Czech Republic

In 1850, this Jewish town became Prague’s fifth quarter and was named Josefov, in memory of the emperor Josef II, who emancipated the Jews and the Ghetto became a reputable quarter, known today as part of Old Town Prague. A Town Hall, six synagogues and a cemetery are preserved from the original Jewish quarter’s neighborhood. During the renovation of Prague, at the turn of the 20th century, other buildings were demolished and replaced by the Art Nouveau tenement houses and buildings.

In 2017 there are total 5,000 Jews living in the Czech Republic.

There are 6 synagogues in the country, out of them only one carries out services. History tells us that in Prague, there were 30 synagogues but over the centuries, changes to the city, by several rulers, and the outcome of the Holocaust eliminated them-condensed them to so very few.

Old New Synagogue or Altneuschul

The Old-New Synagogue, or Altneuschul, completed in 1270, in gothic style, situated in Josefov, Prague, is Europe’s oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin-nave design, and was demolished in 1867 and replaced by the Spanish Synagogue.

Spanish Reform congregation synagogue

The Spanish, active reform congregation synagogue, built in 1868, in Arabesque style architecture, on the site of the 12th-century Altneuschul, which was the oldest synagogue in the Prague ghetto and is the most recent synagogue in the Prague Jewish Town.

Equipped with an organ and as history goes, in the years 1836 to-1845, František Škroup, the composer of the Czech national anthem, served as organist in this synagogue. It is was named the Spanish Synagogue for its impressive Moorish interior design, influenced by the famous Alhambra.

The Old-New Synagogue, or Altneuschul-nowadays Prague active Spanish Reform synagogue of Arabesque architecture

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