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Prague was one of my favorite stops as I traveled through Europe exploring Jewish heritage. It\u2019s beautiful, ancient, and a little bit spooky. This is a city surrounded by mythology and folklore. A place that was the seat of the Austro-Hungarian empire for a short period, and the supposedly permanent home of the famous Golem, the man made of clay, created by the famous Maharal of Prague.<\/p>\n
There were so many amazing places to go in Prague<\/a>, but I\u2019ve collected all of the most important Jewish sites in the city. There is so much to see in Prague, I\u2019d recommend taking an organized tour so you can pace yourself. Then you get to really plan with someone who knows how long each section should take and how you should organize your route.<\/p>\n Many travelers to the Czech Republic are initially disappointed by the <\/span>Prague Jewish Quarter<\/span>, also known as the Josefov. The city\u2019s historic Jewish district is not on the scale of Jewish quarters in cities like Krakow or Paris, but it is still a fascinating place and has a vital cultural importance. The <\/span>Jewish quarter in Prague is <\/span>definitely worth visiting and we recommend exploring it with a professional tour guide. A typical tour will take between half a day and one day.<\/span><\/p>\n The Josefov began to grow just over a thousand years ago and had enormous significance for Prague\u2019s thriving Jewish community. For centuries, it was the heart of Jewish commerce, religious life, culture and learning. The <\/span>Prague Jewish quarter <\/span>was the birthplace of famous writer Franz Kafka and home to luminaries like Rabbi Loew the Maharal of Prague.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, most of the medieval Josefov was demolished just over a hundred years ago. The cultural vandalism wasn\u2019t the work of spiteful antisemites, but ambitious town planners who wanted to remodel Prague on Paris! The 21st century <\/span>Jewish quarter in Prague <\/span>is vastly reduced in size, but it still gives visitors a unique insight into the lives of centuries of Czech Jews. Despite its relatively small size, the Josefov\u2019s significance for Jews is enormous.<\/span><\/p>\n The best way to explore the <\/span>Prague Jewish quarter <\/span>is on foot. A walking tour with an English speaking guide will bring the old Josefov to life. We recommend visiting the six surviving synagogues, and the Old Jewish cemetery, as well as the house where Kafka was born and the Jewish Town Hall. It\u2019s less a question of <\/span>what to see when you wander Prague’s Jewish quarter,<\/span> as taking the chance to soak up the atmosphere and get a feel for how the Josefov must have been in the time of the Maharal, or Rabbi Avigdor Kara who was buried in the Old Cemetery in 1439.<\/span><\/p>\n If your Jewish ancestors lived in the <\/span>Prague Jewish quarter, <\/span>your guided tour will give you some precious insights into their lives. A good tour guide, who is also a trained historian, can fill a half day, or even a day long tour of the Josefov with a mass of rich detail and surprising facts about Jewish culture and traditions going back a thousand years.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the main Prague synagogues, the Maisel synagogue has been around since 1592, when Emperor Rudolf II was in power. The synagogue was originally built as a Renaissance temple with three naves. It burnt down in the ghetto fire of 1689 but was rebuilt and in the late 19th century was transformed into a Neo-Gothic building.<\/p>\n The synagogue houses the permanent exhibition, Jews in the Bohemian Lands in the 10th-18th Century. There\u2019s a collection of rare objects and touch screens for looking through old Hebrew manuscripts and historical maps of Jewish settlements in the area.<\/p>\n At night, the exhibition area is sometimes transformed into an auditorium for concerts, recitals, and theater performances.<\/p>\n This synagogue is fascinating, especially on a Jewish heritage tour, because you can really learn about Jewish life in the area and what it was like to be Jewish specifically in Bohemia.<\/p>\n Plan your trip to the Maisel synagogue with our Jewish Travel Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of my favorite sites in Prague, the Old-New synagogue is like walking back into history. I went there for Friday night services, and it was amazing to feel like I was doing the same thing that Jews for centuries had done. This is the oldest synagogue in Prague\u2019s Jewish town and in Europe. It\u2019s existed for over 700 years, built in the thirteenth century by stone masons from the royal workshop who also built the Convent of St. Agnes. This is proof of the high status of the Jewish community of Prague at the time.<\/p>\n But what\u2019s even more interesting about this synagogue is the mythology and folklore that surround it. They say its foundation stones were brought by angels from the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem and that the synagogue was protected against fire in the ghetto by the wings of angels. The most famous legend of the synagogue, popularized through multiple mediums such as Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, is that the Golem, the man made of clay created by the Maharal, is in the attic of the synagogue.<\/p>\n The Pinkas synagogue is the second oldest synagogue in Prague. Although this Prague synagogue isn\u2019t as old as the Old-New synagogue, it\u2019s still worth it to visit.<\/p>\n The synagogue was built in the late Gothic style in 1535 and was restored to its original form in the 1950s. This synagogue is home of the Memorial to the Victims of the Shoah from the Czech lands. There are 80,000 names written on the walls. Although the memorial was closed to the public after the Soviet invasion, it was reconstructed and reopened in 1995.<\/p>\n The first floor houses an exhibition of children\u2019s drawings from the Terezin Ghetto. The powerful drawings illustrated by children are a look into daily life in the ghetto and what the children longed for in the darkest time of European Jewish history. Most of the children were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau.<\/p>\n There\u2019s another exhibition on the deportation of Jews from the Czech lands, and another on the faces of the victims of the Shoah, which involves a night-time projection of photographs onto the gable wall of the mikveh of the Pinkas synagogue.<\/p>\n Prague is great to explore on foot. Check out Jewish walking tours <\/a>here.<\/p>\n The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague is one of the oldest surviving Jewish burial sites in the world. National Geographic has even called it one of the top ten cemeteries to visit around the world.<\/p>\n The oldest tombstone at the cemetery is from 1439. What\u2019s especially distinct about this cemetery is the density. It wasn\u2019t big enough to fit the needs of the Jewish community, so bodies were buried on top of each other. Some burial plots are 10 layers deep.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fascinating to walk among the graves and see the tombstones decorated with animal motifs, plant motifs, and religious symbols. One of the most famous residents of the cemetery is the Maharal, the creator of the Golem.<\/p>\n The Klausen synagogue is the largest in the quarter. It was founded in 1694 in the early Baroque style. It was used as a place of prayer by the Hebra Kadisha of Prague (Burial society) and as the second main synagogue for the entire community.<\/p>\n Inside, the permanent exhibition on display is of Jewish Customs and Traditions. There are exhibits relating to the daily life of a Jewish family, such as circumcision, bar mitzvah, divorce, and marriage.<\/p>\nExploring the <\/span>Jewish Quarter in Prague<\/span><\/h2>\n
What to See in Prague’s Jewish Quarter<\/span><\/h2>\n
Maisel Synagogue<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nOld-New Synagogue and the Golem of Prague<\/span><\/h2>\n
Pinkas Synagogue<\/span><\/h2>\n
Old Jewish Cemetery<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span><\/p>\nKlausen Synagogue<\/span><\/h2>\n
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