Prague's Jewish Quarter February 16, 2018
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."
Elie Wiesel
For our last day in Prague, we visited the Jewish Quarter. It's comprised, of course, of old streets, just like the rest of the Old Town. However, the distinctly Jewish area is concentrated in one part of town, as was required for centuries by governments all over Europe. The ghetto is an old, old concept. Keep a minority group in one place where you can keep tabs on them and control them.
Today's Jewish Quarter is composed of several synagogues which are part of a museum system. They serve as a way to teach the rest of us about Jewish life and customs, dating back a thousand years in this city, and to remember and honor those thousands of Prague Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. Considering the small size of the current Jewish population, the museum is a testimony to the strength of their commitment to keep alive the memory and history of their people here. Most of the reconstruction and refurbishment of the deteriorated synagogues has taken place since 1989, the end the communist presence.
One ticket offers admission to 6 sites - 4 synagogues, a cemetery, and a ceremonial hall. Rick Steeves, our Prague guru, feels that the Prague Jewish Quarter is the most interesting collection of Jewish sights in Europe.
We knew it would be a long day and a sad one, given the discrimination, misery, and repression, that has dominated the history of the Jews.
Our tour began at the Maisel Synagogue, originally built in 1592. Around the interior are panels describing Jewish history in the Bohemian lands, written in both Czech and English, luckily for us! This is also the location where the Nazis stored property stolen from Jews who had been sent to death camps. "Stuff" had been cared for and survived, while the people didn't.
The Pinkas Synagogue serves as a memorial for those who died in the Holocaust. The names of Czech Jews are written on the walls, arranged by town and alphabetically by the last name, including birth date and date of death. Many of the death dates are the same for members of the same family. A recording of the names are read on a continuous basis, all day long, interspersed by a cantor singing Psalms. Seeing the number of names as it stretches all around the room, floor to ceiling, is a powerful statement.
Upstairs is a display of art created by children imprisoned at Terezin, a concentration camp 40 miles north of Prague. Their innocence, juxtapositioned by the horror of the situation, is heart-breaking.
Because land was limited by the boundaries of the ghetto, the cemetery is composed of bodies buried upon other bodies. This results in the area being higher than the surrounding terrain. Dark tombstones, engraved in Hebrew, lean precariously against each other, in a jumble, like wobbly old men. A worker raked fall leaves while we were there, releasing the aroma of fresh earth and uncovering a few tiny, hopeful yellow spring flowers.
The Ceremonial Hall, an interesting small building constructed in the early part of the last century, educated us on the rituals of Jewish burial customs, which were surprisingly interesting. We learned that alms are collected at funerals to help support widows, orphans, the poor and disabled, and thus the community takes care of its most vulnerable members.
The last synagogue on the tour is the Spanish Synagogue, though it is really very Moorish in style. It was built during the 1800's when restrictions on Jewish life had been eased, allowing them to prosper. This large center of worship is very ornate, with every square inch of wall and ceiling space painted in elaborate vines, stars, and geometric designs.
Along with this sobering and informative tour, I am learning a lot by reading a book that's been on my bookshelf for a long time, Memoirs by Elie Wiesel. Elie grew up in a small Jewish community in Romania, near the Hungarian border, and was forced, with his family, into a concentration camp at age 16. He and his two older sisters survived, but his parents and younger sister perished. His most famous book, Night, describes his time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. He later graduated from the Sorbonne and went on to become a professor of humanities at Boston U., as well as a champion for human rights internationally. Coincidentally, while waiting at Logan last week, we had seen his photo featured, along with other Nobel Peace Prize winners from Boston. He has been described as the most important Jew in the USA.
Bruce and I are both reading a small, pertinent and extremely relevant book, called Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. It refers to the rise of the Nazis and the Czech fall to communism as instructive to our current vulnerable American era. Highly recommended.
That evening's supper destination had already been planned for the V Korunni, a pub recommended by Eva McVicar, one of my Breakwater parents and a Czech native. This resto is run by her cousin.
The resto is located only a short walk from Deminka Palace, our hotel. As we approached, we could see a cluster of burly working men around the door, smoking and chuckling. We made our way through and entered a bar area, where a dog lay sprawled happily at his owner's feet. We immediately liked the vibes. This was a no-nonsense, local establishment where a group of men were playing cards, a tableful of young folks were drinking beer, an older man was having his dinner alone.
We were seated at a sturdy wooden table in the far side. Although Eva had warned us that dinner might not be offered at night, since Central Europeans eat their main meal at noon, not to worry! I sprang for one last hearty traditional Czech spread of roast pork, sauerkraut, potatoes, red cabbage, and bready dumplings, all on a yummy puddle of gravy, washed down with a beer, of course. Oof, I couldn't finish it all, but our waiter offered us an end-of-dinner treat: schnapps! When we declined, he proposed plum brandy. Why not? It was our last night in Prague. The brandy arrived, looking innocuously like clear water. One sip, and we knew it was not innocuous! We did find our way back to our "palace".
Despite our 6 days in Prague, I felt that we hadn't really gotten to know the city. We did roam around quite a lot; we did read our Rick Steeves guide book pretty thoroughly, supplemented by the internet; and we did sample iconic food and beer. But, it still feels pretty superficial. One important missing ingredient for me was a good chat with a local. Superficial or not, here are our impressions of Prague:
- lovely architecture, with an abundance of art nouveau buildings
- safe
- clean
- few beggars
- an amazing Jewish Quarter
- not too expensive
- compact and easy to walk around
- difficult language for us, but intriguing
- lots of cheap beer but not much dark beer, our preference
- very meat-centric traditional food
- nice wait staff
- no flowers outside, even though there were in Vienna at this same time of year
- not much obvious diversity in the people (where are all those immigrants from Africa and the Middle East that are flocking into Europe?)
The next day we took a train to the second of our trifecta of Eastern Europe: Budapest. It was a 6 hour ride through some dreary landscapes and towns, including a big swath of Slovakia. Winter and train views don't always show a country at its best.
We've been in Budapest for 3 days now and are enjoying it. My next blog will describe our escapades in "dental tourism". Or, what have YOU been doing on your holiday?
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