Jewish museum Prague

Jewish museum Prague Overview

It is more than one hundred years now that the Jewish leadership in Prague saw the urgent need to do something drastic to keep their culture and history alive in the Czechoslovakian capital. Their centuries old base just off the Old Town in Prague known as Josefov had always suffered the gradual diminishing effects of losing a corner here and losing a few metres there to the city planners, but the urban renewal of Prague and the deliberate demolishing of so many irreplaceable buildings had been particularly felt. When plans for the widening and modernisation of that part of the city had been complete by the early years of the twentieth century - at least for the moment as the Jewish rabbis no doubt said to themselves - Josefov was looking very small and vulnerable indeed. Hence it was that in 1906 the historian Dr. Hugo Lieben and Dr. Augustin Stein, the representative of the Czech Jewish movement and later head of the Prague Jewish Community met up and decided that as quickly as possible a Jewish Museum must be founded to consolidate and preserve those artifacts and valuables which were most in jeopardy of possible been lost or destroyed.

Excellent work was done in planning and running this museum carefully and professionally from the very beginning. Objects were gathered and handled for display or for safe-keeping with great attention. It wasn't an easy task but a very painstaking one yet as the years and the decades rolled around the Jewish Museum went from strength to strength. It was also very popular with the public. The emergence of the Nazi's in Germany in the mid-1930s and the unambiguous messages coming from Hitler warned the Jews of Prague of the gathering storm but what could they do to stop it. Some particularly precious objects, they felt, could perhaps be relocated elsewhere but with who and for how long. The loss to the Czechoslovakians in September 1938 of the Sudetenland was ominous indeed, but darkness closed in totally with the annexation of all Czechoslovakia to the German Reich the following March. Hitler wouldn't be long arriving in the city and like an ancient Persian king he observed his latest acquisition from the lofty heights of Prague Castle. The day before he arrived his henchmen had already been to the Jewish Museum and shut its doors to the public while they awaited instructions as to what should befall it.

As the early years of the Second World War brought success after success to the German armies, the Nazi ideology was given full reign to flourish in the conquered and subjugated territories. The Nazi answer to the Jewish Question formulated and then decided upon by beasts of evil like Heydrich and Eichmann took place at Wannsee outside Berlin in January 1942. They decided upon exterminating the Jews as a race. In their twisted and satanic logic the Nazis ruling over Czechoslovakia figured that the Jewish Museum in Prague should remain. Its raison d'etre would be as a kind of a tomb and an archive of a 'lost' civilisation which they had obliterated. Consequently the Jewish Museum of Prague was renamed the Central Jewish Museum for it would be to this centrepoint that artifacts, objet d'art, religious and spiritual paraphernalia pertaining to the Jews would be transported from all over the Czechoslovakian land. Jewish communities throughout Bohemian and Moravian had their valuables confiscated and roughly transported to Prague to be stored, for the moment at least, in the Central Jewish Museum. Paradoxically, it could of course have been worse, they could have all been destroyed and not brought here at all, but the Nazis were at this moment much more hell bent on destroying people, that is the Jewish people.

The rage, the evil, and the insanity of war ended with as we know defeat of the Nazi and axis powers but shortly after another net or cage was about to tighten itself around Czechoslovakia, Prague and the Jews of this city. It would be Communism, not quite as bad as Nazism but again no friend of religion and much less independent ownership of property or spaces. As it was then the Jewish Museum came under the administration of the Council of Jewish Communities in Czechoslovakia. It didn't take long till ownership was transferred to the State, which, as of 1948, was in the hands of the communists. Preservation, investment, exhibition and educational activities were hamstrung by the ruling elite at every turn and the Jewish Museum was a lonely and restricted place. Among the many qualities the Jews have perseverance and patience is one and somehow they got through the forty one years of stultifying and depressing totalitarian rule Communist style. The end of the 1980s brought promise of brighter times ahead and these hopes were realized during the heady winter demonstrations and subsequent collapse of Communist rule in November '89. The Prague Jewish Museum was about to enter its most optimistic phase.

It didn't just happen overnight but nevertheless after some lengthy and common sense negotiations on October 1, 1994, the Museum buildings and collections were returned to the Jewish Community of Prague and the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic. Simultaneously the Jewish Museum took on a new independence as a non-state organization. Money poured into it to renovate, improve and rejuvenate that which had been suffering during the half century elapsed. Visitor numbers to the Jewish Museum and the buildings under its auspices sky-rocketed. It is estimated that today approximately 2,000 people per day make their way to Josefov, the Jewish Quarter to marvel and wonder and pay their respects to a people and an area steeped in history. There are public services, galleries, permanent exhibitions, temporary exhibitions, concerts in the Spanish Synagogue, guided tours, research and activity services, bookshops and information points.There is also an Education and Culture centre as well as an Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities.

Events are occuring there all the time. This is a place steeped in history, much of it unspeakably tragic it must be said, but nevertheless proud, brave, and never wavering. The Jewish Museum has one of the most extensive collections of Judaic art in the world, including 40,000 items and 100,000 books. It is unique for the number of items it contains and, above all, for the fact that they come exclusively from - Bohemia and Moravia thereby facilitating an integrated picture of the life and history of the Jews in the region.

The Museum has under its wing the following sites:

1) The Maisel Synagogue

2) Pinkas Synagogue

3) Old Jewish Cemetery

4) Klausen Synagogue

5) Ceremonial Hall

6) Spanish Synagogue

7) Robert Guttmann Gallery and the Education and Culture Centre.

The Jewish Museum in Prague maintains a very comprehensive and informative website with innumerable articles on upcoming events and exhibitions. It is an invaluable source of information. Needless to say that from sundown on Friday and all of Saturday all monuments and synagogues in the Jewish Quarter are closed to the public.