Return of the Stones Memorial In January 2019 I first became aware that Jewish gravestones had been cut up and made into cobble stones for use in city streets during the communist era. I wrote about this on the Walking on Gravestones post. I’d heard that the Jewish community had an agreement with the City … Read More
The Žižkov Old Jewish Cemetery 1680-1890 Prague guidebooks will tell you that the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov closed in November 1787. That’s correct, but what they often don’t tell you is what happened next and how the Jewish community chose the place that took over burials. This would be the Žižkov Jewish Cemetery often … Read More
Prague Streets – Dušní If you are on your way to see the official city memorial to Franz Kafka then next to it you cannot miss the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit built in 1348. In Czech, Dušní means “Holy Spirit”. Dušní runs from Dlouha Street less than 100 metres from the Old … Read More
Jewish Prague – Maisel Synagogue The history of Maisel Synagogue breaks down into 3 periods. 1) Initial 1590 construction in late-Rennaissance style, 2) The 1690s Baroque reconstruction, 3) The 1890s neo-Gothic reconstruction. Maisel Synagogue is probably 4th amongst the synagogues in popularity in the Josefov District but I’ve always had one big reason to visit … Read More
Book Review – Franci’s War Ten years ago I first wrote about Stolpersteine in Prague. Four years ago I met Gunter Demnig the man who ran the project and so I wrote about them again. Two years ago a friend published a book about the 460 Stolpersteine that were in Prague at the time so … Read More
Famous Czechs – Mordecai Maisel Mordecai, Mordechaj or Mordechai, Maisel, Meisel or Meysel. There have been several interpretations of his name so I’m going to stick with Mordecai Maisel (fun fact: in Yiddish, Maisel means mouse). Let’s put ourselves in the last half of the 16th Century. Emperors Maximilian and Rudolf II have been kind … Read More
Prague Streets – Jeruzalemska Like many street names in Prague we have to go way back in time to make sense of them. In our case that means going back to the 14th Century to get a clue as to where Jeruzalemska got it’s name because it’s NOT directly named after the city. It was … Read More
Book Review – Out of the Midst of the Fire On my Journey of a Torah Scroll post you’ll have read about my chance encounter with Rabbi David Maxa in Prague where he mentioned an interesting story of how a Torah Scroll taken by the Nazis in World War Two and sold by the Communist … Read More
Spanish Synagogue There was a Jewish community recorded as resident in what is now the Lesser Town in the mid-12th Century but following a devastating fire in that area in 1142 it’s thought that this community relocated to what would become the Old Town and they built a synagogue where the Spanish Synagogue stands today. … Read More
Journey of a Torah Scroll I was at an event at the British Embassy in November 2021 when I was introduced to a Rabbi called David Maxa and he asked me if I knew about the return of a Czech Torah Scroll. It would be a few more weeks before I understood what was a … Read More