Prague Jewish Quarter

One of the parts of Prague I was particularly looking forward to exploring was the Jewish Quarter, or Josefov as it is known locally. At the beginning of the 20th century, much of the old medieval quarter was demolished as Prague underwent a huge programme of urban redevelopment. Houses and synagogues disappeared, along with many of the tangible traces of 800 years of Jewish life. The destruction prompted members of Prague's Jewish community to establish the Jewish Museum in Prague in 1906. This year, the museum celebrates its 120th anniversary.
Today, the Jewish Museum is not a single building, but a collection of historic synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetery and exhibitions spread throughout Josefov. Together, they tell the story of centuries of Jewish life in Prague. And, of course, no visit to the Jewish Quarter would be complete without the famous legend of the Golem of Prague, an artificial clay giant said to have been created by the 16th-century rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague, to protect the Jewish community from attacks. The Golem has become a symbol of faith, protection and the limits of human power.

We purchased tickets online which included a guided tour of Josefov and entry tickets to all the synagogues. Our tour of the Old Mikveh required a separate ticket.

The gorgeous Spanish Synagogue is one of the highlights of Prague's Jewish Quarter, with its spectacular Moorish Revival interior, richly decorated with intricate patterns, gilding and beautiful stained glass. We loved it so much that we returned that evening for a beautiful concert, "Hallelujah", which included songs from Fiddler on the Roof and even Bohemian Rhapsody. It was a very special way to experience this stunning building.

Just outside the synagogue is a rather unusual statue of Franz Kafka, below, depicting the writer sitting on the shoulders of a headless, handless figure. It is said to represent Kafka's departure from the Jewish Quarter and his sense of being caught between different worlds.

The Maisel Synagogue was built in the late 16th century by Mordechai Maisel, the mayor of Prague's Jewish Town and one of the wealthiest members of the Jewish community in 16th-century Prague. Originally built in Renaissance style, the synagogue was later rebuilt after a fire and today houses an exhibition about the history of Jews in Bohemia and Moravia.

The Pinkas Synagogue is the second oldest preserved synagogue in Prague and now serves as a profoundly moving memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The walls are covered with the names of almost 80,000 Jewish victims from Bohemia and Moravia, making the scale of the Holocaust painfully real. I found it particularly moving.

Immediately next to the Pinkas Synagogue is the Old Jewish Cemetery, one of the most evocative historic burial sites in Prague. Established in the 15th century, it was in use for around 350 years and contains thousands of graves, including those of many prominent rabbis and scholars. It is surprisingly small and incredibly crowded, with more than 12,000 gravestones packed into a tiny space. Because there was so little land available and existing graves could not be disturbed, new layers of earth were added and burials took place above the earlier ones, creating the extraordinary jumble of stones we see today. The cemetery also suffered repeated flooding from the nearby Vltava, and part of it was later lost during the redevelopment of Josefov.
One of the most famous graves is that of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the legendary creator of the Golem. The timing of our visit was particularly intriguing, as it happened to be his yahrzeit, the anniversary of his death, and prayers were being said over his grave. It was a fascinating and completely unexpected moment.

We also booked a separate private tour of the Old Mikveh, a historic ritual bath dating from the early 16th century, located in the basement of the building next to the Pinkas Synagogue. It was discovered during archaeological excavations in 1968 and is one of the oldest surviving physical traces of Jewish life in this part of Prague. The small, remarkably well-preserved bath is fed by spring water, and we were able to go down the original steps and see it for ourselves.

The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue in Europe and has been the main synagogue of Prague's Jewish community for more than 700 years. Built in the late 13th century in an early Gothic style, with its characteristic pointed arches, it has survived fires, wars and the redevelopment of the Jewish Quarter. The tiny women's gallery was added later and is almost hidden from view, tucked away behind the thick walls of the building. Originally known as the New or Great Shul, it became known as the Old-New Synagogue (Altneuschul) after other synagogues were built in the 16th century.
Like so many places in Prague, it is surrounded by legends. One story says that angels brought its foundation stones from the Temple in Jerusalem, while another claims that the synagogue was protected from fire by angels disguised as doves. And, of course, there is the legend that the remains of the Golem lie hidden in its attic!

The Klausen Synagogue is the largest surviving synagogue of the former Prague Ghetto, built in the early Baroque style between 1689 and 1694. Baroque architecture is known for its elaborate decoration and dramatic details, although the interior of the Klausen Synagogue is rather more restrained than some of the grand Baroque churches you see around Prague. It wasn't included in our tour, but we visited afterwards and were lucky enough to see a wonderful exhibition of photographs of Israel by Czech documentary photographer Karel Cudlín. Called Burning Love: Israel Through the Lens of Karel Cudlín, it brought together almost 200 photographs taken over three decades. It was an unexpected connection with home and a lovely way to end our visit to the Jewish Quarter.

Though not in the Jewish Quarter, I wanted to share the beautiful Jerusalem Synagogue with you. Built in 1905–1906, it is a stunning example of Art Nouveau architecture, both inside and out.
The main synagogue hall and the ladies' gallery upstairs are now used for exhibitions, while regular services are held in a smaller prayer room. We saw a fascinating exhibition about historic Jewish communities and synagogues throughout the Czech Republic. Many of these communities and their synagogues were lost during the Holocaust. I was particularly interested to see the section about České Budějovice, where we were going to be staying later in our trip. The České Budějovice synagogue was blown up by the Nazis in 1942, and the remaining walls were demolished. Today, there is a memorial on the site, which was unveiled in 1992, exactly 50 years after the synagogue was destroyed.

When it opened, the Jerusalem Synagogue was called the Jubilee Temple of Emperor Franz Joseph, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his reign. After the First World War, the name Jerusalem Synagogue gradually came into use, taken from the name of the street where it stands. Interestingly, the street itself has nothing to do with the synagogue. It was named after the nearby Church of Jerusalem, formerly the Chapel of St. Henry.
The only time the synagogue was not used for services was during the Second World War, when it was used to store property confiscated from Jewish people by the Nazis.

* This post has been shared on Thinking Out Loud Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, PoCoLo

A Handmade Tribute to 50 Years Together

A customer asked if I was able to create a special card for her parents 50th wedding anniversary in July. She sent me a picture of them on their wedding day, below, and asked whether I could create a replica of the photo. "I love this photo of them" she told me.
I carefully recreated the picture of her mum in her gorgeous long blue dress and white hat, and her dad in a dark blue suit adorned with a peach boutonnière. To complete the scene, I even included the brick wall of the synagogue where they were married. In honor of the couple's 50 years of marriage, I highlighted their Golden Anniversary with a gold "50" and matching hearts.

My customer was thrilled with the card. "Hi Lisa, thanks again for my parents' card, am so in love with it," she wrote to me. She later followed up, saying, "They [her parents] LOVED it! They put it up right on the front at their party so everyone could see it. So many people came up to me complimenting it too."

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Busy Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Tuesday Turn About and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

The Ancient Synagogue of Ein Gedi

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

After our delightful hike through Nahal Arugot, I asked Mister Handmade in Israel if he wouldn't mind stopping at the ancient synagogue of Ein Gedi before we returned home. The synagogue, which was built in the 2nd century CE and then renovated between the 3rd-4th centuries CE, can be spotted from the road that leads to Nahal Arugot, under a large white tent and surrounded by date palm trees. The tent protects the precious synagogue mosaics from the sun and also serves to protect the visitors from the heat. Unfortunately it also means that my photos are all a little 'orange' in colour since I was taking them under the cover of the tent, but the perfectly preserved mosaic floor of the synagogue is so beautiful that I am going to share my photos here anyway.

The ancient synagogue of Ein Gedi was discovered by chance in the 1960s when members of kibbutz Ein Gedi were placing a water pipe in its vicinity. Excavations in the 1970s uncovered a well preserved mosaic floor and several important inscriptions. We can learn a great deal about the town of Ein Gedi from the mosaic floor of its most important building. It was clearly extremely prosperous! For a small remote settlement of no more than a few hundred people to bring the best artisans in the country to create such a masterpiece would have cost a huge amount of money.
Respecting the Jewish tradition of refraining from figurative depiction, the mosaic floor is made up of geometric designs weaved together to create a central 8-pointed star. A central square depicts exotic birds, perhaps geese and peacocks. At the northern end of the synagogue, facing Jerusalem, is a bimah (an elevated platform used for Torah reading during services) and a semicircular niche for storing the Torah scroll.

Similar contemporary synagogues, such as the ancient synagogue of Beit Alpha, which we visited back in January, feature a central circular zodiac with the 12 star signs, each representing a Hebrew lunar month and a personification of the four seasons. In the Ein Gedi synagogue there is a written list of the horoscope signs and of the Hebrew months set in the floor of one aisle. Another inscription mentions the descendants from Adam to the children of Noah, and one more thanks the local rabbis and the synagogue donors, "Yose, Ezron, and Hazikin, sons of Halfi", who contributed to the building. The most exciting inscription, however, is the 'spell' - a warning for all the members of the community never to give away the 'secret' of the village.

This 'secret', it is assumed, has to do with the industry of the precious Balsam resin, called "Afarsimon" in Hebrew (the same name given to today's Persimmon Tree). For centuries the locals made a precious perfume from the Persimmon that was worth its weight in gold. The method and precise ingredients for the production of the perfume remain a riddle to this day. Keeping the process a secret was an economic imperative of such magnitude that every citizen who entered and exited the synagogue needed to be reminded. And what better way to be reminded than in the building whose elegant artistry is a testimony to the importance of the spice trade that sustained the village?

The availability of water at Ein Gedi allowed for the development of agriculture in the settlement. As well as the Persimmon, Ein Gedi's unique local vegetation also supplied the fibres of the Calotropis Procera (the Apple of Sodom) from which the locals made threads which they wove into luxurious fabrics and made wicks for their candles. Indigofera articulata was grown in order to produce indigo dye - the amazing blue colour which was in high demand and expensive. Lawsonia inermis, or Henna tree, which was mentioned in the Song of Songs together with the name Ein Gedi, is thought to be a highly favoured fragrance tree. In addition the locals knew how to produce henna colour from this tree.

Another obvious source of income for the village people of Ein Gedi was salt mining in the Dead Sea. Besides its use in seasoning food, salt also constituted an important means of food preservation and was used for medical purposes too.

The earliest evidence of human settlement at Ein Gedi actually dates back to the Chalcolithic period, 6,000 years ago. A small rectangular room with 50cm high walls was found in the area. It is assumed to be a temple where animals were sacrificed, since many animal bones and ash were found there.
Excavated housing structures and terraces northeast of the synagogue, at the foot of a hill known as Tel Goren, date from the 3rd-6th centuries CE, the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. They may have belonged to synagogue officials or served as study halls. The houses were built close together, each consisting of two rooms and a courtyard. Large clay vats for the storage of drinking water or liquids made from special plants growing in the area were found in them. Royal seal impressions and others bearing personal names, as well as a hoard of silver pieces were also discovered in the ruins of the village, once again indicating wealth and economic importance.
Stone terraces were constructed on the hillsides and a sophisticated water system, including storage pools and a network of irrigation channels, was developed. These measures made the productions of the perfume more efficient.  To protect the cultivated areas and to control the trade route, a fortress and watch towers were built.
The synagogue and village at Ein Gedi stood for 400 years and was destroyed by fire, probably during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in the second half of the 6th century, a period of Jewish persecution. Among the many archaeological finds discovered in the debris was a scroll from the Book of Leviticus and a bronze 30 cm seven-branched menorah.

On our way home I asked Mister Handmade in Israel to stop once more at one of the lookout points overlooking the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea, known in Hebrew as Yam Ha-Melakh (the Sea of Salt) is the lowest point on earth and the saline water of the lake gives lead to the name because no plants or animals can survive in the salty waters. The other result of the salty water is its renowned health and healing properties and the unique feature that one can float naturally in it.

The Dead Sea is part of the long border between Israel and Jordan, whose towering mountains can be seen from the Israeli side. Just a one hour drive from Jerusalem, the lake is a place popular for Israelis wanting a few days relaxation or to take advantage of the medical properties of the water. People famously cover themselves in the mineral rich mud from the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea has in fact attracted visitors for thousands of years. It was one of the world's first health resorts, used by Herod the Great, and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilisers. On this occasion I simply had a great view of it from a vantage point along the road. It was breathtakingly beautiful and a wonderful way to end a fabulous day.

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, All Seasons, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Sharon's Souvenirs, Our World Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, My Corner of the World and Pictorial Tuesday.