Viking Grand European River Cruise: 6/27/2016

6/27/16- Monday

Touring the Jewish Quarter and doing a bit of last minute shopping.

The Jewish Museum- Interesting.

One of the museums in the Jewish Quarter.

To learn more of the history of the Jewish people in Prague go to Jewish Virtual Library. It is a very interesting and saddening read.

The Pinkas Synagogue, built in a Renaissance style, was first mentioned in 1492. Located in a flood zone, it was frequently being repaired and reconstruction occurred in 1953. One of its famous members was Franz Kafka, who prayed there with his family. Following World War II, it became a memorial to Moravian and Bohemian Jews who perished in the war. On the walls of the synagogue, there is a list of 77,297 names of those who died. Following the communist occupation in August 1968, all of the names were erased, but these areas have since been restored. The synagogue was closed from 1968 until 1992 because of the penetration of underground water. Today you may once again see the over 77,000 names of Jews murdered in the Holocaust as well as a display of Jewish pictures and drawings on the upper level.

Inside the Pinkas Synagogue.

There is a second floor of walls with the names of holocaust victims.

One of the many walls of names in the memorial to all of the Prague Jews that were killed during world war II. Their name and date of death is listed for each of the 80-90,000 that died.

Here is a closeup of a section of the wall. The entire list is in alphabetical order.

The Jewish Cemetery- a very interesting experience.

During the more than three centuries in which it was in active use, the cemetery continually struggled with the lack of space. Piety and respect for the deceased ancestors does not allow the Jews to abolish old graves. Only occasionally the Jewish Community was allowed to purchase grounds to expand the cemetery and so many times it had to gain space in other ways; if necessary, a new layer of soil was heaped up on the available area. For this reason, there are places where as many as twelve layers now exist. Thanks to this solution the older graves themselves remained intact. However, as new levels were added it was necessary either to lay over the gravestones associated with the older (and lower) graves to protect them, or else to elevate the stones to the new, higher surface. This explains the dense forest of gravestones that one sees today; many of them commemorate an individual who is buried several layers further down. This also explains why the surface of the cemetery is raised several meters higher than the surrounding streets; retaining walls are necessary to hold the soil and the graves in place.

This is the tomb of Rabbi Loew, a very famous and revered Rabbi.

Judah Loew ben Bezalel, alt. Löw, Loewe, Löwe, or Levai, (between 1512 and 1526? – 17 September 1609)^[1] widely known to scholars of Judaism as the Maharal of Prague, or simply The MaHaRaL, the Hebrew acronym of "Moreinu Ha-Rav Loew," ("Our Teacher, Rabbi Loew") was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague inBohemia. (Wikipedia)