The Jewish Quarter

January 14th was a packed day full of learning and experiences, and while this post will be going up late, it’s better to be late than never!

This day saw us touring through the Jewish Quarter of Prague. Our first stop was the Maisel Synagogue, which Mordechai Maisel built for his family while mayor of the Jewish town. As Minister of Finance, he also used his wealth to give back to the community and do a lot of renovation and building work around town. Here and at other stops we got to learn about the structure of the synagogue, ritual objects used in religious and daily life, and some of the historical transformation of the Jewish community’s experience in Prague. For example, or guide, Eva, taught us about sumptuary laws ruling that Jewish people must wear some sort of yellow marker, like a yellow hat, which was supposed to be the color of shame. However, over time, many Jewish communities would turn these symbols of shame into symbols of pride, even working an image of the yellow hat into a flag that hangs in the synagogues.

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The Pinkas Synagogue was an incredibly moving building, the walls of which were inscribed with the names of Jewish people from Czechoslovakia who were lost to the Holocaust. Seeing so many thousands of names written out covering nearly every inch of the walls was chilling to see, especially when combined with the prayer for the dead being sung in the background, ringing throughout the synagogue. It only got mare impactful when we went upstairs and could look through the gallery of paintings and drawings done by children in the Terezin concentration camp. All of the works were originals. For me personally, this was the most touching or memorable part of the tour. I had done a project for an English class in high school about those drawings and the children who made them, but I never thought I’d actually be able to look at them with my own eyes.

The Old Jewish Cemetery followed, and we were told it was surprisingly empty. Which was great, because it allowed us to actually take it all in. Everyone in that cemetery died of natural causes and it was a historical burial ground, so it was a place of peace. We even got to see the grave of Rabbi Loew, the creator of Golem, the intended protector of the Jewish community. And speaking of protectors, there was a surprise visit from a pair of cats, one of whom was sitting in front of one of the stones. While Eva said she had never seen cats there before, I like to think that they might be little guardians of the cemetery.

Our final stop on the tour was the “New-Old Synagogue,” entitled so because it is not the oldest, but the oldest-standing. I definitely could feel how old the building was in a way I can’t quite explain. It’s been happening to me often here, where I can not only obviously see how old a building is by how it looks, but I can almost feel the years running through it. There was obviously a lot of history to be had there, but what was most fascinating was the legend that Golem is held, either dormant or dead, in the attic of this synagogue, with a ladder leading up to the top tp serve as an access to him.

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Our evening was much different than the rest of the day in a delightful way! Our class connected with another class from PLU that was passing through Prague on a grand trip across Europe learning about music history. This was especially fun for me, because I had a lot of friends from Wind Ensemble on that trip that I got to see after many weeks apart! We went to a dinner together (after we actually managed to find the restaurant!) followed by a ballet at the Estates Theatre .It was called “Leonce and Lena,” a comedic play about two young nobles who are arranged to be married but don’t want to be, so they separately run away and run into each other in a different town, where they fall in love without knowing who the other is. The play takes a confusing turn when they both mysteriously return as robotic puppet-people and get married, after which the show promptly ends. Had I not had a synopsis from my friend beforehand, I probably would’ve had no idea what was happening the entire time. Which is not to say that it was unenjoyable. On the contrary, I found it to be a lot of fun! But it was extremely confusing, especially the part where they remained puppets after they got married.

All in all, the 14th was a day full of enriching learning, and I’m glad I finally get to share about it!