Visiting Prague

Summary: the text is about the most notorious Rabbi, Judah, the Jewish Tradition and “golden age”.

In the mid-sixteenth century the Jewish Community of Prague was in between the interests of the Estates and the king’s preferences, risking extinction. However with a generation consolidated its economic energy and intellectual power the end of the sixteenth century happens to be their “Golden Age”.
In the 30’s and 40’s the Prague people were very rudely intolerants and accused Jews of illegal dealing with coins, spying for the Turks, and being responsible for the fire of 1541 whish destroyed much of the Minor Town and Hradcany including state archives. In the same year, under torture one Jew form the community confessed all the charges whish resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from Bohemia, order emitted by the King Ferdinand I. Jews had to leave immediately and most of them went to Moravia, Poland. History repeats itself in many occasions and this one of them, the Jews saw themselves in brutal troubles, some were robed others killed. Although with money, at this time some problems could be solved, important families received letters of exemption enabling them to order their business, and others were allowed to return to Prague at least for a short period. The Habsburgs thinking of their own war against the German protestants forced the king to expel all the remain Jews in Prague and in the country, but King Ferdinand I had his doubts because of the important role the Jews played in the Bohemian economy.
In 1567 the king was now Maximilian II and he revoked all the orders of expulsion from the country and the Jews saw all their privileges return. Maximilian followed the footsteps of the King Rudolf II who allowed the Jews to stay in Prague giving them a letter with their rights, protecting the community against the continuing attacks by the Christian guilds. By this time form eight to ten thousand people lived in the Jewish quarter whish was called the “mother-in-Israel”.
The richest and most eminent man in the Jewish community at the time was Mordecai Maisel, he come from an old family form Poland who had lived in Prague before. Therefore he had great connection to the Jewish community of Prague and worried about it. In 1567 he moved to Prague and his great connections with the Czech and international court as well as his good political skills he helped many families to resettle in Prague. Rudolf II gave him the Hofjude privilege and made him responsible for the Jewish community. He helped the poor, gave financial support to other communities out of Prague, built a Jewish town hall, a hospital, a synagogue and supported private scholars. Rudolf decaled he would do what he wanted with his money and his will would be respected. However that was not what happened after his death, the king entered his house and confiscated any formal assurances in the name of the crown.
In 1512 many young scholars began publishing Hebrew books and prayers, blessing and commentaries. In 1527 they continued to publish although more elaborated books such as the Story of Passover. The Rabbis of Prague were well educated man who studied in Germany, Egypt or Poland before settling in Prague.
After Maise,l come the notorious Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the most famous rabbi. He is, however better known by his mythical powers and creation of the Golem of Prague. He was the most original and intense mind ever of the Jewish community of Prague. He was born in 1520 in Poland and studied there. He came to Prague to to marry Perl but it is known that he was rabbi of Mikulov and chief rabbi of all Moravian Jews from 1553-1573. He only returned to Prague when he was sixty to teach at the Klaus he also created groups for the study of the Mishnah and was called to dreaft the statues of the Hevra Kaddisha. After two attempts only in 1597 we was appointed chif rabbi of the Prague community, he was eighty years old. He served for ten years and died in 1609. He was an intransigent scholar who becomes firmly devoted to necessary reforms of ritual and pedagogy. A radical conservative, whose harshness offened Prague’s elders. His conservative ideas and communitarian engagement made him dear to the later Hasidim, and nowadays he is seen as the great defender of the Gershom Sholem. He was a defender of the Torah, that life should be lived closer to the Torah writings. Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel declares that each group of people is called to fulfil its own and proper tasks; each must remain pristine and unsoiled in its beliefs, idiom, ways of behaviour, even its odes of dress. A cohesive community cannot be of evil but, on the contrary constitutes the precondition of all integrity.
After the Holocaust only about 30,000 Jews began to recreate Jewish life in Bohemia and Moravia. Merely a few years later they had to face another threats when the Communist Russian power settled in February 1948. the ones who stayed in the country (immigration to Israel was possible for some time) went through anti-Semitic period marked by the so called Slánský trial in early 50’s, they enjoyed some freedom in late 60’s which ended by the Soviet led invasion in August 1968 (again many Jews left the country) to be completely downed by the Communist so called normalization led by the Husák régime. Late in November 1989 with the Velvet revolution brought freedom to Czech society and to it’s Jewish Community.
Nowadays the Jewish community is still significant and it is possible to find many Jewish institutions. There the Federation of Jewish Communities in Czech Republic whish supports ten communities: Brno, Plzen, Karlovy Vary, Teplice, Ústí nad Labem, Decín, Liberec, Olomouc, Ostrava and Prague. Near central Prague hotels it is possible to visit the Jewish Museum, an achievement of the federation. The Federation of Jewish Communities in Czech Republic also established the Governmental Commission to deal with all issues concerning Jewish properties and assets.

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