TRAVEL I

PASSOVER 7997

Diplomat

RESORT AND COUNTRY CLUB
HOLLYWOOD, FLA.

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Czec hos lovak Trave l, Bure au, Inc.

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The Jewish cemetery in Prague is the oldest surviving one in Europe.

Jewish Culture
In Czechoslovakia

119 N. PARK AVE.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. 11570
(516) 766-5140

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800-221-2791
FAX # 516-764-6991

UNIVERSAL KOSHER TOURS

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33200 W. Seven Mile • Livonia

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Monday-Saturday 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., Sunday 12-5

476-0055, 476-1675

Full Service Travel Agency
1-800 729-9820
(313) 827-9920
FAX (313) 355-1701

62

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1990

Czechoslovakia's Jewish
legacy dates back to the Mid-
dle Ages. Home of Europe's
oldest synagogue — built in
1270 — and the first Hebrew
printing press north of the
Alps (established in 1512),
the country offers visitors a
wealth of historic sites and
important Judaica.
Many of Czechoslovakia's
Jewish treasures can be found
in Prague's old Jewish
quarter, where the first
Prague Ghetto once stood.
While the ghetto developed
into a thriving community,
Czechoslovakia's Jewish
culture blossomed following
the revolutionary constitu-
tion of 1858, when Jews, no
longer confined to the ghetto,
were granted the right to live
wherever they pleased.
Jewish culture flourished in
Czechoslovakia until the late
1930s with the rise of Nazism
and eventual near-complete
destruction of the country's
Jewish population.
The State Jewish Museum
in Prague, which now com-
prises several different sites,
was established in 1906. Its
real growth, however, occur-
red from 1942-45, when the
Nazis deported the entire
Jewish population of
Bohemia and Moravia to con-
centration camps. All Jewish
possessions of artistic and
historical value were con-
fiscated, shipped to Prague,
stored and catalogued for
what Hitler intended to be a
museum of an extinct people.
Thus, 140,000 artifacts,
books, paintings and other
treasures representing
Jewish religious and cultural
life, survived World War II.
Today, they stand witness to
a once glorious past.
Prague's Jewish quarter is
located in the heart of the ci-

ty, a step back in time. The
Old Jewish cemetery, where
Rabbi Low — associated with
the legend of the Golem (a
superhuman giant) — lies
buried, dates back to the 15th
century. Last used in 1787,
the cemetery is the oldest in
Europe to have survived the
Nazi era. Noted for its melan-
cholic beauty, the cemetery
houses thousands of graves-
tones grouped one next to the
other, the result of multiple
burials over the centuries.
Next to the cemetery, the
morgue, an old stone bulding,
houses an exhibit of children's
art created by the inmates of

For the first-time
traveler, Prague's
Jewish Quarter
can be visited as
part of a walking
tour.

Teresin, a transit center for
Prague Jews deported by the
Nazis.
Nearby is the Old-New
Synagogue, one of the oldest
in Europe, dating back to
1270. The Jewish Town Hall,
and its clock tower, where the
time is indicated in Hebrew
characters, and the time
movement is from left to
right, houses not only the
Jewish community's ad-
ministrative offices, but a
kosher restaurant for the
local community.
Other sites in the Old
Jewish Quarter include the
Town Hall Synagogue, which
serves as an exhibition
gallery for the Jewish State
Museum; and the Pinkas
Synagogue, also one of the
oldest in Prague, which now
serves as a memorial to the