Second Day in Prague

Our second day in Prague, we went to Church and then to the Jewish quarter. I was impressed by the various forms of persecution that the Jews experienced, including limiting what professions they were permitted to engage in, limitations on where they could live, expulsion at whim, et cetera. And yet they still endured.--Dad

While the first day we logged over 16,000 steps, today was only 10,000.--Dad

A tombstone from the Jewish cemetery in Prague. The caption begins: "An upright and faithful man . . ."

Just in case you need some high-heeled sneakers

Back in the old town square

Posing with the street mimes

The next day was Sunday. Church started at 9 (!!), but we made it in time to get a great seat in the back next to the stack of Children’s Friend magazines and crayons and paper they have stocked there for kids. A missionary translated the service and did great until the last speaker who was an older man and must have been using a lot of idiomatic phrases, because everyone in the congregation was responding with laughter, etc. but he had no idea what was being said. I feel like that sometimes in Germany. Just when you think you are understanding church pretty well, someone will get up to speak and you are sure it is a completely different language. I think I counted at least 7 sets of missionaries there.

After church we went to the Jewish Quarter, starting with the Spanish Synagogue, which is built in the “Moorish Revival Style”, which seems to mean there is a central dome, and the walls and dome are intricately painted in the Moorish style--dark background with gold interlocking designs. It was beautiful. On display there were different Edicts from the Prague government both forbidding and then granting rights to the Jews. Definitely a long history of persecution there. The Synagogues and the Jewish Cemetery are all run by the Jewish Museum group, and at each Synagogue there is a different type of display set up. At one of the synagogues the walls were covered with very neat, precise lettering indicating the names and birth dates of all of the Bohemian Jews from that area who had been killed in WWII, in another there were displays of textiles used to cover the Torah or the alcove where the Ark was stored in synagogues--all of these were dated as being donated to the museum during 1942-45 as part of the Jewish Artifact Recovery program, and one of the Synagogues explored the history of Judaism in Prague (that was the kids favorite--ha ha--I wished I could have had more time in that one, though). Then we went to the Jewish Cemetery, which is the largest in Europe, and spans a time period from the early 1400s-1786. The Jews in Prague were a force to be reckoned with, but were also repeatedly discriminated against and when they weren’t allowed to be buried in the city graveyard, they decided to make their own--without permission. It was a sobering and sacred-feeling site. The tombstones are literally on top of each other. Some are still vertical, others have collapsed sideways, some are still legible, others not at all, and many close to the walkway have small stones placed on them--apparently that is a Jewish tradition that perhaps evolved from earlier times when stones were placed to cover graves and indicate where they were, but that now shows respect and love for the deceased, and that they are not forgotten.--Mom