Your 3-hour tour begins at the Old-New Synagogue, the oldest functioning synagogue in Europe. Built around 1270, it is also among the oldest Gothic structures in Prague. At the heart of Jewish culture, this synagogue serves as the backdrop for a discussion of Jewish religious and social customs during the medieval period.
Visit the Renaissance-era Town Hall built by Mordechai Maisel and hear about the Golden Age of Prague’s Jewish community.
As you continue to move through one of the largest collections of Judaica in the world, you’ll come to understand the paradoxes of the Jewish experience in Prague. In 1782 Josef II issued the Edict of Toleration, granting the Jews religious freedom, eliminating professional restrictions, and allowing Jewish children to attend schools and universities. A grateful community renamed the ghetto district Josefov, as it is still known today.
All this freedom was destroyed in the 20th century by the genocidal nationalism of Nazi Germany. Prague’s Jewish community was decimated by the Holocaust.
Hear about the political, economic, and ethnic tensions that led to Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia and the implementation of the Nazi’s Final Solution in Prague.
