Josefov - The Rough Guide to Prague - page 143

is the ornate bimah surrounded by a beautiful wrought-iron grille, supported by barley-sugar
columns, behind which there's a chilling list of the death camps of Eastern Europe.
Of all the sights of the Jewish quarter, the Holocaust memorial is perhaps the most moving,
witheverybitofwallspacetakenupwiththecarvedstonelistofvictims,statingsimplytheir
name, birth date and date of death or transportation to the camps. It is the longest epitaph
in the world, yet it represents a mere fraction of those who died in the Nazi concentration
camps.Upstairs,inaroombesidethewomen'sgallery,there'salsoaharrowingexhibitionof
children's drawings from the Jewish ghetto in Terezín; most of the children were killed in
the camps - surely wartime Bohemia's most distressing story.
< Back to Josefov
Starý židovský hřbitov (Old Jewish Cemetery)
UStaréhoHřbitova•Sun-Fri:Nov-March9am-4.30pm;April-Oct9am-6pm• JewishMuseumtickets 300Kč/
480Kč • Metro Staroměstská
At the heart of Josefov is the Starý židovský hřbitov , established in the fifteenth century
and used until 1787. There are now an estimated 100,000 people buried here (far outnumber-
ing the 12,000 headstones), one on top of the other, six palms apart, and as many as twelve
layers deep. The enormous numbers of visitors has meant that the graves themselves have
been roped off, and a one-way system introduced: you enter from the Pinkasova synagoga,
on Široká, and leave by the Klausová synagoga. Get to the Old Jewish Cemetery before the
crowds - a difficult task for much of the year - and it can be a poignant reminder of the
ghetto, its inhabitants subjected to inhuman overcrowding even in death. The rest of Prague
recedes beyond the tall ash trees and cramped perimeter walls, the crooked, haphazard head-
stones and Hebrew inscriptions casting a powerful spell.
Each headstone bears a symbol denoting the profession or tribe of the deceased: a pair of
hands for the Cohens; a pitcher and basin for the Levites; scissors for a tailor; a violin for
a musician. On many graves you'll spot pebbles, some holding down kvitlech or small mes-
sages of supplication. The greatest number of these sits on the grave of Rabbi Löw , who is
buried by the wall directly opposite the entrance, followed closely by the rich Renaissance
tomb of Mordecai Maisel, some 10m to the southeast. The oldest grave, dating from 1439,
belongs to the poet Avigdor Karo, who lived to tell the tale of the 1389 pogrom.
Immediately on your left as you leave the cemetery is the Obřadní síň , a lugubrious neo-
Renaissance house built in 1906 as a ceremonial hall by the Jewish Burial Society. Appro-
priately enough, it's now devoted to an exhibition on Jewish traditions of burial and death,
though it would probably be more useful if you could visit it before heading off into the
cemetery rather than after.