The Jewish Quarter

Today's lecture consisted of visiting the Jewish quarter of Prague and learning about the history of the Jewish people of the Czech Republic. We visited four synagogues and the oldest Jewish cemetery in all of Europe which has graves from the 1300s.
One of the girls in our group got a pretty bad concussion and had to be taken to a doctor to be checked out. I felt so bad. She was a walking zombie for the rest of the day.
The first synagogue we visited is called the Pinkas Synagogue. Today it is not used for worship and is a memorial for all of the Jewish citizens of Prague who perished during the Holocaust. Inscribed on the walls are the names of every person who died from Prague in alphabetical order in Hebrew. It is a very different experience to see every name listed instead of just a single number of the amount of people who died. I do not have any photographs of the interior as no photography was allowed. On the second floor there is artwork created by the children who were contained in the Terezin concentration camp that depicted what they had been through. I'm not sure how the artwork was preserved or who saved it, but it was disturbing to see how these young children were able to draw scenes of their experiences.
Outside of the Pinkas Synagogue is the Jewish cemetery which is now closed (no more people are buried there). It holds many Jewish people who died between the 1300s - 1700s. The last burial was in 1718. It is quite crowded.
The second synagogue we visited is not used for worship and houses many pieces used during Jewish holidays and went through the rituals used during the death of a family member.
The third synagogue we visited was the Old New Synagogue and it is the oldest active synagogue in Europe.
The last synagogue we visited was the Spanish Synagogue. This is the most ornate synagogue in all of Prague and it is breath taking. I sneaked some photos.
The architecture of the Jewish Quarter is the prettiest in all of Prague in my opinion.

Second Synagogue

part of the Jewish Cemetery

The Spanish Synagogue

Ceiling of the Spanish Synagogue

The Jewish Quarter

The Jewish Quarter

Tonight we are going on the church crawl. All the churches in Prague are open from 7-10pm with free admission.
Have a good Memorial Day Weekend to those in the USA!!!