Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Jews in the Czech Republic
.
The short answer is that there aren't any. That is a slight
exaggeration, but not by a lot. There are 3,000 people in the Czech
Republic who are identified as Jewish--and the definition is not
strict. Almost all Jews are in mixed marriages, and the basic
criteria is that you have a Jewish grandparent.
While I was in Prague, we had the chance to meet with a member of the
Jewish community. She is personally very active in Jewish education,
but sad fact is that there arent' that many people to educate. Many
synagogues do not even hava torah, despite the fact that there are
numerous Czech torahs that survived the war.
The other sad part is that the Jewish Quarter in Prague, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, speaks to a large and thriving Jewish community
before WWII. The Spanish Synagogue, the most elaborately decorated of
the synagogues that remain, has nightly concerts. Culture abounds in
modern day Prague, that is true. But there are likely to be as many
people of Jewish ancestry who are visiting this fair city than who
live there.
This may indeed be a very good entry into the Ottoman Empire followed
by the Austro-Hungarian Empire countries that Hitler left behind. If
you look solely at the effect on the Jewish population, he was very
successful. Gorgeous synagogues, beautiful cemeteries, no living
Jews. So while discrimination is not alive and well in the Czech
Rebuplic, it is not an exaggeration to say that there arent't many
people it would apply to
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