Prague Jewish Quarter Tour

On Sunday Morning in Prague Kevin and I took a tour of Prague's Jewish quarter, known as Josefov, through Wittmann Tours. We aren't usually the type of people who take tours, but on our trip to the glass factory we met a mother and daughter from the West Coast of the U.S. who took this tour and absolutely raved about it. They said it was the best thing they during their stay.

The Spanish Synagogue

What made the tour stand out for the others? Wittmann Tours, owned and operated by Sylvie Wittmann, gives tours of Jewish sites in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany. In addition to giving Jewish-focused tours, Ms. Wittmann -- a native Czech Jew -- has worked to bring Central European Jews back to their Synagogues throughout Bohemia. In 1991 she founded a new Jewish community in Prague to accommodate the city's reemerging reformed Jewish population.

All of her tour guides are very knowledgeable, with backgrounds in Jewish history as well as a few Holocaust survivors. Our guide, Olga Kourová, was very well versed in Jewish history, as well as fine arts and literature. We are again lucky to have a very small group -- there were only three of us.

The Old Jewish Cemetery

The tour of the Jewish Ghetto included all sites of the Jewish Museum, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the Old New Synagogue. These buildings are the best-preserved collection of Jewish monuments in all of Europe. I was amazed to learn that the some historians believe that the Nazis planned to build a museum about the "exterminated race" and therefore did not destroy Prague Jewish landmarks or the possessions confiscated from the temples and families as the residents were forces to into labor camps. It is because of this well-preserved collection of books, photos, and art displayed in today's Jewish Museum is one of the foremost collections in the world.

Franz Kafka Statue

Though certainly a part of the three-hour talk, the tour didn't focus only on the experience of Prague's Jewish population during the Holocaust. The city's Jews have a long history, dating back to the 13th Century. Times of acceptance were intermixed with times of discrimination.