Josefov

On the bitterly cold Thanksgiving day that began with my first visit to the Charles Bridge and ended with an unexpected turkey dinner, I also made a much too short visit to the Josefov, the old Jewish quarter of Prague. Naturally enough it was both fascinating and tragic. The Josefov is named after the revolutionary emperor Joseph II, the quintessential enlighened despot of European history. He ruled at the end of the 18th century and was essentially a century of more ahead of his time, which meant that most of his reforms unfortunately did not work as well as he had envisioned simply because he was so far ahead of his time. The famous story is that his grave includes the words "Here lies Joseph II, who, with the best of intentions, failed in everything he undertook" - the words were chosen by him. One of the sadder aspects of his "failed" reforms was his remarkably elightened treatment of the Jews. His policies were so favorable that many Jews poured into this part of the world, which would obviously have tragic consequences during World War II. Of the 40,000 Jews who lived in the tiny section of the Josefov I think only around a thousand survived to the end of the war. There actually aren't many Jews left in the Josefov itself now - and the area is mainly dominated by dozens of very posh shops. Because of time constraints (I had meetings scheduled with two universities) I did not go through the New-Old Synagogue, which is supposed to be very worthwhile - nor did I make it over to what is called the Spanish Synagogue (called that because of its "Moorish" architecture). The Jewish cemetary was pretty amazing - and obviously sobering - and it is dominated by thousands and thousands of tombstones jutting out at odd angles; there was only so much space inside the walls. Rabbi Loews, the person who is believed to have come up with golem legend is buried there - and every crack and crevice of his tombstone is full of slips of paper - wishes and pleas from believers. Outside the cemetary - with the stalls actually sharing a wall with the cemetary above it - are a series of touristy stalls. I picked up small golems for my friends Bob and Steve, and wish I would have purchased one for myself as well. I was going to pick one up for my good friend Sarah as well, but since she is great with child I figured that she might find it a big spooky (and, actually, when I gave her her gift [she's the only one of my friends who always gets a gift from overseas, since she's the person who "created" this blog in the first place] and explained my rationale for not getting her a golem she practically shuddered at the thought). Oddly, just as Greek tragedy and comedy came together to form a balanced view of life for the ancient Greeks, the visit to the Josefov produced a sobering balance to a pretty glorious Thanksgiving in Prague.