The Amazing Bohemian and Moravian Jews of Prague, Czechoslovakia

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

                                                                                                      

Czechoslovakia used to be called Bohemia of the Holy Roman Empire. At its height, , it also had parts of present Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Sloveniaand and Ukraine.  Jews were known to be living in Bohemia since the 10th century, most likely in Prague.  A former province of Bohemia was called Moravia.  It was later Austria, and finally called Czechoslovakia.  During the Crusaders Period from 1096 on, Jews suffered severe persecutions and many were forcibly baptized.  In 1337 Jews suffered from anti-Semitic massacres and again at the time of the Black Death in 1349.  They were partly expelled in 1421.  The Polish persecuted them from 1648 onward, and after that horror, their numbers increased from immigration of other Jews who had been persecuted in their towns.
                                                                           

 
Jews had settled here in the capital in the 10th century and were traders.  When the Crusaders came along in 1096,

they were able to finally resist their attacks.  During the 14th and 15th centuries, Jews, however, were expulsed from the land, suffered from violence and were discriminated when living there.
                                                                             

13th Century forced clothing upon Jews in Germany

 Things improved during the 16th century which was also the community's Golden Age that lasted until the 18th century.
                                                                       

Karlstejn Castle in Czechoslovakia, on page about Bohemia

In 1512, Gershon ben Solomon Cohen had a Hebrew printing shop in Prague.  Things were good until 1562 when all Hebrew books suffered from censorship.  From the 16th to 18th centuries, Prague's Jewish community was one of the largest and most important communities in Central Europe.  It had a large and self-contained Jewish quarter (Judenstadt).  The ancient synagogues, many of which still stand, were beautiful.  The synagogues, Altneuschul and Pinkasschul, and huge cemetery are still among the sights of the city.   It had world-renowed scholars, the Hebrew printing-press, and highly-developed autonomous institutions as well as a Jewish craft-guild.          
                                                      THE MAHARAL OF PRAGUE
                                                                           

Prague is famous for its "Hoh Rabbi Low and the Golem that he wrote about which as entered into Jewish folklore with the Golem being the basis for the story of SUPERMAN.
                                                                       

The Golem -his development among the Jews was connected with the magical interpretation of SEPHER YETZIRAH and the belief in the creative power of the Holy Names.  Rabbi Low's Golem was a creature fulfilling tasks imposed upon it and also able to bring about destruction and ruin.  Now the word is used in Yiddish for a stupid person.  

                                       

 Rabbi Low was called the Maharal who was born around 1525 and died in Prague.  He was the Chief Rabbi of Prague from 1597, a talmudist, moralist, theologian, mathematician and mystic being into the Kabbalah.  Maharal stands for Moraynu HaReav Judah Loew ben B'zalel, translated as Our teacher, Judah Loew, son of B'zalel.  Der Hohe Rabbi Loewe von Prag, translated as the Holy Rabbi Loew of Prague.

It's generally accepted that he came from Worms, Germany, a center of early Rabbis.  He was a poor student in his Yeshiva who became engaged to a wealthy woman, Perla Shmelkes, daughter of Samuel Shmelkes, and intended to continue his studies with her family's support.  The wealthy family lost their money, however, and his marriage was delayed, so his fiancee wound up running a food shop, a grocery store.  One day a knight passed by and snatched up a loaf of bread from the shop on his spear.  He told her he had not eaten for 3 days and left his cloak with its lining containing gold coins as payment.   He didn't come back for it, so she was able to get married, and Judah spent the rest of his life in relative affluence, a very lucky young man.
                                                                           
He arrived in Prague when he was past 50 and was the Landesrabbiner of Moravia in Mikulov (Vikolsburg) from 1553 to 1573.  He founded a yeshiva in Prague, but left in 1584 to serve as Rabbi in Moravia or alternatively in Posen, and returned in 1588.

On February 23, 1592, Emperor Rudolf II invited him to an audience to the Hradshin because he wanted to learn about mysticism from the Maharal who was said could perform cabbalistic wonders.  By February 16, 1594, his colleague and friend the astronomer Tycho Brahe, arranged for him to speak with the emperor again, possibly on the subject of alchemy.  At that meeting, the Maharal was named Chief Rabbi of Posen.
                                                                         

The Golem came about at the Altneuschul Synagogue in Prague to serve the Jewish community that was under much stress and anti-Semitism.  According the the legend, he took dust and brought the Golem to life by insertion of G-d's name under its tongue and it obeyed Judah's commands, helping Jews survive these anti-Jewish measures and blood libel accusations.  It also served as the shabbos goy.  Finally, it had to be destroyed and returned to dust because it ran amok on a Friday afternoon during Kabbalat Shabbat when Judah forgot to remove the divine name.  The remains of the Golem  were sealed up in the attic of the Altneu synagogue in Prague.

 This legend was also connected to Rabbi Elijah of Prague UNTIL  the late 18th century.  Elijah Ben Judah of Chelm, Baal Shem was born in 1514 and died in 1583.  He also was a Rabbi and Kabbalist, known for his miracle cures by means of charms and amulets.  According to tradition, he was the creator of the Golem.

Since 1917, the end of WWI, the Maharal's statue has stood at the entrance of the City Hall of Prague.  His 1st work, Tikkun Ho'alom, was published in 1995 in English translation.
                                                               

A descendant of the Maharal is Rabbi Yaakov Bachrach.   According to Rabbi Yaakov Bachrach, he was the grandson of the Gaon Y. Yehuda Bachrach, and his genealogy went back to the Chavas Yoir and presumably the Maharal and onto Rashi and then to King David.  The history is that Bezalel Hazaken had a son, Yehuda Loew (Liwa) ben Bezalel.  Yehuda Loew died in 1440 in Worms, or possibly in 18 Heshvan(Hebrew calendar) in 1439 in Prague.  Yehuda Lev Hazaken is the son of Isaac, son of Bezalel Hazaken.  Yehuda was the head of a yeshiva (religious school)  in Worms, Germany-Rhineland.  The name, Liwa, which frequently appeared in the Worms area, is generally pronounced "Liwa" although originally it either stood for the German, "Loewe" which meant LION, the heraldic sign of the tribe of Yehudah "Judah", or for the German-Jewish "Loew."  Yehuda had a son, Bezalel ben Yehuda LOEW.    Bezalel LOEW had a son, Haim or Chaim LOEW-BEER ben Bezalel LOEB.  Haim LOEW-BEER b: c1450 -1480 in Isenheim, Alsace, France and died in 1522 in Prague or on November 24, 1565 in Worms, Germany.  Haim married Vogelin Feigele and they had 4 sons: The genealogy goes on to meet up with the Maharal.
                                                                         

All this wonderful history to bring honor to Prague, yet the Jews were exiled from the city in 1745 to 1748 and were only allowed to return after promising to pay exorbitant taxes.  In 1848, they were granted full equality.  Four years later their ghetto was abolished.  The Jews then began taking a large share in German cultural life with only smaller groups showing interest in Czech culture.  Under the Czechoslovak Republic between WWI and WWII, the Prague community did well.  Jews achieved prominence in all walks of life.
                                                                         

Jews rounded up in front of this picturesque home in Boskovice, Czechoslovakia by Nazis. 

After 1938 in September, however, 15,000 Jews from the Sudeten district ceded to Germany had to seek refuge in Prague.  A month later, the Nazi regime was formed in the country, and the liquidation of the Prague Jewish community began.  There were 65,000 Jews in Prague in 1942.  About 25,000 of them were refugees, but these were exterminated by 1945.
                                                                             

2015 Immigration Problems

The remaining or returning Jews numbering 1,400 in 1990 became subservient to the Communist regime until the 1989 Czech revolution, after which it became very active.  Since 1989, the magnificently preserved Jewish synagogues and cemetery have again drawn a large number of Jewish visitors from around the world.

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.loebtree.com/maharal.html
 http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/01/fatahs-jamal-al-jamal-dies-in-prague-in.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/12/an-italian-writer-compares-israel-with.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/12/prominent-americans-finding-jewish.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/07/superman-guess-who-created-him-and-why.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/07/jewish-history-in-slovakia.html