The Jewish
Museum
in Prague

Judaica Bohemiae XIL just in stores

A new issue of the journal Judaica Bohemiae has just been published. The yearbook, which the Jewish Museum has been publishing in English and German since 1965, summarizes selected current scholarly studies on the history and culture of Jews in the Bohemian lands and the former Habsburg monarchy.

In issue 59, for example, you will learn more about the functioning of early modern Jewish finance, the role of Jewish entrepreneurs in the development of the shoe industry in the Bohemian lands in the 19th and first quarter of the 20th century, and the personality of Yitzhak Man (1885–1963), a prominent opera singer and chazan who worked in the Great Synagogue in Brno from 1927 to 1939. The online version is available on the Central and Eastern European Online Library website, and the printed version is also available in our e-shop.

The Spanish Synagogue temporarily closed

On November 12 and 13, 2024, the Spanish Synagogue will be closed to the public for operational reasons. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and look forward to your visit on other days.

Meanwhile, we invite you for a virtual tour.

The Jewish Museum in Prague’s first Annual lecture at the Czech National Hall in New York City will take place on November 20, 2024.

We would like to thank all those who responded to the call for lecture proposals for the Bohemian National Hall Annual Lecture on the History and Culture of Jews in the Czech and Slovak Lands, which was issued by the Jewish Museum in Prague, in association with the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York.

In total, we received 26 proposals from scholars from eight different countries, all of which cover a wide range of interesting topics. We appreciate the level of interest generated and believe that the lecture will help to expand awareness of the history and culture of Czech, Moravian, and Slovak Jews. The winning proposal has been selected by a committee of representatives from the Jewish Museum in Prague and the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews.

And the winner is Dr. Milan Žonca, whose lecture is titled “Rabbis, Philosophers, and Reformers: The Jewish Community of Prague in the Intellectual Landscape of Late Medieval Bohemia ”. Congratulations! 
“We were surprised by the number of applicants and by the variety of topics they cover. We hope that at least some of them will apply again next year, and we will also try to stay in touch with these historians and to work with them on other occasions,” says the museum’s director Pavla Niklová.

        

THE KLAUSEN SYNAGOGUE AND THE CEREMONIAL HALL ARE TEMPORARILY CLOSED

We would like to inform you about some provisional changes in the sightseeing tour of the Prague Jewish Town.  The current exhibition Jewish Customs and Traditions, which was opened in the 1990s, will be uninstalled as of July 1st, 2024, and the Klausen Synagogue and the Ceremonial Hall will be temporarily closed.
 In January 2024, our sightseeing tour was expanded to include the world renowned Old-New Synagogue, and now it will undergo further significant development in order to provide a first-class museum experience and ensure adequate comfort and safety. 

A new exhibition with the working title The Family Silver: Treasures of Czech, Moravian, and Silesian Jewish Communities will be prepared for the Ceremonial Hall as early as the end of 2025. You can look forward to the most precious artifacts from a rare collection of silver that is unparalleled on the European continent. 
 The reconstruction of the Klausen Synagogue will be more demanding in terms of time and investment, and we plan its reopening in 2028 at the latest. It will house a new core exhibition on Jewish customs and traditions, and we will also re-establish the post-war tradition of temporary exhibitions thematically related to Jewish life and legacy. 
Thank you for your understanding and support. We look forward to welcoming you in our new exhibitions.

 

FRANZ KAFKA´S YEAR

“Kafka100” is a year-long project of the Jewish Museum in Prague to mark the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka. It is a commemoration of the life and work of this world-renowned writer. We are pleased to invite you to this diverse cultural event for people of all ages. Check our website Kafka100.


 

EXHIBITION BY THE LEADING ISRAELI TYPOGRAPHER ODED EZER - ONE OF THE HIGHTLIGHTS OF "KAFKA100" 

On June 4 this year – which marks the centenary of the death of famed Prague writer Franz Kafka – the Robert Guttmann Gallery of the Jewish Museum in Prague will be launching an exhibition by the leading Israeli typographer and artist Oded Ezer. The installation, presented as mockumentary fiction, expands on the fantasy surrounding the protagonist of one of Kafka's most renowned stories. Gregor Samsa is portrayed as a forgotten literary prodigy whose writings have mysteriously vanished. Unlike Kafka, Samsa was not fortunate enough to have his manuscripts preserved, but Ezer takes his narrative even a step further by pointing out that the titles on the covers of twenty-four empty books are actually excerpts from the opening paragraph of The Metamorphosis, hinting at the possibility that Kafka himself might have appropriated Samsa's work.
More info at our press release.

STAY IN TOUCH THROUGH OUR DIGITAL CHANNELS

• have a look around our venues and permanent exhibitions:
  Klausen Synagogue - Ceremonial Hall - Maisel Synagogue - Pinkas Synagogue - Spanish Synagogue - Old Jewish Cemetery

• check out our on-line exhibitions  

• watch a documentary about the Jewish Museum in Prague

• browse our on-line collections catalogue

• take a journey behind the scenes - visit our restoration workshops and library

• read a flipbook about our planned new permanent exhibition Friedl's Cabinet: Children's drawings from Ghetto Theresienstadt