Jewish Prague

Prague has a long and famous jewish history - its crown jewel being the personality of MaHaRaL or Moreinu HaRav Loew, but also other famous Rabbis like Ezechiel Landau (Noda BiYehuda) and David Oppenheim.

The jewish life has for centuries been concentrated in Jewish Quarter called Josefov since 1850 after austrian monarch Joseph II who granted equal rights to local Jews in his 1781 Toleration Edict.

Prague is a unique example of deliberate preservation of jewish sites by the Nazi occupation during WW2 - the plan was to concentrate judaica items from all over Europe and establish a museum of an extinct race....

Visit the Alt-Neu Shul, or Old-New Synagogue that is one of the oldest still serving in the world (since 1280) and notice the U shape of seating order typical for Sephardic rather than Ashkenazic shuls - the synagogue is older than Sephardi/Ashkenazi division fully developed its minhagim.

Another must is the famous ancient cemetery and possibly Spanish Synagogue built in Neo-Moorish style.

There are no kosher hotels in Prague but you can find kosher accommodation with cholov/pat yisroel breakfast through http://www.kosherprague.com/ run by local Jews. There are two kosher restaurants: King Solomon at Siroka st. and Shalom situated in the Old Jewish Municipality - today Jewish Community Center.

(There are now two new possiblilities of kosher dining in the Jewish Quarter - as of March/2009).