Josefov

The district of Josefov (in German: Josephstadt ) belonged to the Old city of Prague in Czech Republic; it constituted the Jewish Ghetto of the city.

This district is often represented by the flag of the Juifs of Prague, a yellow star of David on red bottom.

History

It is generally allowed that the Jews started to settle in Prague during the 10th century. The first written document reporting the existence of Prague is an account of a Jewish merchant of Tolède going back to this time. The first known Pogrom was there that of 1096 at the time of the First crusade, then the Jews concentrate in a walled district.

In 1292, the king Ottokar II of Bohemia publishes the Statuta Judaeorum which gave a statute of administrative autonomy to the Jewish community. In 1389, more than 3.000 Jews are massacred during the Passover at the time of the one of the bloodiest pogroms against this community.

The Ghetto knows a great prosperity towards the end of the 16th century century. That coincides with the life of Mordecai Maisel, mayor of the Jewish district become Minister for Finance and who had made fortune. Its generosity development assistance of the Jewish district and one owes him, inter alia the Synagog Maisel which bears its name. It is at that time that the Rabbin Juda Loew Ben Bezalel creates the myth of the Golem.

In 1850, the district is famous Josefstadt , according to the name of the emperor Joseph II, which émancipe Jews by publishing the Édit of Tolerance in 1781.

Most of the district is demolished between 1893 and 1913, according to an initiative which wanted to take as a starting point the model Paris IEN of the baron Hausmann to reorganize and cleanse the city. It remained at the conclusion of this work only six Synagog S, the old cemetery and the town hall of the Jewish city.

Under the Third Reich, the Nazis wish to make of Josefov a exotic museum of an extinct race . Besides they brought back objects resulting from the plundering of the synagogs of all the Central Europe so that they are here exposed. Some of these objects in déshérence form the base of the collections of the Jewish Musée of Prague.

Josefov has modern buildings today and some regret not being able to have an exact idea of it what the district could resemble at the time where lived there more than 180.000 inhabitants.

See too

Articles on the Jewish Museum of Prague, the various synagogs and other important sites of Josefov:

External bonds

Jewish Museum of Prague

Random links: