Old Jewish Cemetery (Starý židovský hřbitov) travel guide

The Old Jewish Cemetery and Old-New Synagogue are amongst the most significant historic remnants of the former Jewish town and, according to many, number among the ten most interesting sights in the world

The cemetery dates back to the beginning of the 15th century; burials took place until 1787. There are still approximately 12,000 gravestones beneath the ash trees. 1900sq m/0.5ac of ground were sacrificed to a sanitation programme in 1903. The limited space was too small for the large number of graves, and fresh earth had to be piled onto the existing graves in order to create plots for new graves. According to Jewish law, graves may never be given up, so in some places there are up to nine layers, one on top of the other. This has resulted in the impressive array of gravestones; their accumulation and age give the Old Jewish Cemetery its distinctive appearance.The Hebrew inscriptions on the gravestones provide personal details – the name of the deceased and father’s name (for married women, also the husband’s name) – as well as date of death and of the funeral. The good works of the deceased are listed not only in prose, but also in verse. Reliefs on the gravestones often give a visual image of the deceased person’s name (stag, bear, carp, cockerel etc.), his profession (physician’s instruments, tailor’s scissors etc.), and sometimes other symbols, such as blessing hands or pitchers (for members of priestly families), grapes (for the tribes of Israel), crowns, pine-cones or other motifs.The oldest gravestone marks the resting-place of scholar and poet Avigdor Karo († 1439), who experienced the pogrom of 1389 and wrote an elegy upon it. The most recent grave, of Moses Beck, dates from 1787; since that time there have been no more burials here. A sarcophagus in late-Renaissance style with chiselled lions and writing-tablets framed by arcades marks the grave of the learned Chief Rabbi Jehuda Löw ben Bezalel(† 1609).Further identified tombs include those of the Primate of Prague’s Jewish town, Mordecai Markus Maisel († 1601), historian and astronomer David Gans († 1613), scholar Joseph Schlomo Delmedigo († 1655) and book-collector and scholar David Oppenheim († 1736). One of the richest and loveliest is the gravestone of Heudele Basševi († 1628), wife of Wallenstein’s financier, the first Prague Jew to be elevated to the aristocracy.The pebbles on the graves are laid there by relatives or friends. This custom dates back to the people of Israel’s wandering through the desert under Moses: at that time it was customary to cover the dead with stones, for protection against wild animals, because there was no other possibility amidst the desert sand. The faithful throw little messages onto the tomb of Chief Rabbi Jehuda Löw, invoking his help – it is said he can work miracles.

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sebastian

deeply impressive, you breathe history in this place

2009-10-24 / follow sebastian / report abuse