Pinkas Synagogue

Coordinates: 50°05′21″N 14°25′01″E / 50.0893°N 14.4170°E / 50.0893; 14.4170
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pinkas Synagogue

The Pinkas Synagogue (

Shoah
.

History

Interior: main body of the synagogue

An

architectural plan of the annex was designed by Juda Coref de Herz (the author of the plan to Maisel Synagogue
, too).

The floor of the synagogue is below the ground level so it was repeatedly afflicted by

Magen David with a Middle-Age Jewish hat.[2]

In 1860, a radical step was taken to solve the problem of floods – the floor level of the synagogue was raised by 1,5 m. The baroque bimah disappeared, the arrangement of the seats was modernized (seats surrounding the walls as in Old-New Synagogue were replaced by the church-like rows) and pseudo-Romanesque style dominated the space. However, less than century later, during reconstruction in 1950–1954, the original floor-level as well as the appearance of the synagogue were restored.

During World War II, the Pinkas Synagogue served as a storehouse of Jewish liturgical utensils, which, after the ban on Jewish services in the autumn of 1941, could no longer be commonly used in Prague synagogues.[3] When the Jewish Central Museum was established in the second half of 1942, the synagogue was also to serve as a repository of monuments, which it collected from Czech and Moravian communities, but also as a conservation office.[4] Although the Jewish Central Museum considered at the beginning of 1943 moving the pre-war exposition of the Prague Jewish Museum to the Pinkas Synagogue, less than a year later it abandoned this idea due to various difficulties and the Pinkas Synagogue remained a warehouse.[5]

In following five years, the walls of the synagogue were covered with names of 77,297

Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. It was said that the reason for closing was moisture. After the fall of communist regime in 1989 the synagogue had been reconstructed for three years and then opened to public, but it took another three years to restore the inscriptions of the names on the walls that were damaged by moisture.[8] Moreover, in 2002, an old enemy of the synagogue – flood – proved its power and the inscriptions had to be restored again.[9]

Permanent exhibition

Names of the Holocaust victims from Czech lands on the synagogue's inner wall

On the first floor of the synagogue there is an exhibition of pictures drawn by children in the

Theresienstadt before her deportation to Auschwitz. After the war about 4,500 pictures were handed over to the Jewish Museum in Prague.[10]

Beside activities of the Museum, Pinkas Synagogue serves also the religious community.

The Faces of the Victims of the Shoah

Projection of photographs of Shoah victims in the form of

video mapping onto the mikveh of the synagogue is freely visible every evening except Fridays and Jewish holidays from Široká Street. The start and end of the projection is variable with regard to the time of sunset throughout the year. It lasts 2.5 hours in the winter months, but is shortened to 45 minutes in the summer (due to later sunset times).[11]

Digital extension of the Pinkas Synagogue

The digital extension of the exhibition is available through an information kiosk inside the synagogue and a web interface. The electronic database contains the names of individual victims, including their portraits, if the images are available to the museum. The database also makes it possible to search for the location of the names of individual victims on the walls of the synagogue.[12]

References

  1. ^ Pěkný, Tomáš (2001). Historie Židů v Čechách a na Moravě. Sefer. pp. 405–406.
  2. ^ Pěkný, Tomáš (2001). Historie Židů v Čechách a na Moravě (2. ed.). Praha: Sefer. p. 86.
  3. ^ Veselská, Magda (2012). Archa paměti: Cesta pražského židovského muzea pohnutým 20. stoletím. Praha: Academia a Židovské muzeum v Praze. p. 60.
  4. ^ Veselská, Magda (2012). Archa paměti: Cesta pražského židovského muzea pohnutým 20. stoletím. Academia a Židovské muzeum v Praze. p. 70.
  5. ^ Veselská, Magda (2012). Archa paměti: Cesta pražského židovského muzea pohnutým 20. stoletím. Praha: Academia a Židovské muzeum v Praze. pp. 85–90.
  6. ^ USHMM records
  7. ^ Veselská, Magda (2012). Archa paměti: Cesta pražského židovského muzea pohnutým 20. stoletím. Praha: Academia a Židovské muzeum v Praze. pp. 178–179.
  8. ^ Pařík, Arno (2011). Pražské synagogy = Prague Synagogues = Prager Synagogen. Prague: Jewish Museum in Prague. pp. 39–51.
  9. ^ Pařík, Arno; Kliment, Petr (2011). Pražské synagogy = Prague Synagogues = Prager Synagogen (2 ed.). Praha: Židovské muzeum v Praze. pp. 39–51.
  10. ^ "Children's Drawings from the Terezín Ghetto, 1942–1944".
  11. ^ "The Faces of the Victims of the Shoah | Pinkas Synagogue". pinkas.jewishmuseum.cz. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  12. ^ "Signpost | Pinkas Synagogue". pinkas.jewishmuseum.cz. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
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